Why oh Why

My sister asked me today...I think along with someone else ... What started me writing the memoies from the past. Really it was the visit to the city at Christmas and a visit to some big box stores. What is the purpose of all the "STUFF"?? How can we think we need so much stuff? This took me back to simpler times when everything we did was so basic and yet we had it easier than our parents as we had a ringer washing machine and they did the wash on a scrub board. We had tractors, they used horses. We went to church in a car. The generation before in sleighs or wagons. How many under 30's would survive without electricity or fuel oil. I know some have done enough camping to have a clue about food and shelter and basic existance, but what if you had to live for a year or two without conveniences like running water, electric heat, an electric stove and fridge? When we can think we are deprived because we don't have a 54 inch tv with all the gadgets that go with it, I think it is time to get grounded again in our past. We kept busy, maybe too busy, but we got into very little trouble.

Butter, lard and fat.

Very early in my childhood I remember turning a butter churn. Not the kind that went up and down but the kind that rolled a barrel over and over. When butter was needed, the cows milk was separated from the cream with a hand turner "separator". Cream came out a spout on top of the separator and milk out another spout under the cream spout. (I'm sure and encyclopia would have pictures or the butter churn and the separator). The churn turned the cream until it became butter and the butter was separated from the left over liquid (butter milk). I remember salt being added to the butter. I don't recall making cheese although that was a staple food, always availible. I remember when we purchased margarine for the first time. It was in a bag like a thick firmly sealed zip lock bag. It was white with a little circle of yellow dye in the centre of the bag. We squeezed the yellow dot and broke the dye inside the bag and then squished the whole thing until the the white margarine was a light yellow like butter. Baking was done with lard or chicken fat until margarine came along. Lard was from butchered pigs before Crisco. Mom's fried chicken fried in chicken fat was the best fried chicken I've ever eaten to this very day.

Heat

Our two sources of heat were the wood burning kitchen stove and the coal furnace. The coal furnace was only used in very cold weather. The furnace was started with wood and then coal would be put on to last for hours. A coal furnace required a coal bin. This was a closed off room in the corner of the basement. Coal was purchased by the truck load and emptied into the basement window into the coal bin. Coal is very black and coal dust on pieces of coal stuck to anything that touched it like your hands and clothes so one had to be very careful around coal or get very dirty. The kitchen wood stove was used to cook and bake. In winter this was a bonus as the kitchen was always toasty warm. The wood stove had beside it a wood box filled with different kinds of wood depending on how long and how hot you wanted your stove to get. Mom usually made 12 loaves of bread at a time. ( I had 3 brothers 1 sister and a Dad). This would mean the stove was on for a good while, first to have the bread rise in the warming oven over the stove, and then the real hot oven at the bottom of the stove. Of course breakfast lunch and dinner were also produced on the wood stove. In summer it wasn't so comfortable to have as the stove on made everything too hot, but cooking still had to happen.

Reality #5 The pantry (No fridge)

Reality #5 The Pantry
We did not have a fridge so the cold places in our house were the basement root celler and the pantry in winter. Flour and sugar, lard, spices, yeast, baking powder, baking soda and other baking ingredients were kept in the pantry. There was a cupboard on which dough was rolled out and ingredients mixed. Baked good were also placed into the pantry for a cooler temperature. The kitchen table was the other work area in the kitchen. There were no cupboards in the kitchen except the small cupboard that held the water bucket, the sink and the slop pail. This made the pantry a very important area of the house. There were nuts and rasins and dates to make cakes and cookies especially at Christmas time. The Watkins man came by a couple times a year to sell spices and baking powder. We also had a Fuller brush man that sold brooms and brushes for vegetables and hair. He usually had a give away gimmick like a nail brush or something to get in the door. These sales people usually were the same from year to year. A different face probably would not have gotten in the door. Because flour and sugar were purchased in 100 pound bags and most everything else was sold to us on the farm or was taken from the farm, there was not a lot of going into town. Pantries then became the center of our food world. Bread and butter, cookies and cakes, tarts and pies all from this little room, the pantry.

Reality#4 Water Pail

Reality#4 Water Pail
Because there was no running water, no fridge, water was kept in containers in the kitchen for every need. The tea kettle was full of water, the resevoir in the wood stove held water, and there was a pail of water for washing, drinking, and cooking. A dipper (a metal cup with a long handle) was used to ladle water out of the pail for use. This dipper was also used to drink from when someone was thirsty. The water in the pail sat on a cupboard beside the sink until it was empty. Then the pail was refilled by walking out to the Well House pumping water into the pail and walking the water pail back inside. In summer the water was warm quickly, so everyone wanted a drink of fresh water when it first came into the house cold from the well. When people washed in the wash basin, the water was not discarded until it was very dirty. Water carried inside was not wasted. When the wash basin was empitied the water went into the slop pail under the sink. Water was drained into the slop pail the same way we would empty a sink except the water went into a pail and not drained out of a drain pipe. Other discard items also went into the slop pail so it was quite putrid on it's way out the door. When the slop pail was full, it was dumped into the pig trough to let the pigs snort out tid bits of food and slurp up water. I don't recall the water pail having a cover over it. It just sat open in the kitchen until emptied.

Reality#3 Washday

Reality #3 Washday
Water was carried in from the "Well House" and poured into the "ringer washer" When a pig was butchered, Mom made lye soap. This soap was made with hot fat and lye. (My sister said the recipe can still be found on the net.) Once the soap was made it was poured into wooden boxes until it hardened. Then it was cut up into shapes like a bar of soap. The wash water was heated the same as bath water, on or in the kitchen wood stove. Lye Soap was added. Clothes were separated and washed in the ringer washer then run through the ringer, rinsed in the wash tub and run through the ringer; then hung on the clothes lines. On a summer windy day this was a quick drying process. If it was a winter day the clothes 'freeze dried' and were brought inside frozen. I remember we could stand up a pair of long underwear in the corner until it thawed out. Clothes were hung around inside until they dried. Sheets, towels, clothes for 5 kids and two adults took the day to finish so it was a FULL day before every thing was folded and put away.

Reality #2 Saturday night bath.

Reality #2 SATURDAY NIGHT BATH:
Our house had no bathroom as there was no running water, no tub, no indoor toilet. On Saturday morning, the reservoir end of the wood stove was filled. This was a container built into the stove to keep water piping hot. Saturday was baking day so the wood stove was on anyway. Also the boiler was filled and left on the stove. The boiler was a large oval shaped container that Mom used when canning. It held about twelve quart ceilers when used for canning. The best water for bathing was "run off" rain water(caught in a barrel from the roof) or melted snow as this was "soft" water whereas the well water was "hard" water. The well was in the "Well House" attached to the garage across the yard. Water was pumped by hand into pails and brought into the house. In winter the tub ( a 3 foot by 3 foot metal tub that was otherwise known as the wash tub) was placed on a rug in front of the wood stove in the kitchen for warmth. (I do recall having a round tub for a short while). Everyone but the bather was swished out to another part of the house during bath time. Being the youngest and ,at that time, the smallest in the house, meant I got to bath first. I remember being told to hurry as the water would get cold. Sorry folks, no emptying the tub between bathers. All this water was hauled into the house in pails and out of the house the same way. We were cleaned, our hair was washed and curled if you were a girl, all for church on Sunday morning. In our house there were 7 people to bath. I heard a story up here a couple weeks ago where there were 21 to bath in their house. Wouldn't want to be LAST in that home.

Realities from my early life. Part 1

I watch and listen. That is a part of who I am. I've decided that I will share some realities of life from my early childhood and those of my siblings ( who are all still living). By this statement I'm identifying that this is the not so distant past. Since that time the realities of life have changed a GREAT DEAL.
REALITY#1. (Pun not intended) THE OUTHOUSE, BIFFY, Now some of you youngsters may feel you know about this as you've used one camping. WRONG!! No comparision. A two hole outhouse was a most common thing. It was a good distance away from the house in a down hill direction usually situated in a stand of trees. Two people going there together made good sense. In summer although it was smelly, it was warm and comfortable. In winter, it was frigid. We did not have the luxury of toilet paper when needed. We literally used an old Eaton's catalogue, wraps from Christmas oranges, and news paper when available. (This is NOT a joke - it really happened). As far as the catalogue was concerned, soft index pages went first. Now put this information together with the fact that the house had no running water. Everyone bathed on Saturday night so we were clean and shiny for church. Consider the extra knowledge that printers ink runs when it is wet! I can hear my son-in-law screaming "Too much information". Sorry folks no germ killing soap was available, no water on the scene so it was back to work or play. I can tell you if it was the dead of winter, this all happened VERY QUICKLY.

Grandma mama to the rescue

Erica's kids (4 and5) have always called me Grandma mama because they've had 3 Grandma's to content with.
Erica told me about a conversation between her kids and herself. This is sort of how it went:

Rebecca to Bella "Did you know that not every family has a mom and a dad .... some have only a mom or only a dad"
Bella "Really?? Mom will that happen to us?" Erica reassured Bella that she will have a mom and a dad.
Bella, paused, thinking, speaks emphatically "What would happen if some didn't have a mom OR a dad?"
Rebecca: "Oh that's all right Bella, THOSE kids Grandma mama looks after!!"
Apparently THEIR world is a safer place for I look after all it's orphans.