Walnut Cove Days

Elsie Mitchell at age 18, 1931.

Walnut Cove, North Carolina is a pretty small place.  The last time I was there, I almost missed it.   Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mts, just north of Winston-Salem, it's typical small town America today with 3 blocks of 'downtown' shops, banks, and library surrounded by modest homes and businesses.

But in 1913, I'm sure things were different.  Grandma's father, Will Mitchell was young and trying to make a go of farming with his new wife, Mattie Bell.  Then Elsie came along, and then another and another.  Farming in those hills was hard too.  Grandma spoke of how he'd spend his days digging rocks out of the fields so the tobacco could grow.  Of course they grew as many vegetables as they could as well so they'd have something to eat, with the usual chickens, pigs and milk cow as well.

Mattie Bell made sure her children attended church with her, even if her husband didn't always join them.  She had a strong faith and wanted her children to have the same.   One warm summer day, she gathered Elsie and her sister, Ruby, a chair and a pot of snap beans and settled under the large shade tree in the yard.   The beans were coming in fast and it was time to put some up for the winter, which meant using little hands to get the job done.

As they sat under the tree, Elsie leaned against her mother's knees and helped - picking up bean after bean, snapping off the ends, and dropping them in another pan.   Ruby, too small for such work, sat in the shade playing with flowers.

Times like this are precious for a mother and Mattie Bell used that afternoon to tell her oldest daughter about God's love for her and how Jesus came so that he could take the punishment for our sins and bring us back into a right relationship with God our Father.  This was the first time that Elsie remembered hearing the Gospel, at her mother's knee under a cool shade tree over a bowl of green beans.

I'm sure it wasn't the last either because Elsie put her faith in Jesus and lived her life, all 90 years of it, guided by His Word.  She learned to lean on Him in the good times and in the bad times, knowing He'd always be there for her.

She also learned something else from her mother over those green beans... how to make a wonderful pot of green beans, ham and all.  Yum! I can taste them now just thinking about it!