Life in Cayuga

 My friend Bob loves to cook. And he’s really good at it!  He retired from the scrap metal business a few years ago.  A guy he worked with opened a scrap yard in Crystal Springs, the next town south of us.  Bob started going over and helping him one day a week. Not long after that, he started cooking lunch for the employees and customers. I’ve had a standing invitation from the beginning. They have a full kitchen and Bob makes some wonderful meals.  Chicken & dumplings, Mac & cheese, enchiladas, fried chicken. Good old comfort food!  Yesterday was ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and pineapple cake!  And it was GOOD!   At church one day, Bob invited my Uncle Don. He started going with me every week. I pick him and we have a good visit going and coming. Don’s wife, my Aunt Helen, used to thank me and Bob for giving her a break one day a week!  She appreciated it more than he does!   Don is 92 and is the last surviving fami...

 I’ve told you that my paternal grandparents owned a big general store in Cayuga.  My maternal grandparents also owned a small grocery store in Utica.   The thing I remember most about it is the bench out front.   Everyone called it the “Loafers Bench”.  Every day two or three old men would sit on the bench and smoke cigarettes or chew tobacco and talk.  Now and then they’d go in the store and get a drink or more tobacco.  But mainly they’d just talk and solve the world’s problems. There was Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Ford, and  my great Uncles Carl and Percy.  Carl was my grandmother’s brother and Percy was my grandfather’s brother.  For as long as I remember, neither of them worked.  I never figured out how they survived.  My mother said that for her entire childhood, until she got married and moved out, either Carl or Percy, or sometimes both, lived with them.  I think Carl got some sort of disability check from the army. ...