The January Thaw

In the days when my grandparents, Levi and Edna Latty, were on their farm at Etta, my grandfather waited for the January thaw, those few January days when winter paused to take a deep breath and remember that spring would soon be on its way. During the January thaw, Pappy would hitch his team of mules, Barney and Jude, to the plow and go down to the river bottom to break up his fields, turning over the soil and exposing any pesky insects that might be sleeping there, waiting to wake up and chomp into corn stalks or cotton plants. It also made the rich, dark earth looser and easier to plow again later, when it was planting time.

My grandparents and great-grandparents lived within the crescent of land along the Illinois River. It was rich, fertile land formed by years of river deposits. Their farms were their lives and they worked hard to support their families in this way.  I never had the privilege of meeting my great-grandparents, Ben and Tep Willis, but I’ve certainly walked on the farm where they lived, admired the gnarled cedars which lined that long-ago walk, sifted through ashes of their fireplace, and gazed down at the indentation of their basement. Until a few years ago, Tep’s jonquils would come up and bloom every spring, bright, sunny reminders of the lady who planted them there.

 I’ve tramped all over my grandfather’s farm at Etta, looked at the over-grown spring and imagined it as it was,  free-running and pure. I’ve collected a few of the giant acorns from the burr oak tree that guarded his barn. I’ve seen the spring branch, the river sparkling down at the bottom of what was Pappy’s corn field.

I wonder if my great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents realized they were making memories and building a heritage for generations to come? Or were they too busy living life, working, laughing, enjoying each day? I wonder what kind of lasting legacy I’ll leave for my grandchildren? What memories will they have? I hope that someday, they, too, will pause and look back, and smile to remember.