Family - grace grits and gardening

Nana’s Cactus

September 27, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

My short memoir, Nana’s Cactus, was recently published in Arkansas Review. Arkansas Review, an Arkansas State University literary journal, is more difficult to find than a regular magazine so you likely haven’t read it. My story is about a cactus and Nana and Elvis and life and death. Although I’m not going to re-print it here, I will give you the back story on the plant itself.

As long as I can remember, Nana’s cactus thrived in a dusty glass terrarium on her carport at the home place. In the mid-1970s when Nana and Papa moved to Keiser, that cactus moved to their new carport in Keiser. Each time we visited Nana and Papa (daily?), we walked by her cactus to get to her back porch. Hundreds of times.

The cactus was a tangle of a plant that lived outside no matter the weather. During fall, the blades were often buried in layers of leaves. It spent many winters beneath two or three inches of snow yet always bloomed bright yellow in May.

I took a cutting with me to college. It traveled with me to several apartments in Waco, my first house in Dallas and my last home on Worth Street in Munger Place. Several years ago when it outgrew its largest pot (it’s not the easiest to transplant as you might imagine – see those needles in the picture below!), John planted it in the hottest corner of our Dallas flower bed.

Last week I started over with Nana’s Cactus. I took another small cutting, repotted it and moved it with me to Fayetteville. I think it’s happy to be back in Arkansas.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

P.S. My sister and Momma have cuttings of Nana’s cactus. Other family members do too.

Nana – Frances Johnson Creecy

Musical Pairing:

Bobby Goldsboro, Honey

Birthday Girl and the Memphis Queen

July 10, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Birthdays are still kinda fun to me, and I’m happy to have another one today. Soon, my mother will call and sing Happy Birthday. I’m lucky that way.

One of my most memorable birthdays was my 9th because my party included a Mississippi River boat ride on the Memphis Queen. Here we are with Nana who always posed like a model and never took a bad picture. My friend Sara, sister Staci, and I are wearing matching Memphis Queen Line berets because we are fun tourists from Arkansas.

I remember being nine years old. The beginning of the Jan Brady years…

I loved Donna Osmond. His life-sized poster covered the door of our bedroom closet.

I played with Malibu Barbie and wanted to be Nancy Drew when I grew up.

Take a look at the party picture below and let’s discuss…

(l-r) Staci, Me, Sara with Nana (Frances Johnson Creecy)

This is the BAT cave kitchen. My mother still lives in this house on the farm. Although much has changed (new floor, cabinets, etc.), the kitchen is in the same location in the house. If that room could talk…

See the expando hat rack on the wall? It now hangs on the back porch, and I’m pretty sure Momma still has at least two of those same hats.

By the time we ate cake, my Memphis Queen beret already hung on the rack. Never much of a hat person, I was over that thing.

And speaking of cake, Nana’s fresh strawberry cake (always my birthday cake choice) sat on the table in front of me, yet Staci somehow ate chocolate?

I wish Momma still had the dinette set. It’s a collector item now.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Donny Osmond, Go Away Little Girl