I have been reading the revered Farmer’s Almanac for the past six months, and it’s surprising how accurate and sometimes inaccurate it can be.
The Almanac and I go back a long way. My Grandparents introduced me to the book when I was six years old and spent summers on their Texas farm trying to convert myself from a city slicker to a country boy. They were firm believers in the power of its predictions, although they were let down more than a few times.
This fine morning, as I drink a cup of java and read the pages, it tells me the summer in this part of Texas is forecast to be cooler and wetter than average. I knew it to be BS the moment I read it. No summer in Texas is cooler and wetter. Every day is a mix of misery and suffering, topped off with biting and stinging bugs. We are the land of burn-your-ass-off heat, and everything planted or growing wild turns brown and shrivels away by August; the bugs are with us until the first freeze. It was a bit wetter in July, but the temperatures are still around 95 degrees, making you feel wrapped in a hot, wet towel and sitting in the devil’s sauna. Unfortunately, they missed that forecast by a few hundred miles.
There is no mention of the Corona Virus and all the hoopla that came with it. So, how did the staff at the Almanac not know about this bug?
Back when the Farmers Almanac was in its heyday, rural folks depended on it for farming, ranching, and day-to-day living. The book was also full of home remedies, potions, poultices, plants, and hocus-pocus to treat their maladies. Unfortunately, doctors were few, and most families lived their lives without seeing one. As a result, most country folks were born at home and also died there.
The Almanac takes great pride in “do it yourself” folk remedies and contains dozens of them, along with questionable ads for elixirs, oils, good luck charms, H’aint Bags, and voodoo dolls. Grandmother used them all. I knew if I became ill while at the farm, all of these would be administered. My Grandfather was strangely healthy for his age. He knew better than to get sick around his wife. If he was ill, no one knew it.
It was bound to happen. In the summer of 1956, I am spending my summer on the farm. Fever and chills arrive during the night. My temperature is off the charts, and I am shaking like a hound dog passing a peach pit. Grandmother calls in her friend down the road, Mrs. Ellis, for a second opinion. The two-country alienists stand at the foot of my deathbed in deep consultation.
It is decided. I will receive the complete treatment reserved for the rare “Raccoon Flu” and possible “demonic possession.” Treatment will commence immediately.
The two women dragged me from my sickbed and thrust my aching body into a cold water bath for an hour. Grandmother gives me two doses of salts, three teaspoons of “Reverend Moses Triple Strength Root Tonic,” and a double-dog dose of “Dr. Sal’s Really Good Opioid Extract.” Then, my shivering torso is coated with “Sister Amy’s Pure And Blessed Olive Oil” from the banks of the River Jordan. Next, I am wrapped like a mummy in a white cotton blanket; a mustard poultice is glued to my chest, and a burlap bag of foul-smelling something is tied around my neck. They place me in bed, covering me with 6 quilts, and two speckled hens are brought in to sleep in my room overnight. Grandmother says I will be well by breakfast. At this point, I am praying for death during my sleep.
Dawn brings a cool breeze into my sick room, and I am awakened by one of the spotted hens sitting on my chest. She is clucking softly as if to say, “it’s time to get up; you’re well now.” I realize the hen is right; I feel like a new kid. No fever or chills, and I am hungry for a fat biscuit and my Granny’s country gravy.
I follow the two hens down the hallway into the kitchen. Grandfather sits at the breakfast table, reading the Almanac. Without looking up, he exclaims, ” going to rain today, The Almanac says around noon.” The last rain the farm had was over a month ago; what does the stupid book know.
Granny tells me to take the two-spotted hens outside and feed a big handful of laying mash because the Almanac said mottled hens will have an excellent laying week. She doesn’t ask how I feel; she knows her hocus pocus worked.
I head back to the farmhouse for noon dinner after spending the morning building Horned Toad houses out of pebbles and sticks. We sit at the kitchen table, munching on fried chicken, when a loud clap of thunder shakes the house. Granddad, without looking up, says, “Yep.”
Notes From The Cactus Patch 