Grandma Masters’ Fried Dough and Grandpa’s Four Leaf Clovers

I can remember standing in her kitchen in their house in Ottumwa, waiting patiently with an empty plate, as the dough boiled on the top of the deep pot of oil. I was next!

She stood there at the stove for 2 hours in perfect humor, never slowing, as we kids ate our weight in fried dough. She must have made 30 of them, with no left overs.

A little butter (or was it oleo?) and a little sprinkled powdered sugar from an old tin shaker, and it was perfect. Cinnomon sugar was also a popular option. What did the twins call it? “Shilly shally”?

We learned to go stand in the backyard while devouring the fried dough, so we didn’t get the powdered sugar all over the kitchen.

Grandpa sat at the kitchen table, leaving his post only to join us in the backyard, study the ground for a second, bend over, and stand up with yet another four leaf clover.

We had a passel of kids who studied the ground for an hour, and he found 5 clovers in less than a minute each, right at the feet of each searching kid.

How did he DO that?

The smell of desert sage and juniper after a rain

One of my absolute favorite memories.

Lying awake under a tarp in the desert at about 3 am, looking up at the stars, savoring the smell of sage and juniper after a fast-moving summer thunderstorm, listening to a herd of wild horses about a half mile away.

I was camping just off the road somewhere northwest of Pyramid Lake in northwestern Nevada. I simply pulled off the dirt road I was on and set up camp just before dark. The thunderstorm started about 2 a.m. and lasted about an hour, but I could see it moving in for hours. I was a little worried that my tarp strung over a piece of rope between two poles wouldn’t stand up to the storm, or that the lightning would be an issue, but I was fine. I have used that setup dozens of times, and had pitched it on a slight rise, so flash floods were never an issue.

I could hear the horses forever as they moved closer and away all evening. They seemed to know just where I was.

Once the storm had cleared, I was amazed at the brightness of the stars, and how much I could see even in the dark. From my bed, I could see a dozen rabbits hopping in every direction.

Capturing this experience would be the country song I wish I could write.