Green Walnut Shells Srain Deeply and Completely

7. Cool weather came; leaves turned red, yellow and bronze.  Hickory nuts and walnuts fell from trees. The big walnut tree in the field past the chicken yard and smokehouse was prolific. Mommy sent Ivy and me to collect and shell walnuts – a messy job at best. We had a hammer and a pail. The process is simple. Lay a walnut on a flat rock—break the green soft covering shell with the hammer- peel away the smashed green shells—toss the shelled walnut into the bucket. Mommy’s parting warning, “And don’t go playing around. When the bucket is full come back.”

We played around.

Twice we heard Mommy calling, “You girls working or playing around?”

In unison we answered, “Working.”

We had few walnuts in the bucket when Mommy summoned us home.

Few walnuts!!

We went into action.

Soft green walnut shells contain a dark non washable dye that stains everything it touches—like gloveless hands. Our action involved this dye; our action was simple; our action was sure.  Seriously stained hands would be evidence of our hard work. Hurriedly we hammered away the soft green shells from several walnuts. We rubbed the shells squished in our hands up and down our arms until we were gloriously stained. With exaggerated extension of our stained arms we proudly presented Mommy our nearly empty bucket.

Mommy was not impressed.

Sadly we were.

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