Recallections of kin folk

[islandpiper]

Several times here in the forum we have seen postings that refer to Moms, Dads, Grandparents, uncles and so forth. I'd like to hear some more stories of how we were all raise. What was important? What were the traditions? Money saving habits and tips?

For instance, i remember having khaki pants (not jeans), with the cuffs turned up, because we all had cuffs then.....the the cuffs didn't quite match. they were made of different material, since the cuffs had been up and down on these pants so many times over the years.........I was the forth wearer of these fine pants. They had been the uniform pants of my uncle Bud when he was in the US Army Air Corps in WW II.......and i wore them in 1963.

When my father passed away last year, my older brother went and cleaned out the old garage. He found, and discarded, the coffee cans of old nails that he and i had sat out in the driveway and straightened with hammers when we were little kids. Dad just could not throw away a nail, no matter how badly bent.

I'll bet most of you geezers have a story or two like these.

(If not, then Kayak Jack will make some up.....)

piper

 

[jdupre']

While I was growing up, my parents had a small grocery store. They sold can goods, cold cuts, soft drinks, beer, fishing tackle, coal oil (uppity people called in kerosene) and gas. They sold only fresh sliced cold cuts. When you would get to the end of a baloney or lunch meat, the last slice looked like hell from being handled so much. You know the end of a baloney where it is tied off-- all crinkled and wrinkly? That is what we had for breakfast. Too good to throw away. Fried eggs, grits with butter, and crispy around the edges fried baloney. Good stuff.

 

[jdupre']

My mama was raised in the same little community as the store they would eventually own. There was no local industry and no cars to go anywhere so people lived off the land (and bayous). Money was in short supply so you made do with what you had. She told me that when she went to the one room school house she would bring a lard sandwich for lunch. Thats two pieces of homemade bread slathered with fresh lard sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. Sounds repulsive, but I started thinking-- lard is pork fat and pork fat can be some pretty tasty stuff.

Joey

 

[islandpiper]

Joey, my Dad liked to tell me that during the Depression his mother could slice the bread so thin it only had one side!!

Piper

 

[Kayak Jack]

I was raised during the war. we saved tin cans; my job was to insert the lids and stomp the cans flat.

If it was a Pet milk can, we'd leave the ends in and instead of stomping the can flat, I'd stomp on it with the heel of my shoe. The can would deform and wrap around the heel of my shoe. Then, I could gallop up and down the drive and sound like a horse.

We also save bacon fat and lard from frying. We turned it in, but I don't know what it was used for.

Life preservers then had kapok in, down from milkweed pods. We gathered the ripe pods in the mesh bags that oranges came in. We'd hang the bags on the fence out in front of school and they would be collected for use in life jackets. Each week our school had two to four bags of pods; two of them were always mine.

Meat was rationed; we ate a lot of wild game, cured our own bacon and hams, rendered our own lard, made sauerkraut, and made maple syrup. We had a large garden and ate a lot from that. We had some Plymouth Rock hens - the black and white barred kind. I'd gather eggs. I had two banty hens, and ate their eggs for breakfast every morning.

 

[oldyaker]

I'm still using coffee cans of Dads old nails and hardware. Granny saved every piece of string until she had the largest ball of string in the world. I think I still have a ball of that string in the basement. She saved chicken scratch feed bags to make bed sheets, aprons, dust caps and pillow cases. OH! Jeez I forgot the rubber bands she saved too.We did our own burcheribg on the farm,,,Grandpap said we used everything but the squeel from the hog.
They never bought much but if they did, and it came in a can or jar, the container was used for something else when they became empty.
I guess it rubbed off, I still save coffee cans and peanut butter jars and end up pitching them when I get too many. :cry:

 

[dangermouse01]

My dad talks of having fat sandwiches while he was growing up, cold bacon fat spread on bread.

I am 3rd oldest in a family of 8 kids :shock: (just say old catholic family), starting in 1958 to 1973. Parents moved to Florida in 61, when I was 6 months old.

Breakfast was always, Monday-eggs & bacon, Tuesday- cold cereal, Wednesday- either oatmeal or cream of wheat (no grits), Thursday- either pancakes or french toast (once in awhile waffles), Friday- canned fruit, Saturday & Sunday- cold cereal.

Powdered milk, always had a picture mixed up in the refrigerator, got to have a half glass of whole (real) milk mixed with a half glass of the powdered.

My mom baked bread on Thursdays, man, I still remember the way the house smelled when she was baking. Not sure how we worked out who got the heel of the warm bread when it got cut. I am sure there was probably a "list" tapped on the inside of a cupboard door on who had it last time. Warm heel, spread with butter (probably margarine), yum yum. That bread made the best peanut butter & honey sandwiches. She also baked all the birthday cakes & cookies for occasions. We never got to 'just" eat cookies, they were a treat.

I remember at Christmas waiting for the package from Grandpa & Grandma to arrive, not for the presents they sent, but because of the tins & tins of Grandma's homemade cookies & candies.

My mom also sewed, knitted, crotched alot, which means we also had homemade clothes. When I was about 13'ish my mom got a bunch of blue denim material and orange thread and made all the boys homemade blue jeans.

DM
mike

 

[oldsparkey]

Ya All sure had an interesting life.
Mine , boring as heck. All I even did was just sit out by the pool and relax while getting a good tan.

The butler did all the running around , the Chef did all the cooking while the maids cleaned up around the place. The Gardner had the best job he got to zip around on the mowers and chase the antelope and buffalo Dad had in the lower 40 , here just outside Orlando. :roll:

I'm an Army Brat , dad was base commander ( Col , U.S.Army ). Then he retired and moved to Orlando where Dad built out place on Lake Jasmine , Later we moved to Oviedo and again he built our home.
Spent my time in canoes ( I could paddle one before I rode a bicycle) out fishing and later included duck hunting or running a trap line to make some spending money. Summer time a buddy and I got gators and sold them for spending money.

That's when we weren't working out in the field , weeding , fertilizing , planting , trimming , mowing or doing something to the bushes Dad had at the nursery. 15 acres of plants in nice rows for as far as you could swing a hoe or push a shovel.

On the happier side ..........
One of the best sandwiches you can have is some good thick slices of homemade bread and side meat between them ( white bacon or salt pork to Yankees) When Dad and I would go fishing Mom always made sure we had those sandwiches for lunch out there on the water.
I'd say the 2nd best is a Pork Chop sandwich , two chunks of bread with a nice thick , fried , pork chop , bone and all , between them. ( That rendered out ( crisp) fatty edge on the chop ain't half bad either ).

Dad and Mom were hunters , fishermen and campers along with canoers, Uncle Bill had the worse influence on me , he was a game warden in Wisconsin before moving to Fla. The tails he could tell.

Chuck.

 

[bearridge]

Miz Bear 'n me got a barn fulla stuff A.G. never threw away. He saved all the ole fence wire when he put up the new chain link years ago. Saved ever one of them iron stakes too. Even saved the ole gates. We found some ole wore out suitcases. One had hiz bank stubs frum 1935 on. He saved all hiz plastic milk jugs. No such thing az scrap lumber....saved it all.

There must be 50 coffee cans fulla ole rusty bolts, nuts, screws, nails (mostly bent), but it aint hard ta beat 'em back straight. There iz two 'er three dozen ole, bent, rusty gate hinges, a iron chute where ya run a hog 'er a sheep in ta lock 'em down fer doctorin'. A.G. outlived three wives 'n kept all their clothes, but he wuz a NRA fella, not a girlie man. He took on the son one of 'em......sent him off ta college 'n medikle school. When he got out, he started out at the hospital down in Greenville. Late one nite on hiz way back home he wrecked hiz pickup 'n kilt hizself.

There must be a thousand jars, frum gallons ta half pints.....coke bottles, left over cement sand, ole door frames, windows, wire frum the ice storm. [The power ta the barn wuz illegal 'n they tole him not ta hook it back up agin.] He wuz in bad shape when that storm hit.....died a few months after it wuz over. Folks tell of him usin' hiz walker 'n hiz shotgun tryin' ta blast down the broken limbs.

Met with hiz nephew when Miz Bear talked me inta buyin' this place. He tole us A.G. sold eggs, chickens, pigs, pears, peaches, corn 'n figs. Sez that when he come ta visit, A.G. put him ta work shuckin' corn, feedin' pigs, gatherin' eggs, whatever needed doin'. Then one day A.G. sez "boy, ya wanna go fer a ride?" He sez A.G. sent him after the newspaper. They got in the car, backed outta the garage 'n stopped.....kilt the engine. Nephew sez "what now?" A.G. sez "I aim ta let God wash my car". Lo 'n behold a purty good rain storm wuz comin'. A.G. read hiz paper 'n they set there til the car wuz washed. Then A.G. drove back inta the garage.

There is a oletime mule pulled hay bailer with a bent wheel, a big middle buster fer a mule, a dozen broken shovels, rakes, pick axes, axes, tools (mostly rusted) of near bout ever kind.....'n a few machines I never seen before. There wuz 3-4 dozen bee boxes with replacement parts, iron pipes, pry bars, 55 gallon drums 'n a heap more. The family had made off with all the newer stuff til they jest give out 'n sez "ya'll kin have the rest".

He sold rabbits too. I tore up the last of the ole cages year before last. [We jest let our rabbits run loose.....ta amuse the cats.] Folks tell how he had a few peacocks 'n some wild turkeys took up with him too. They tell how them turkeys would dawdle down the middle of the street 'n folks had ta slow down ta go round 'em. I figger A.G. would be mitey proud of how Miz Bear built the patio her ownself 'n how I put all them ole time, solid concrete, foundation blocks he had saved in a circle fer my stickfire pit.

regards
bearridge

Boss Paul: That ditch is Boss Kean's ditch. And I told him that dirt in it's your dirt. What's your dirt doin' in his ditch?
Luke: I don't know, Boss.
Boss Paul: You better get in there and get it out, boy.

 

[coogzilla]

Har Har Har :lol: :lol: :lol: