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Mary Opal Dulaney Wilemon
My daughter-in-law, Jada, was showing me their tomato plants last week. This is their first attempt at a garden, and from the looks of it, they should have all the tomatoes, cucumbers and squash they can eat. It's nice to see another generation of tomato-growers in the family.
Can't believe it is almost tomato time in Mississippi although the high temps the past few days should have told me so. You probably won't believe this, and I sorta hate to confess it, but I don't eat tomatoes. Never have. The nearest thing to my eating a tomato would be ketchup or spaghetti sauce. Sad, isn't it? My brother doesn't eat tomatoes either so the only thing I can figure out is that our parents force fed us tomatoes as babies and we never got over it. Or maybe our parents each had a recessive gene for dislike of tomatoes, and Kirk and I got both of those genes.
Mary Opal Wilemon was the daughter of Thomas "Bunt" Dulaney and Alice Moxley. Aunt Opal was married to Jessie V. Wilemon, and they had four children: Pug, Bill, Susie Mae, and Grady. From the looks of it, Aunt Opal sure knew how to grow tomatoes... those are monsters and would make several mayonnaise sandwiches... if you had the genes that would allow you to enjoy them!!
3 comments:
O o o h!, those are pretty "Beefsteak" tomatoes that Mrs. Wilemon is displaying! To all tomato eaters, we know those are delicious and are my favortie to make BLT sandwiches; however, the center "core" of the tomato can be very hard and sometimes stringy to cut into so I always cut that part from the tomato before eating or serving.
Your mentioning a Mayonnaise sandwich led me to recall a family that lived across the street from us over 40 years ago - two sons and two daughters and a mother going to nursing school, so the older daughter (about 12 or 13) was responsible for making sandwiches for their lunch. I remember the day that this child told another neighbor that their sandwiches would be made with bread, mayonnaise and potato chips!
We have two "topsy turvy" hanging baskets on the patio with a cherry and a Better Boy "dangling" from the hole in the bottom. The cherry plant has been producing fruit for about 2 weeks, and we are watching one tomato on the Better Boy that hasn't grown and no other blossoms are forming a fruit.
Recalling the lovely plants and the veggies enjoyed by Prof. Thornton and his wife as photographed on his blog a couple of years ago had given us courage to attempt patio gardening. Those 2 plants, the soil, fertilizer and the two "odd ball planters" totaled over $42. and we hadn't even thought of the water required daily to keep these two plants alive. Unfortunately, we had made this investment before I got sick and learned that I can no longer eat vegetables with seeds! Tomatoes anyone? bettye
Interesting story, Mona. I have no desire for tomatoes. When dining out, I may accidently eat one on a salad.
Bettye, I gave "topsy turvy" hanging tomatoes to my father-in-law for him to try last year. He didn't have much luck either.
Kirk
Just look at that face, is Opal not an amazing woman?
The picture of Opal with the bucket of tomatoes was taken when
she was age 82. Growing her own garden, WOW.
When I was a young girl, we visited Ma & Pa Moxley often (Thomas Austin
& Martha Jane Moxley) and we always got to visit and sometimes spend the
night with Opal. On one of those visits, Opal gave me a gift all wrapped up with
soft tissue paper, and tied with a pink ribbon. Opal told me that I could wear the
ribbon in my hair. She had bought a large pink bath towel and crocheted a big
white basket with a handle onto the towel, and placed two pink wash cloths
inside the basket. It was beautiful. She told me it was for my hope chest.
Opal always made me dumplings. Some of her homemade dumplings and
one of her sliced tomatoes, Just thinking of those tomatoes makes me hungry..
Memories of her will always have a special place in my heart.
Nita Denard Clayton
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