A particular time when Nolan was a little boy, he was eating a biscuit his mother had made a pan of. Well if you're from the South, then you know what cane syrup is. Yum...I was raised on this and knew just where my Granny Smith kept the old long-neck bottle that housed this thick, rich stuff. It was actually an old liquor bottle that they would put this stuff in. (All pictures are taken from off the Internet and are not mine, but will hopefully give you an idea of what I'm talking about.)
I know my Granny or Granddaddy didn't drink the liquor, but they obviously knew someone that did being this is the only thing I had ever seen them put it in.
Outside where they processed this, my Granddaddy had the big kettle pot, skimmer, and everything else it took to cook it during the fall/winter season when the sugar cane got ripe.
Daddy's told me many a time of watching him make it, and how he even helped to stir or skim off the top once he got big enough to do so. If you cooked it too long, it got dark and that's where the strong molasses-taste came in, but doing it "just right" produced a light golden-brown, clear, thick liquid. I like and will only turn down Aunt Jemima or the Log Cabin Maple Syrup when there is no cane syrup around. Although there are a few places within a 25 radius of Williston that make it each year, its not as popular making it the old-fashioned way as it use to be. From time to time we have a customer or two that will make a batch of syrup and let us know incase we wanted to buy a jug from him. During Daddy's last year of sickness, we had a family friend from down the road, Emory, that brought us syrup several times that his friend of family member made from up in Georgia. Both Daddy and Emory are no longer with us, but there's still a little left in that last jug that he brought to us a month or so before Daddy died.
This particular day (as I had started to say) Little Nolan grabbed the bottle of syrup and commenced to pouring it on top of his biscuit. If you aren't careful, the syrup (and about any other thick liquid you try to pour) started coming out the bottle in such a thick gush that very soon it was filling his plate and he didn't know how to tip the bottle up to make it pour into a thin stream, so he yelled, "Come cut it off! Come cut it off!" Granny or Granddaddy went over and rescued the little tike from wasting the whole bottle on one biscuit. Little kids like to do some things by themselves many times and have to learn things the hard way.
Uncle Nolan had to have help cutting it off (the syrup) as I need the same thing in trying to write a short blog. I need to learn to know how to "Cut it off!" So, I must get back to work with my packing as I don't want the following told of me...
Those who work hard make a profit, but those who only talk will be poor. ~ Proverbs 14:23
