Friendship Bread

Friendship Bread
By Joyce Edwards

Aunt Nita believed in showing your gratitude. There was only one issue I was trying to work through with this gratitude showing business. Why did we have to show how grateful we were to the entire block, plus the next one over? When I ask her this question I got the “look.” You know the one that you get when a grown up can’t find the words to explain your question. When the “look” came from Aunt Nita what could follow was involuntary gyrations of the arms and hands that landed them straight across your back side. She always said that it was a reflex reaction to stupidity. I figured that this here was one of those times that I should not allow my tongue to be so stupid as to ask any more questions. So I didn’t. True, Aunt Nita may have eyes in the back of her head. She could not read my thoughts. I allowed myself to wonder about being grateful to an entire community by making enough batches of Friendship Bread to turn out 40 loaves. No wonder she had all those starter jars sitting in every window of this here house. We were going to use them all!!

Aunt Nita had enlisted the help of three of my siblings, myself, Aunt Nelly, and grandmother. We were told to be in the kitchen at five-o’clock in the morning so’s the bread would be done and delivered by five-o’clock of the afternoon. Aunt Nita said that neighbors could enjoy it with their evening meal.

My brother Gilbert (Gilly) is not the most pleasant company at any time of the day as he is a right serious individual. Add this personality trait to getting up at five of the morning and helping a bunch of women making bread in the kitchen, you don’t get Mr. Congeniality. No matter how pleasing he was to the eyes of any woman. Grandma was right, beautiful starts on the inside first, and that goes double big for handsome in my book! I was just about to tell him how ugly his insides was making him. He had been bragging all morning about how his muscles were bulging since he had been working on the ranch with the cattle and lifting large bales of hay. He even took time to stop and flex them. Then I saw his face when Aunt Nita told him that since he had been blessed with such great muscles he could personally knead the last twelve loaves of bread. I couldn’t help but smile big since my arms were starting to ache from all the kneading I’d done. You should have seen the “look” Gilly shot me. I knew I wouldn’t be sick for a year, cause even the germs were feared of that look and had took leave of my body. Grandpa always said that Gilly was never ill cause the germs were feared to go near him. Then he would laugh out loud and wink at us all.