Grandma Sally’s Corncob Pipe
Looking at the photo of Popeye puffing away on his pipe in Wednesday’s post reminds me of my great-grandmother, Sally Wilkerson. Like darned near everyone in my family, Grandma Sally smoked. Unlike the other women in the family, Grandma Sally smoked a corncob pipe.
I’m sorry that I have only vague memories of Grandma Sally and Grandpa Isom. People speak of them with warmth. Grandma and Grandpa lived in the beautiful rolling hills of Southern Indiana–if I remember correctly, in a wide spot in the road called Elkinsville.
Mother always talked about an evening we spent with them. For our meal, Grandma transformed a clucking chicken from the yard to perfect fried chicken, made cornbread and biscuits from scratch because, “Your grandpa likes biscuits better,” cooked green beans and set it all on the table with, I’m sure, a small bowl of either bread and butter pickles or corn relish–which she had canned, of course. Mother always marveled that Grandma Sally had this banquet on the table in just 45 minutes.
Grandma and Grandpa Wilkerson were both tall and skinny. Even in photos of them when they were older, you could see they contributed to the good looks of my mother and grandmother. Grandpa Isom looked a lot like Sean Connery. Really!
Because I love it so, I tend to romanticize life in Brown County. But Grandma Sally had a rough row to hoe. She continued having children until age stopped her. I believe her youngest was named Claude.
Because Grandama was so “mature” when she had Claude, he had Down Syndrome. (The risk is one in 25 births if the mother is age 45 or older.) But he was well loved and cared for, participating in family life like the rest of the brood. I have a treasured photo of Grandma Sally, Mam-ma and Claude standing by a large, freestanding bell in the yard, the woods just behind them. That bell was used many times over the years, calling family in from the fields for supper.
Now, I may have fallen off the quit wagon and am continuing the family smoking habit, but you’ll never catch me smoking a corncob pipe. It’s been quite a few years, but I have smoked a few cigars. That’s another story.
