Brant
ROBINS
Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 14:35

My maternal grandmother was a sweet soul, but she was hell on wild game with a shotgun. Hers was an early Remington 1100 20ga with a modified barrel. She killed squirrels, rabbits, coons, ducks, and deer, doves, and yes robins. During their migration when robins would show up she was working on them with her little 20ga!

Later years when she wasn’t raising babies and it was just she and Papaw at home, with the occasional grandbaby, she mainly focused on squirrel and deer. But once I was staying the week with her and the robins were in the pasture, we walked out and ground swatted a mess. She browned them in an ancient black pot, cooked down some onions, then added some water to make a thin gravy covering the birds to simmer. We didn’t eat a lot of rice then but she fixed rice for it to go over because she said that’s how it was done. That was 40 plus years ago and I can almost taste it!

She wasn’t one to worry much about game laws. Anyway, those were for outlaw poachers. Not old ladies feeding her babies! Besides she was the secretary of our little baptist church! I have her old worn bible with her notes in the margin with her shakey writing. I read from it as I officiated my niece’s wedding. I sure miss Mamaw Minnie!