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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer July 12, 2004- - No. 32 |
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Charlie was a quiet man and often let Florence do most of the talking. When he did have something to say, it most often was brought up in the form of a story from a past experience of his eighty some years. Over a cup of tea at lunch time several years ago, the honey pot was passed around the table. Charlie took his turn by spooning a good portion into his steaming drink. With a little smile on his face he then took advantage of a gap in Florence's conversation to relate one of those more interesting tales.
He went on to say that as a kid he had grown up on a back country farm to the north of here. As he sipped the sweetened tea, he explained how his dad would bring in wild honey from the woods for Charlie's Mom to serve at their table. "Dad kept a tiny paper box in his tool chest there in the old granary." Then he went on to tell that this small container had a bit of white flower in it. Charlie's dad would go off into the field's of late summer with his little box. At some point he would very carefully collect into it an unsuspecting pollen collecting honey bee, found in the blossom of a wildflower. Gently turning the box over in his hands, he would give the maddened insect a good dusting of flour. When the little bug was released, now much easier to see in it's dusty white coating, it would fly in a straight line for it's honey tree. "Then all Dad had to do was walk straight as compass needle, following the path of that fleeing bee, as it headed for the woods. Somewhere in the woods, along that path, would be found the bee tree." And, of course, the coming winter's stash of honey.
Florence had obviously heard the story a time or two before and pretended not to pay much attention to the two men carrying on at the table with her. However, you couldn't help but feel from her the respect and admiration that she held for her husband of so may years. The two of them there together that day almost made that store bought honey in our tea taste like the wild honey of Charlie's bygone days. |
