Nettie walked along the dirt road looking from one ditch bank to the other. As I watched her pull weeds and briars aside I felt safe knowing that Nettie was my friend. I was about ten or eleven years old and Nettie was two years older. She was as tall as the grown men on the farm and as strong as most of them. I asked her what she was looking for. She said, “Ma’ sent me to find some honeysuckles to set out at the back door”. Just last week I had watched as she dug into the ditch banks looking for edible “clay dirt”.
Ditch banks were the perfect place to find clay dirt. The State of North Carolina maintained the dirt roads by cleaning the ditches with a big blade attached to a big machine we called the “road drag.” The ditches could be cut deep into the earth on the small hills and reveal different layers of dirt. There were streaks of red dirt, grey, cream color, white and dirt of different colors and shades.
When she found just the right color and texture dirt she dug it out and put it in a small cloth sack to take home to her mama. I had seen people eat this dirt. I asked her if I could taste some of the clay dirt. She explained that she wasn’t sure if white folks were supposed to eat it and that it needed to dry out. I decided to ask Nettie’s mama, Lucille if I could taste it. The clay dirt had a texture of real fine sand, but it was creamy and smooth. I don’t remember it having any flavor at all.
The ditches and ditch banks held so many wonders. After a big rain event, we sat on the ditch banks and watched the rushing water gush by in the ditch flowing toward the creek. When the water subsided the bottom of the ditches were clean and the dirt in the ditch bottom was rippled and different colors almost like a painting. Some of the plants or weeds growing on the ditches were temporarily sideways and lying flat in the dirt. When the plants dried and the sunlight hit them they would slowly stand tall and straight again. Most ditch banks had wildflowers blooming most of the year. The most colorful and tallest of those blossoms were the “outhouse lilies. They stood straight and proud displaying flowers in yellow, all shades of orange, and even some red ones.
In the spring and summer those same ditch banks provided “briar berries”. These berries were hard to harvest because the vines were covered with sharp briars. They were small black berries. but sweet.
Nettie pulled up several small rooted honeysuckle vines and kept looking for more. When she had several vines with roots she left to take home to her mama, and I followed. Lucille took the small honeysuckle plants, dug a hole near her sagging back doorstep and planted the honeysuckle. She told me that honeysuckle plants kept evil spirits out of her house. She planted the rest at her front doorstep. I wondered to myself if the vines would keep out that boo hag or ghost woman who went into Nettie’s bedroom through a keyhole.
When Lucille finished planting the honeysuckles she stood up, looked up toward the clouds, and said some words I didn’t understand, lowered her head and just said “Let’s be quiet for just a minute.“ She walked away, looking relieved.
I don’t know for sure if honeysuckle vines keep away evil spirits but the tiny drop of nectar from the honeysuckle flower sure is a sweet treat.
Montress Greene
Website:
Montress Greene.com
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