Back in the 20's, my dad would take my Mom and I to Perryopolis, PA to see her grandmother, my great grandma. Grandma was in her 90's. She lived in a small house, named a salt box house because of it's shape. She had a little garden out back. While my mother visited with a former school teacher who lived across the street and my dad and mom's Uncle Jim went off somewhere, my greatgrandma and I would spend time talking while she fixed supper. She always insisted we had to eat there when we visited.

She told me of my greatgrandfather (who lived to be 99 and 6 mons.) and how when they were first married, the Civil war began and he joined up as a drummer boy. At the time they lived in Fayette City along the Monongahela river, which runs through a valley. As the soldiers came marching down the road on the otherside of the river my grandma could see grandpa beating the drum and waved goodby to him.

I vaguely remembered my grandfather but as I was thinking about my grandma, the memory of him became quite clear! Seems the older we get, the futher back we can remember--I guess, to compensate for not being able to remember what we did last week!!!

He was a tall man, with beautiful white hair. He told me his name was really John Wilkes Booth but he had to drop the Booth as "they would have got me for killing Lincoln" I told him I wouldn't tell anybody and he said that would be our secret.!! And he would throw back his head and laugh. For a long time, I really believed him!!!

Well, grandma would say," Come on, li'l Ruth, let's go get the fixin's for our make do supper." I asked what a make do supper was and she said "The most important thing to learn in life is how to make do. Make do with what you have and you will always be content." Since she told me that so often I remembered it well.

Then she would put on her wooden shoes that had come from Holland with either her or her mother and off to the garden we would go. She would give me a little bucket and we would pull little green onions, then get some cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes and garden lettuce plus some herbs she grew. She would dig around for some potatoes and sometimes she would have a squash or eggplant. Then she would use all these things for a salad or to cook with. She had a big pot on the back of her stove and threw pieces of everything in it. I asked why she did that and she said that was for her make do soup. By that time Dad and uncle Jim had come back with the meat, usually pork chops. She dipped them in a beaten egg and then in bread crumbs that she had let me grate her hard bread.

The last time I saw her was just before the depression. We had a picture taken of the four generations. She sat on a chair in her black dress, her white hair still long enough to roll up in a bun on the top of her head. It was summer and my mom had a 20's bob haircut and the low waisted short dress of the flapper era. Greatgrandma was 96 then and died later on during the depression. I often wonder if her little house, across the street from the school, in Perryopolis is still standing.

And I have never forgot the lesson to Make Do and to be content.