Grandma's Tater Fork

I was peeling potatoes for lunch when I got this sudden vision of my Grandma Lynam doing the same thing. I remember the paring knife she used. It was so old and worn down from many, many sharpenings, there was very little blade left. I would have been old enough to offer to help, but as I've mentioned before Mom taught my sister and me to peel potatoes using a peeler and I was not adept at peeling them with a knife.
The closest I could come to a picture of what that paring knife looked like is this one I found on Etsy:

 Paring knife similar to Grandma's second from left.

After the potatoes had boiled for a while Grandma would test their  'doneness'  with a three-tined fork  like the ones above.

Grandma Lynam's Tater Fork

I don't have Grandma's paring knife but I do have the fork she used not only for testing the potatoes but also for turning meat as it fried. In fact it looks very much like the far right fork in the Etsy photo. Somewhere along the line the tip of the left tine must have been broken off. It is shorter and very sharp. I have used this fork a few times but keep it more for sentimental reasons. I wish I had her paring knife, too.

Summer of 1953, Betty, left, Grandma L.  and  me on right.

Some of my fondest memories are of summertime visits at Grandma's acreage, sitting with her on the front porch, climbing on the corn crib roof and picking mulberries, walking down to the creek at the bottom of the pasture and going out to the garden and smelling that beautiful mock orange just inside the garden gate.

I don't need tangible items like tater forks to prompt memories of my Grandmother, but I do appreciate holding something in my hand that she once used every day. And now that I've pictured it and written about it, maybe my kids or grand kids won't be so quick to throw it away when they someday sort my stuff.