Memories by the fireside

Dear Diary,

I guess it was the village that inspired me to visit the Remick Farm in Tamworth New Hampshire.  I wanted to step back in time.  The first weekend in December is Christmas fair weekend here in Maine.  It seems like every church, town and school is having a craft fair for the holidays.  I had a lot to choose from but I chose the old farmhouse in Tamworth.

This woman was cooking at the open hearth and the smells were heavenly.  She was roasting chestnuts and cooking the shelled nuts with onion and cranberry which she served on crackers.  Delicious.  The filling would be excellent in little hand pies too.  As she added hot coals under the pan an old memory popped into my head.

My grandfather always called the cast iron frying pans my grandmother used to cook with "spiders".  I thought it was because they were black but later I learned it referred to the three legged stand the pan sat on over the coals...like the one the woman was using. 

He had lots of old fashioned words, like "creek" instead of stream or brook, and "dressing your feet" instead of putting on your shoes.  I didn't hear the latter phrase again until I moved to Maine where I also learned about "dooryards" and "from away" (for people who came from another town).

Memories seem to sneak into my life at the oddest moments but I must say I am very glad of it or "wicked happy"!