You never link, you never write! I don't know if any one else is enjoying what I write or if I am writing just for me!....If I'm writing for me.....I won't worry about spell check!!!
There once was a cabin way up high in the Idaho Mountains...This cabin was surrounded by Douglas fir, spruce, and pine. "Every day living," was not as it is now. There were no computers, there was little TV. We took our baths in a wash tub in the kitchen, the water was heated on top of the wood stove in that kitchen. There was no electricity in the house.Laundry was done with a Maytag wringer washer in the front yard....
I think they all leaked, oil. This one was hooked to a motor and the agitator went round and round till it was shut off. The water that filled it was not hooked to a tap as ours is today but was filled with buckets of hot hot water.
"Blue Cheer" was the favorite laundry detergent At our house, when she bought laundry detergent instead of making her own. Most times she just shaved a half cup or so off a bar of lye soap that was also made in the yard. No one wanted the fumes from soap making in the house. Fumes from Lye soap can be quite caustic when it is made in a closed area. Back then all the fat from cooking, rendering and any other waste oil from the kitchen was saved for soap making....It was best to use before it went rancid....so soap was made about once a week if the housewife was a good steward of her home. Lye was made by pouring water through wood ashes usually from her kitchen cook stove...There by getting the ash bin cleaned the same time the waste oil from the kitchen was used up!
"Blue Cheer," when it came on the market had little gifts inside for the "discerning" home maker. There might be a pretty glass, a cup, saucer, or a dish towel stashed deep in the recesses of the box of soap. It was like the prize in the bottom of Cracker Jacks....for home makers.
In that era when gas was about 30 cents a gallon and every service station vied for your business, they too, gave away glasses, cups, saucers etc. They also washed your windows, checked your oil, and made sure your tires were properly inflated all while pumping your gas for you! In Oregon it was still not legal for a car owner to pump their own gas, last time I visited there. I have to admit that has been several years ago. It was charming and very nice to have someone else do the pumping! I liked it! Though I am not sure I would LET someone else check my oil, or the liquid in my battery! I'm not a trusting soul! I like to see for myself just what is keeping my old car on the road! I know what it is......IT is my GARY!...
Because it was not every house that had TV reception, or even batteries for the radio; all the time ,it was a wise child who learned to read aloud at an early age. It was hard to churn butter, or knead bread while turning the pages of a book. The reader in the family kept the others entertained and was every bit as important as the kid who dried the dishes,or helped change cloth diapers on the little one. It was possible to hold a baby while reading aloud if you sat at the table to do so. That was an important job also and freed Moms from being the only parent ! It was however impossible to change a dirty diaper while reading the big print in "Grit Magazine!".....Who ever was reading was spared that duty...It was never the "reader"who changed those nasty cloth diapers and washed them out in the bucket! The younger a child learned to read the less important they were in the scheme of running a clean and well organized House hold! I learned to read at about 4. I can't say I read big books. I read what ever I could to keep out from under foot. It also kept me from being the one who was wielding the dish cloth or pealing potato for diner. I was no prodigy, I was lazy! I liked to read. I didn't like to peal potato or do dishes!
The chore I was best suited for was dusting. I could get all the low places near the floor that were hard for Aunts, Mothers, and Grandmothers to get to. I could also see the dust. I was short enough to be level with most of it!
The boys in our home kept the wood cut in summer, and chopped in winter. They kept wood for Grandparents, Aunts, and Mom! We thought we were pretty special cause Mom had a part of the boys bunk house to hang cloths to dry. That meant they had to cut, chop, and fetch wood for the stove in that building also. It wasn't a big building but if they wanted to have clean dry laundry the fire had to be stoked when ever she was washing. In winter it had to be stoked all night long to keep them warm, it was not big, it was not insulated either!
The cows had to be milked summer and winter! The milk buckets had to be kept clean as did the jars. Mom, liked to sit ours in a big pot of boiling water so the gallon pickle jars she stored milk in were sterile. The milk kept better that way. In winter she kept it in a big cupboard outside. I think it was double walled, between the walls was filled with saw dust so the milk was cold but not frozen, in summer it was kept in an old fashioned ice box. We never lacked for milk and Mom sold the extra for more "Blue Cheer!".....
We also grew a garden in our back yard. This was not so hard to keep up with. We all had our own rows that we best keep clear of weeds and make sure it was watered. I liked onions cause they were easy to tell apart from the weeds! We would have had a much easier time with our garden if we didn't live in an "open herd" area.
A lot of the farmers didn't keep their cattle fenced. We were expected to keep our garden fenced to keep the cattle out!
One of the neighbors had a bull, I can still remember that mean old bull looking in the window at us. He seemed to be waiting for us to walk the mile or so to the bus. We couldn't walk the short way, Grandpa's still was on that route. We had to walk the "Hill" road.....Grandpa assured us the swamp was full of cotton Mouth snakes and there might have been a gator or two in that swamp, also. Then there were the "dart" snakes!....
The only thing to impede our progress on the "hill road" was the occasional bear, cougar, coyote, herds of Deer, elk and the occasional bull come over the hill from Hidden Valley! That was one big bull too. The neighbor bought it to improve his heard and paid some unreasonable price for it. I think it was all of three thousand dollars of one stupid bull that liked to chase small children! He was a Hereford bull! He was big, He was brutish, and belying his size he was quick on his feet! All autumn that year he chased us down the drive and down the hill . We went at a dead run past our Uncles house, past our Grand parents house, Past some cousins home and another cousins to the bus stop! We weren't even safe there unless the cousins who lived closest to the bus stop came out with a kettle and pounded it with a big spoon to keep the bull at bay!
We had no phone, so Dad would catch that bull up and drag it over to the next valley to it's owner. That man's cattle spent most of the year either eating our garden or scaring us kids out of at least one years growth! Dad got tired of catching it UP, and hauling it over the hill. Dad was not known for his patience. One night we saw him catch that old mean bull. Dad was even scared of him. It made about the third time that week we cowboy'd that bull over the hill and onto his own range. Dad was cursin' a blue streak! I saw him go out with the weapon. I thought for sure there was going to be a range war. We heard the echo down threw the draw when the bull bawled long and loud!....
Dad came back in, to put away his weapon! The bull was still standing up. He was still tied to the army surplus 4x4, we used to get around. He was walking kind of funny. That was the last time we saw him......The neighbor said there was something dire happened to him....cause when he got home from his last run he was no longer a bull.....there wasn't much call for expensive steers on our hill....He was a big one.....I bet he made a lot of ground meat.....he was to tough and stringy for anything but hamburger!
There once was a cabin way up high in the Idaho Mountains...This cabin was surrounded by Douglas fir, spruce, and pine. "Every day living," was not as it is now. There were no computers, there was little TV. We took our baths in a wash tub in the kitchen, the water was heated on top of the wood stove in that kitchen. There was no electricity in the house.Laundry was done with a Maytag wringer washer in the front yard....
I think they all leaked, oil. This one was hooked to a motor and the agitator went round and round till it was shut off. The water that filled it was not hooked to a tap as ours is today but was filled with buckets of hot hot water.
"Blue Cheer" was the favorite laundry detergent At our house, when she bought laundry detergent instead of making her own. Most times she just shaved a half cup or so off a bar of lye soap that was also made in the yard. No one wanted the fumes from soap making in the house. Fumes from Lye soap can be quite caustic when it is made in a closed area. Back then all the fat from cooking, rendering and any other waste oil from the kitchen was saved for soap making....It was best to use before it went rancid....so soap was made about once a week if the housewife was a good steward of her home. Lye was made by pouring water through wood ashes usually from her kitchen cook stove...There by getting the ash bin cleaned the same time the waste oil from the kitchen was used up!
"Blue Cheer," when it came on the market had little gifts inside for the "discerning" home maker. There might be a pretty glass, a cup, saucer, or a dish towel stashed deep in the recesses of the box of soap. It was like the prize in the bottom of Cracker Jacks....for home makers.
In that era when gas was about 30 cents a gallon and every service station vied for your business, they too, gave away glasses, cups, saucers etc. They also washed your windows, checked your oil, and made sure your tires were properly inflated all while pumping your gas for you! In Oregon it was still not legal for a car owner to pump their own gas, last time I visited there. I have to admit that has been several years ago. It was charming and very nice to have someone else do the pumping! I liked it! Though I am not sure I would LET someone else check my oil, or the liquid in my battery! I'm not a trusting soul! I like to see for myself just what is keeping my old car on the road! I know what it is......IT is my GARY!...
Because it was not every house that had TV reception, or even batteries for the radio; all the time ,it was a wise child who learned to read aloud at an early age. It was hard to churn butter, or knead bread while turning the pages of a book. The reader in the family kept the others entertained and was every bit as important as the kid who dried the dishes,or helped change cloth diapers on the little one. It was possible to hold a baby while reading aloud if you sat at the table to do so. That was an important job also and freed Moms from being the only parent ! It was however impossible to change a dirty diaper while reading the big print in "Grit Magazine!".....Who ever was reading was spared that duty...It was never the "reader"who changed those nasty cloth diapers and washed them out in the bucket! The younger a child learned to read the less important they were in the scheme of running a clean and well organized House hold! I learned to read at about 4. I can't say I read big books. I read what ever I could to keep out from under foot. It also kept me from being the one who was wielding the dish cloth or pealing potato for diner. I was no prodigy, I was lazy! I liked to read. I didn't like to peal potato or do dishes!
The chore I was best suited for was dusting. I could get all the low places near the floor that were hard for Aunts, Mothers, and Grandmothers to get to. I could also see the dust. I was short enough to be level with most of it!
The boys in our home kept the wood cut in summer, and chopped in winter. They kept wood for Grandparents, Aunts, and Mom! We thought we were pretty special cause Mom had a part of the boys bunk house to hang cloths to dry. That meant they had to cut, chop, and fetch wood for the stove in that building also. It wasn't a big building but if they wanted to have clean dry laundry the fire had to be stoked when ever she was washing. In winter it had to be stoked all night long to keep them warm, it was not big, it was not insulated either!
The cows had to be milked summer and winter! The milk buckets had to be kept clean as did the jars. Mom, liked to sit ours in a big pot of boiling water so the gallon pickle jars she stored milk in were sterile. The milk kept better that way. In winter she kept it in a big cupboard outside. I think it was double walled, between the walls was filled with saw dust so the milk was cold but not frozen, in summer it was kept in an old fashioned ice box. We never lacked for milk and Mom sold the extra for more "Blue Cheer!".....
We also grew a garden in our back yard. This was not so hard to keep up with. We all had our own rows that we best keep clear of weeds and make sure it was watered. I liked onions cause they were easy to tell apart from the weeds! We would have had a much easier time with our garden if we didn't live in an "open herd" area.
A lot of the farmers didn't keep their cattle fenced. We were expected to keep our garden fenced to keep the cattle out!
One of the neighbors had a bull, I can still remember that mean old bull looking in the window at us. He seemed to be waiting for us to walk the mile or so to the bus. We couldn't walk the short way, Grandpa's still was on that route. We had to walk the "Hill" road.....Grandpa assured us the swamp was full of cotton Mouth snakes and there might have been a gator or two in that swamp, also. Then there were the "dart" snakes!....
The only thing to impede our progress on the "hill road" was the occasional bear, cougar, coyote, herds of Deer, elk and the occasional bull come over the hill from Hidden Valley! That was one big bull too. The neighbor bought it to improve his heard and paid some unreasonable price for it. I think it was all of three thousand dollars of one stupid bull that liked to chase small children! He was a Hereford bull! He was big, He was brutish, and belying his size he was quick on his feet! All autumn that year he chased us down the drive and down the hill . We went at a dead run past our Uncles house, past our Grand parents house, Past some cousins home and another cousins to the bus stop! We weren't even safe there unless the cousins who lived closest to the bus stop came out with a kettle and pounded it with a big spoon to keep the bull at bay!
We had no phone, so Dad would catch that bull up and drag it over to the next valley to it's owner. That man's cattle spent most of the year either eating our garden or scaring us kids out of at least one years growth! Dad got tired of catching it UP, and hauling it over the hill. Dad was not known for his patience. One night we saw him catch that old mean bull. Dad was even scared of him. It made about the third time that week we cowboy'd that bull over the hill and onto his own range. Dad was cursin' a blue streak! I saw him go out with the weapon. I thought for sure there was going to be a range war. We heard the echo down threw the draw when the bull bawled long and loud!....
Dad came back in, to put away his weapon! The bull was still standing up. He was still tied to the army surplus 4x4, we used to get around. He was walking kind of funny. That was the last time we saw him......The neighbor said there was something dire happened to him....cause when he got home from his last run he was no longer a bull.....there wasn't much call for expensive steers on our hill....He was a big one.....I bet he made a lot of ground meat.....he was to tough and stringy for anything but hamburger!
Just checkin in to see what's on your mind... You have alot of great stories! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Becca....would you like to leave me a link....so I can see what you are up to???
ReplyDeleteLaurel
I really enjoyed reading about your childhood memories, I only wish I could remember mine. It is so nice to hear things that you can remember like trees, scents, even washing machines, and overall chores. It sounds like you had a good childhood, that is so good. There are so many of us who didn't and for that reason I think cannot remember them. I can't remember anything before the age of 5-6-7. Somewhere around there, I always wonder did something happen that I have blocked out, something bad, how am I ever going to know? Should I go to intensive therapy? I don't know, maybe I should just let it go. There has to be a reason I hate men. I know I never had a relationship with my father, but is that enough to actually hate them? Sorry I kinda went off and vented, it was supposed to be about your writings. Anyway, I am enjoying them, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeletebtw, that was me sherri leaving that message above, I didn't realize it would say anonymous.
ReplyDelete