- Homemaking
- Housekeeping
- Recipes
- Food
- Cooking
- Health
- Odds and Ends
- Things Collected
All the times I spent on the farm are some of my most precious memories. Grandma was a very special lady. I learned so much from her. I was the first grandchild and I guess I was pretty "spoiled". It seems like most of my childhood before I started school was at the farm.
My first real memory is waking up in the bedroom where I slept and walking into the kitchen, there stood grandma with her "cast iron skillet" in her hand. She turned around and said "Well, Good Morning Sleepy Head". She had already been up for a couple hours and fed grandpa his breakfast, then she fixed my plate and sat it on the big round table in the kitchen. I don't remember what I had to eat, but I know it was good; it had to be, she prepared it.
Grandpa was milking the cows and what ever else he needed to do. Grandma started lunch, I guess Grandpa needed a lot to eat because of all the work he did around the farm.
The house was not much, but it held so many memories for me. She had a kitchen, their bedroom, a second bedroom and there was another room at the back of the house that was not used much. I think it was an add on at one time or maybe one of the first rooms built. They did not have a living room, but there was a "davenport" in their bedroom. I remember taking a nap on it once woke up itching all over and found out later it was made of "horsehair?" They had a bed, a dresser, a small table where they kept an oil lamp and later on the radio. There was a fireplace, but they had a pot belly stove that they burned coal in.
There was a little hallway between the two bedrooms, it had a door to the front porch. There was no steps to use for that porch, everyone used the kitchen door. My bedroom had a "chiffarobe", a bed and on the wall beside the fireplace (that was never used) was a floor to ceiling cabinet built into the wall. That is where she kept all her home canned foods. I can see them now, green beans, pickled green beans, sliced green tomatoes, corn, peaches (freestone), pickled beets, berries, squirrel (yuck), etc. The "chamber pot" was also in the corner and I hated to use it. I remember the first outhouse was over the creek...........what would EPA say about that?? The next one was built closer to the house and had a hole under it where grandpa would drop lime whenever needed. It was a "two-holer", they were stepping up in the world; but I do remember Sears or some other catalog to use after you had done your business. Grandpa also kept some "comic books" in there for reading only.
The third bed room had a bed and grandma's "Victrola", I don't remember any thing else in there. I do remember Grandpa made "home brew" and stored it under that bed and one time the corks on the bottles started popping off, I bet that ticked him off.
The kitchen, the room I most remember, I think that is because grandma spent all her time in there. She had an old cook stove that was up on legs with two ovens on the right top side and four burners on the left. It was gas, now that I think about it when they first moved there they did not have electricity. She had one of those "ice boxes" that you put a block of ice in to keep things cool, but she used it for storage. The "Hoosier Cabinet" was on one wall by itself. Of course the table was almost in the center of the room. As you came in the back door on the left was a stand that held a bucket of water for drinking, washing up or cooking. They had to drop the bucket down the "covered" well to draw water. Later Grandpa put a pump in the house and that was a luxury enjoyed by everyone.
Grandma kept her cold storage foods in a cellar dug back in the hill under the house. I remember it so well, it was cool and had all the fixins' for good eatin'. She kept her milk there also.
They had a "smokehouse" a little ways from the house, I remember ham and bacon there. The chicken house was to the north of it. The barn was further from the house. The main garden was past the barn. Grandma's kitchen garden was to the north of the house. Oh, how I loved to go there and eat fresh tomatoes or carrot and even sour rhubarb.
I remember when they did get electricity, they had a light bulb hanging in the kitchen and most times there was a "fly catcher" hanging down with it. When grandma got her "Frigidaire", they bought "Junket" ice cream packages and made ice cream in the ice trays. I preferred "Dairy Queen" myself. On top of fridge she had a crocheted doily starched up and held a pitcher and six glasses. I wish I could find that somewhere, it fascinated me.
The "Dutch Oven" man would come around and I could never understand why Grandma bought their breakfast rolls, when she made better. I guess they were a treat for her. The "Jewel Tea" man came around also, I remember her Jewel Tea Autumn Leaf dishes she had. I now have a set of my own. I never could understand why they put those"shower caps" over they bowls of food. Go figure I was a city girl.
Blueberry Hill My favorite place of all time. Grandma and I would go pick blueberries for pies on what seemed like a mountain to me. She always picked fresh berries when she was going to make pies. I remember my little lard bucket would have maybe an inch high of berries. Grandma would say "Well, we have enough for a couple of pies, let's go to the house." She would then look in my bucket and say "Where are all those blueberries you picked? Let me see your tongue, just what I thought you ate yours." I would say "Grandma they are so good." She would just laugh all the way down that big hill. Now after eating so many blueberries I would spend a lot of time in the "two-holer". Grandma talked to me a lot when we were picking berries, I think she was trying to prepare me for the life ahead of me. She would tell me about her family and where they lived and how long it had been since she saw any of them. It was a lot for a child under six to remember or comprehend, but she did her job well. I still love blueberries, anything to do with blueberries, I really don't know why I never decorated my house with them.
More memories later.
