Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times by Suzan Colón Page A

saw him run out of the barn a second later and go to the chicken coop; then he sprinted to the house.
    “Tillie,” he said, “where are the cows and the chickens?”
    “Gone,” Matilda answered. “I sold them all. The horses too.”
    Carolyn looked warily from her mother, who never stopped calmly peeling potatoes, to her father, who was likely to explode at any minute.
    “Jesus Mary and Joseph,” Charlie said in disbelief. “Why would you do such a thing?”
    “Because,” said Matilda, “I can’t take another winter here. We’re leaving and going to Florida, and if we don’t I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
    Charlie looked at his wife for a long moment. Then he walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Okay” was all he said.
    • • •
    “And off we went,” Mom says.
    “What about your dog, Happy?”
    “Well, you remember he had that habit of chasingcars,” she says. “One day he just didn’t come home, so either he got chased by a car, or he ran off with one of Truman’s purebred collies.
    “Anyway, your grandfather boarded up the house, and we headed for Florida. We had a hundred dollars for the trip and who knew how long after that to tide us over, so your Nana kept meticulous accounts of what we spent along the way …”
    OUR TRIP TO FLORIDA
    We started off Saturday, November 15th, at 11:30. Stopped at Ballston Library; reached Albany at 1 P.M
.
    Gas and oil—$2.91. Candy 30 cents
.
    Lunch in Rensselaer at 1:10. Expense: $1.90
    Left 1:30
    Stopped Po’keepsie 3:30. Cake 70 cents. Oil 50 cents
.
    Arrived Midge’s [Charlie’s daughter Mary, from his first marriage] 5:30. Stayed for a bite to eat. Left at 7:30 for Pop’s [Charlie’s father, Edmund]. Charlie bought a flashlight—$1.39. Hard candy for trip—69 cents. New black blouse for me—$6.00. We were surprised to see roses still in bloom in Pop’s yard. No frost there yet
.

    • • •
    Sunday, Nov. 16
    Left Pop’s at 10:45. Gas and oil—$2.75. Holland tunnel
50 cents
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    Mom starts to laugh. “And when we were in the Holland Tunnel,” she says, “the brakes failed. We were driving an old Model A Ford—I don’t know how your grandfather thought this thing was going to make it from Saratoga to Miami. And your Nana said, ‘Jesus, Charlie, will you slow down?’ not noticing that his foot was on the brake so hard it was practically going through the floor.”
    • • •
    Arrived in Elkton, Md. at 4:40. Stopped at a tourist home. Very, very nice. $5.00 for the night. Went out for supper ($3.75). We asked for beer and waitress answered “no beer served on Sunday.”
    • • •
    Monday, Nov. 17
    Left Elkton at 7:40. Went back 7 miles or so to New Castle for Route 13, to Cape Charles, Va. ferry. This is supposed to be a shorter route than U.S. #1. Time will tell
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    Gas and oil—$1.62. Smyrna, Del. Arrived 9:20. Breakfast $1.15
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    Arrived in Princess Anne, Md. at 12 noon. Temperature 52. Clear, very strong wind. In this territory we especially noticed: rest rooms signs say for White only
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    “Coming from New York, we weren’t used to that sort of thing,” Mom says. “We couldn’t believe it.”
    • • •
    Tuesday, Nov. 18
    Left Norfolk at 7:30. Passed through Suffolk, Va. (peanut center) at 8:15 A.M. Saw first cotton on outskirts of Suffolk. Breakfast in Edenton, N.C. at 9:40. Delicious. Southern fried ham n’ eggs. Waitress asks “would you-all like anything else” in the smo-oo-th-est dr-a-w-l. Breakfast $2.00
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    It’s a very monotonous ride from Suffolk, Va. to Jacksonville. Arrived outskirts (6 miles before) Wilmington, N.C. at 5:15 P.M. Stayed at tourist cabin. Nice cabin, but chilly. Heated by gas. And no hot water. To make things more pleasant, it’s raining, and Carolyn has a slight cold. Hope tomorrow is nice
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    Cabin—$4.00
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    Mom remembers that stretch of the trip well. “Generally, we didn’t stop for lunch, just got rolls and cold cuts and ate them in the car as we drove.