Drive - A Memoir 98th Installment
in
a safe place, and took the name Tex. Just like the witness protection
program, I disappeared and became someone else. The reason I live the
way I do is because I like
it,
and I don’t like buying things because that makes it easier to them
to find me.”
“What
if you cracked your head, got amnesia and someone had to find your
family?” I asked, not knowing quite what to make of this story.
“Like
that’s ever going to happen,” Tex snorted. “Have you been
listening? I never want contact with the hordes in Texas EVER! For
any reason! Enough talk, let’s finish up here and I’ll give you
guys a ride to the store on my tractor. You can walk home from
there.”
Chapter
26
In
late summer Edith was wondering what to with the apricots. The tree
was full that year and none of us kids liked to eat them. I think
their skin is fuzzy and the fuzzy texture makes me shiver. Apricot
jam was out because we had loads of raspberry jam and strawberry
jelly, so she decided to make apricot wine. Why not? She and Vern
made and bottled homemade root beer for us kids, so she decided she’d
make a beverage for the adults. The folks had a big rubber bag that
was the liner in a pressure tank. The opening had a two inch cap big
enough for them to fill the bag with a couple gallons of crushed
apricots, water, yeast, and sugar. The Old Man drilled a hole in the
cap and cemented a ¼ tube in the hole, replaced the cap and put the
other end of the tube in a jar of water so air couldn’t get back in
the bag. The wine making contraption started bubbling CO2 out the
tube into the water right away. We were in the wine business! The
warmest spot was on a shelf in the kitchen and the yeast liked it
there. The warmer the yeast is, the faster it’ll grow. It took ten
to fifteen days to ferment, and another week to clear. The first
batch turned out okay. The wine didn’t taste great, but because the
wine was homemade, they liked it.
After
they’d made a couple of batches and the apricots were nearly gone,
they started the last batch. The bag quite full this time and
fermentation was going nicely. However, about four in the morning,
they woke to a loud ‘ka-boom’ and an odd smell. When they turned
on the lights to see what had happened, they were flabbergasted. The
wine maker had blown up, spraying its contents all over the kitchen.
The ceiling, walls, counters and appliances were drenched with oozing
orange liquid. They sadly complained and cleaned until late in the
morning. The counters and appliances cleaned up well, but the walls
and ceiling were stained a slight shade of orange and stayed that way
until they repainted the kitchen.
500 more words tomorrow
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