Biscuits

HOT Biscuits

Whenever I think about biscuits, I think about my Grandma Norman. She passed away when I was very young, 4 or 5 years old, but I remember, like it was yesterday, this frail, skinny lookin’ woman standing at her enamel green woodstove making biscuits.

What was unique about this was her name, Bertha, Bertha Patterson. You just don’t think of a small grandma with a powerhouse name like Bertha. Maybe that is why they called her “Birdie.”

The other thing I remember is that it was July. I mean at 8:30 in the morning when I walked into her kitchen it was one of those hot, humid days. You know it’s hot when a 5 year old remembers it was hot. But there in the kitchen was my grandma standing over that woodstove baking buttermilk biscuits.

I don’t think the things I have heard about the place where the Devil lives being hot, could have been much hotter than it was in that July morning kitchen.

Birdie wasn’t bothered at all. She was involved in a labor of love, making biscuits for her husband, JTE Norman, who was reading the paper after he finished morning chores.

And when those biscuits were done, she placed them in a tinware warmer, ready for butter and jam. The exact same tinware warmer you see in the photo above, we still use to this day.

Sell that warmer? Oh, no! As they say on Antiques Roadshow, “What you have there son is a priceless treasure.”

Poppie and Birdie Norman