Aunt Hattie And The Coal Stove

My Grandfather after he professed went out and buried all of the Tobacco Products and never again were they sold in his store.

My Aunt Hattie loved to dip snuff and always complained that she had to purchase it from our cousins store up the street at Claudie Waters grocery and Cafe.

She would sit in a wooden chair at the end of the counter and make sure that the correct groceries when into the correct box and that everything was in the customers order.

On the upright coal stove that reached almost to the ceiling it had four vents that you could open of close to make the stove get hotter. She had been doing the same thing over and over for many years and she had practiced spitting her snuff through the vents when they were open and never a drop hit the stove.

Well we were curious children, and knew that we couldn't dip snuff so we thought that we would try using Cocoa and our saliva to see if we could spit it into the vents of the stove. When she went to the restroom we would take turns trying to do has she had done with the snuff. Cocoa by itself will almost choke you because it is so bitter, and because we missed the vents the store smelled like baked Cocoa.  Aunt Hattie daid that if we were going to try it again we should try mixing it with sugar and it would taste better and we could then make it thinner. Well this was going ok until mom came in and sent use to the car and said just you wait until your dad gets home. We knew that we were in trouble and that it wasn't going to be daddy doing the discipline but our mother.

Well after whippings and being sent to bed we didn't try that trick ever again. We just enjoyed the art of Aunt Hattie making a wringer every time.

By: Palmer Waters