The Great "Eggscape"

     I enjoyed Saturdays. It was nice to have a day off from school and help Mom around the house. We always cleaned the house extra well in preparation for Sunday. The windows had to be washed and all the floors mopped and once a month waxed. We would let the fire die in our Pioneer Maid cook-stove and take the ashes out. We would wash the stove top and then get an emery cloth and rub the top until it looked shiny and new again. I strongly disliked this job, not that it wasn't a pleasure to see a shiny stove top but because the sound of the emery cloth being rubbed back and forth across the top made a horrible sound and always made me shiver.

     On this particular Saturday we got up earlier than normal and hurried with the cleaning in hopes to get done in time to cook a good meal for lunch. One of the men from church was coming over with his bulldozer to do some landscaping around the house and he was planning to eat with us. He was one of the ministers so that made it extra important to have everything nice before lunch.

     Once the cleaning was done we started with lunch. Mom let me set the table with her Blue Willow dishes. They weren't as pretty as the china we used for Sundays but nicer than our everyday dishes. I carefully set the table. Daddy would sit at the head as usual and Mom and I at the side Roy would sit at the end and John and David at the other side. I felt important to be able to sit next to Roy. He was such a kind friendly man and I always enjoyed listening to him preach in his sing song voice, it was hard to believe that it was possible for him to have an obnoxious little boy like LV for his son.

     After the table was set I helped Mom prepare the food while John and David knelt on the wood-box to look out the window and watch as Roy was digging out some of the bushes and pushing dirt to make our yard nicer.

     Mom had hard boiled a dozen eggs and I peeled and cut them in half carefully. Mom showed me how to mash the yolks and then mix in the salad dressing and seasonings. I was thrilled to be able to make them all by myself and admired the plate full of stuffed eggs as we all sat down to eat.

     After a silent prayer we started passing the food. Our plates were filling up with steaming mashed potatoes and fried chicken when Daddy got the plate filled with the stuffed eggs and took several and passed them to Mom. I took one and as I started passing it to Roy I just had to let him know that I had made these, and I barely got done telling him when I happened to tip the plate a little too much and I watched in horror as the entire plate of stuffed eggs dumped into his lap and fell on the floor and I was left sitting there holding an empty plate.

     Roy took the plate from my hand and started picking them up. Mom hurriedly got up to help clean up the mess. After everything was cleaned up Roy took an egg. Mom told him he doesn't have to eat a dirty egg, but he said they don't look that dirty and he wants to see how good I can cook already. He smiled at me and ate his egg and informed me it was indeed very tasty. It helped my embarrassment a little and I thought he must be one of the greatest men ever.