CHAPTER 30
During the summer, and before Gert's death, Fred always made ice cream on Sunday after church for the family. The family would sit in the back yard and enjoy the ice cream after the children had taken turns with the ice cream, turning the handle until it became too stiff to turn. Junior was always the last one to turn, and when he could no longer turn the handle, he’d call Fred to finish the job. Then Fred would remove the ice cream blade and the children would take turns eating the ice cream that had collected on it. Later, they all got large bowls of vanilla ice cream and they'd sit out on the back porch and enjoy it.
On some Sundays Fred also baked teacakes. He had baked them every since he and Gert were together. Teacakes looked like large, flat brown cookies; they had the aromas of cinnamon and vanilla but the taste was unexplainably delicious to the children.
And although Fred made very good vanilla ice cream, Mary decided she was going to try something different. She was going to add strawberries into the ice cream mixture because she knew the girls loved strawberries, especially Mary Jean.
Mary had the entire week to plan for the twins’ birthday celebration. She told Fred and Junior of her plans to cook a special dinner for the girls. She planned their special foods, including candied yams, corn bread muffins and Fred’s smothered chicken. However, the twins had no idea that they were going to have one of the best birthday celebrations of their young lives on Sunday afternoon.
Bernice decided to buy the twins look-alike dresses for the occasion. She knew Fred could not afford such expenses and she opted to do it herself. She also wanted to buy the girls some pretty sandals to wear because the ones they’d been wearing had long seen their best days.
No one really knew what size shoes the twins wore. Therefore, Mary measured their feet by having the twins stand on cardboard. While they stood, Mary traced the size and shape of their feet onto the board with a pencil. Later, Mary cut out the cardboard drawings and gave them to Bernice.
By Saturday night the twins sensed something was going on because they saw the cake that Mary baked, as well as the other food that had been prepared and placed in the refrigerator. Still, Mary, Junior and Fred were tight-lipped. Mary told the girls she was cooking for her own birthday, not theirs. They seemed to believe her, for the most part.