An Old Timer's Remedy

She lived in clay country. The soil was red and hard, but the family put out a garden every year and raised their own pork, beef and poultry. There were ten children born through those years and the Great Depression had made lean times even leaner.

She was always in bed by dark each evening and arose very early each morning. She drank her usual cup of black coffee with a little cream and sugar and waited for the sun to rise over the mountain.

She raised her own chickens in the henhouse that was more patchwork than original design. It kept out the larger critters and most of the rain. On that particular morning, while gathering the eggs, it was apparent by the lack of quantity, that there might be an uninvited guest making sneak appearances. That wouldn't do. She baited each straw-filled nest with a white golf ball after removing her setting eggs to a safer environment. Grandma didn't know about Animal Rights and probably wouldn't have done differently HAD she known! A man and woman did what was needed to provide for and carry on with their family and its existence and Grandma was a tough little pioneering woman.

That evening, at the egg-gathering hour, she went to check her trap and there he was-a long, sleek, black, chicken snake with the golf ball lodged about halfway down! I'm her granddaughter, I was there and it's a memory forever wedged in my mind.

This procedure was repeated many times over the course of those years and so we were able to enjoy our bacon, fresh farm eggs and buttermilk biscuits in plenty at Grandma's, but, the best use of those eggs was in her oh-so-moist Strawberry Cake!

GRANDMA WRIGHT'S STRAWBERRY CAKE

1 Pillsbury white cake mix

1 c. Wesson oil

4 eggs

Dash of salt

MIX TOGETHER;

1 small package of strawberry jello
1/2 c. boiling water

Pour the jello mixture into the cake mixture and beat well. Then add 1 c. frozen strawberries. Heat oven to 350 degrees; oil and flour two round cake pans. Bake cake layers for 35-40 minutes.

Prepare the icing of powdered sugar and softened butter to taste.