Mable Thornton (1918)

Mable is probably my favorite cousin on my father's side. I didn't know that Mable was still living until I talked with her nephew's wife Judie. I learned that she was in a nursing home.

My family would visit Aunt Dorie and Uncle Gilbert quite often. And, Dad and I would visit on a regular basis by ourselves to either help them on the farm or to check on them in the winter. More than once, I rode Gilberts old haywagon pulled by his two very old horses Cory and Orie. The Thorntons had an old dinner bell that Dorie or Mable would ring to bring us in from the field for dinner or supper.

When my father was young, he left his own home and lived with his sister Ladora Lakota and Gilbert because there wasn't enough food to go around at home. He became a favorite with his nephews and nieces and especially so with Mable. Mable adored him and, in the process, adopted me and made me one of her favorites. This was manifested though her cooking. Mable was a cook par-excellence. Winter or summer, my Aunt and Mable cooked outside of the main house in an long out-building which had a very long homemade wooden table. Even when it was just dad and me who visited, Mable would load that table down with food. It was real food and not the kind that people say you ought to eat today. Mashed potatoes with gravey that made your jaws ache with pleasure. Fresh greenbeans and corn-on-the-cob in season as well as all of the other vegatables that came from the "kitchen garden." There would be at least three different kinds of meat which often included game.

There are two things that Mable got me started on. When I was seven, Mable got hooked on coffee. And, that was black from the start. I always felt that, if you put anything in coffee, then it wasn't coffee any more. Second, she introduced me to groundhog. Mable could cook a groundhog in a way that it was better than chicken. If it was a young groundhog, there was no comaparison. When Mable know that I was coming, she always managed to have a groundhog ready, and sometimes, she had one for me to take home. You might stick your nose in the air at the thought of eating groundhog. But, then, you probably don't know any better because you haven't had the pleasure of eating Mable's groundhog.

The old folks made out that Mable was mentally handicapped, but I don't believe it. I think that they wanted to keep her home so that she would be there to work. Mable did have a lot of cats. I don't know how many she had, but she would call "kitty kitty" and they would come running from everywhere.

The Thorntons eventually moved to Ohio to live next door to their youngest daughter Dolly. Gilbert and Dorie Died in Ohio.

Mable Thornton died this morning Sunday May 21, 2006. May God Bless Her.

I am thankful that I have Mable to remember. She was a special person. I have a lot of memories of my boyhood days. Some of them even pop up when I am preaching a sermon. This morning I was remembering the sight of my grandmother and John Sarver driving away down the road in an old 1933 Dodge with a just married sign on the back and tin cans banging on the ground behind them. The memories of Mable fit right in. Thank you Lord!

This is Mable's sister Eva.