Ezekiel & Rhoda Hopkins

Ezekiel James & Rhoda Greene Homer Hopkins

Kids: Louise, Rhonda, Robert, Mark, Elva, John

From the Life of Rhoda Greene Homer Hopkins, written by her daughter, Elva Thompson:

The struggle which Grandma Homer had in providing for her family must have given her children some most valuable experience, for Mother knew how to get by on practically nothing. She just couldn’t waste anything, especially food. The pancake syrup she made from the peelings and pits of peaches after she had canned the fruit was the most delicious treat that anyone could hope for. During the Great Depression, when people were starving or standing in Bread Lines, we didn’t suffer at all. We’d never had any money so we couldn’t lose it….

In these days of modern conscience and inflation, just one unexpected gust for dinner can cause a panic, but as we were growing up it was the usual thing for two or three of us to bring one or more friends home from school with us at nights, and they were all invited to stay and eat supper with us. Mother just put another plate on r two on the table and brought in a bench from somewhere, and the food was always so good that no one even noticed whether the plates matched or not, or whether they were sitting on the wood box or the milking stool…. I swear that if it had been necessary, Mother could have taken an old harness and cooked it into a delicious dish or meal, for she often did that with some meat that wasn’t much better than a harness.

Grandma Hopkins also had much talent in writing and poetry. Below is words that she wrote to be sung to the tune of the hymn, "Did You Think to Pray?":