--- title: "With God as My Witness" date: 2026-01-26 author: "Laurie Stroud" featured_image: "https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/holt-girls-1.jpg" categories: - name: "Food Prep" url: "/category/news/more/food.md" tags: - name: "Featured" url: "/tag/featured.md" --- # With God as My Witness **The Home Front** The year was 1951, and times were tough. Many layoffs were happening, and people were scrambling to find work so they could feed their families. Momma and Pop Holt had a house full of children in 1951. Pop Holt worked hard to provide for the family as a coal miner while Momma Holt worked hard at home- gardening, canning, and taking care of the whole bunch. They had eleven children and raised twelve. It was about this time that Pop Holt got laid off at the coal mine along with many others. Their pockets were empty. The word on the street was that Ford Motor Company was hiring. The men went to Michigan to seek a good-paying job, leaving their families behind. Before he traveled to Michigan, Pop Holt made arrangements with the local storekeeper to give them a line of credit until he could work for a few weeks and come back and pay his bill. The two men came to an understanding, and it was agreed upon. So, Pop could leave his family to go find a job, knowing that they would be in good shape until he returned. [![Holt Girls](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Holt-Girls-200x300.jpg "Holt Girls")](https://birminghamchristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Holt-Girls.jpg)Seen here are the little Holt girls. Front row from left: Violet, Sandra, Patty (Danna’s mother-in-law). Back row: Phyllis.Pop was gone, and after groceries got thin, Momma Holt went to the store to stock up. When she got ready to check out, the storekeeper told her he had changed his mind and would not be giving her any credit at all. He said it wasn’t good for business. So, she went home empty-handed, knowing she had a bunch of mouths to feed. There would be no groceries bought until Pop returned. Well, Michigan is a long way, and the family was happy to find out that Pop got the job. As companies do, they held back his check for a few weeks, so there would be no money for groceries for at least three weeks! Momma Holt was glad to hear that he had gotten the job. However, she didn’t want him worrying about the family, so she didn’t tell him what happened at the store. She told him everything was just fine, and then she started praying and working out a plan to keep them all fed until he could get home. Fortuitously, Momma Holt raised a garden and canned food every year. So, she surveyed the situation and realized she had to stretch that out as far as it would go. But even with her best planning, it was going to be lean. And then, she remembered how her family loved poke salad. It was one of their favorite dishes. And it just happened to be springtime when poke salad was at its finest. Things were going to be all right. She would cook them some poke salad! As a mother and manager of such a large clan, Momma Holt gave all of them daily chores. Now, little Patty (my mother-in-law), aged nine, and her big sister Violet, aged eleven, got the chore of picking the poke salad every day! And then they had to eat it. Momma Holt still cooked them three meals a day, and one of them was poke salad. The first week, it was okay because, after all, it was a favorite dish of the family. By the second week, Patty and Violet were tired of picking poke salad every day, and the family didn’t really want to eat it anymore. By the third week, it was no longer a family favorite. As a matter of fact, Patty and Violet were sick of picking it and only ate a bite of it to fend off the hunger. They did make it through that tough time, and after weeks of being away from his family and working so hard, Pop got home with his first paycheck from Ford Motor Company in his pocket. It was “a sight for sore eyes” for him to see his family. What should have been a celebration turned out differently when Pop found out what had happened. He was furious that the storekeeper had gone back on his word, but so proud of how Momma Holt and the family had pulled together to make it through a tough time. And now, while the family is thankful that poke salad saved them that spring, it was during that third week of picking and eating poke salad that little Patty and Violet vowed to one another, “If we ever make it through this, we are NEVER going to eat poke salad again for the rest of our lives!” And they haven’t. Enjoy a Holt family-favorite recipe that doesn’t include poke salad. *-Danna Standridge, Author of* Happiness is Homemade Y’all! *For speaking engagements and cooking demonstrations, email dannastandridge@yahoo.com. Join her in the kitchen on Facebook [@DannaSwannStandridge](https://www.facebook.com/DannaSwannStandridge) and YouTube [@dannastandridge8749](https://www.youtube.com/@dannastandridge8749).* **Momma Holt’s Beef Tips and Noodles** **Ingredients:** - 1 lb. Beef tips - 1 can cream of mushroom soup - Egg noodles - Salt, to taste **Instructions:** Put beef tips in a large pot and add enough water to cook the noodles according to the package directions. Add the mushroom soup. Bring to a gentle boil till beef is tender. Add noodles and cook till done. Add salt to taste.