Daphine Jenkins
My Grandma was a super woman!! She always had food ready to cook and a story to tell! I was her favorite grandchild, and the oldest of her biological grandchildren. I'm pretty sure all 20 something of us grandchildren thought we were her favorite. She would often announce that she was the only hell raiser in her house. She was always happy, always! There was a plaque on her kitchen wall that said 'No matter where I serve my guests, they seem to like my kitchen best.' It was true!! She had a long picnic style table in her kitchen and it was always full of people. In the Summer there were watermelons out under the big oak tree, where people would gather to slice and slurp their way through the pile that a family member left for us all to enjoy, and when you left you took at least one with you. There were afternoons sitting under that same tree shelling field peas. When we were visiting my favorite was early mornings and the smell of bacon and eggs cooking and you knew there was also a big pot of buttery grits and fresh biscuits made from her biscuit bowl to go with the rest. Every meal was a feast, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, biscuits, field peas, collard greens, pork chops, squirrel, venison, corn, string beans, butter beans. I am hungry just thinking about it! Even though her kitchen was always full of people there was one place that we all loved to gather and visit--the front porch swing. 
My beautiful cousin posted this picture of our grandma's porch swing! This porch swing is such an important part of my childhood, really my life. There have been more than one actual porch swing hung in this exact spot, one of those had hung in my family's front yard. My daddy moved that porch swing to Grandma's when we moved. My grandpa was sitting in this swing when my second was just a few months old and screaming, he told me to 'give that baby some ninny, that's what they are for don't worry about what anybody thinks about it'. I've shelled peas in this porch swing, played with cousins, watched my uncles shoot cans off a log, waited for relatives to turn onto the long driveway, and looked for my grandparents sitting on the swing as my family pulled up the drive. There have been life lessons taught here, love shared, stresses forgotten, and tears shed. The most important things that have happened on this swing are the memories made and shared! One day I will have my own porch swing and I can only hope that my family and friends will feel the same way about mine
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