2003-01-11 - 10:41 a.m.

Dash of this, pinch of that

There is an incredible smell coming down the stairs. The remains of the Christmas ham, a sliced onion, several cans of green beans gently simmering on the stove. Before I leave for the library, I will peel some spuds and put them in the pot and turn it off. Supper will be ready when I come back. 800's mom cooked this dish often. She used fresh beans and potatoes and onions, served it with coleslaw, corn bread and sliced tomatoes in the summertime. I don't remember eating it at her house at other times of the year. It is such an economical dish. I often used bacon ends or even drippings when we were low on cash. I always had green beans, either from the store or canned from the garden, (often put up 50 or more quarts of beans) When the kids were little, a quart of beans, several potaotes and a little onion and bacon along with sliced bread and butter or cornbread was a meal for all 6 of us. None of them knew just how poor we were because we ate such tasty food! I haven't fixed it lately, too much boughten food, I guess. And I usually use up the ham bone with pinto beans.

Another journaller was talking about corn fritters and I think I will add a can of corn to some cornbread mix and make some corn pancakes on the griddle to finish off the meal. That is another thing we ate alot of when we were really out of money. It wasn't corn in cornbread mix though, it was corn in flour and water with some thin syrup to put over it. From the start of married life, when the casegood sales came along, I bought a case of each vegetable, and a case of canned milk. Then no matter what financial storms broke around our heads, I could provide good meals without many trips to the grocery store. It never even occurred to me how strapped for money we were until I heard how much money other wives spent each week.

Interior decorations, new furniture, ornaments that changed with the season or holiday were never part of my life as a child and I never expected them as a wife either. We had no washing machine or dryer until 6 or 7 years after the kids came. If we had money, we went to town and washed at the laundromat before getting groceries or I washed clothes by hand. I remember how nice it was to live in the hiredman's house at Wilbur and having a big bathtub. I would put the clothes in, let them soak for an hour or so and then tromp up and down on them for a while then rinse and wring them out by hand. When the boys got big enough to walk, they thought that was great fun!

To this day, I don't have a dish washer and don't know if I would ever want one. We lived for a month or 2 in Montana on a job in a large new trailer that had a dishwasher, but I don't remember using it. How would you keep your fingernails clean, if you didn't wash dishes a couple of times a day?

Writing about such times makes us seem impoverished, but we had enough money and credit to help 800 set up in the businesses he had, buy new 4 wheel drive pickups and the other equipment needed, and once he was doing jobs for himself, when I needed a new washer and dryer or fridge or freezer, we just waited until he had a contract and bought one for cash. We bought our very first stove-5years into the marriage-and our first fridge-15 years into the marriage- on time and that has been all the household things that have ever been paid for in payments. Everything else was done without until the cash was accumulated. I never felt deprived and it relieved 800 from the necessity of keeping his nose to the grindstone on a steady job. That may have been a blessing or a curse but it was the way it was.

I guess that is why uncertainties in my future don't hold much fear for me. I look around and see more possessions than I can possibly use at one time, supplemented by the addition of more in the form of gifts from adult children. Since I just store away the old one if it is still working, when the new one breaks, I dig out the old one. With the advent of garage sales, everything one's heart desires is within reach.

I guess my aspirations have never been very high, ----except for one. My aspiration for eternity for me and my family has been the highest and totally out of my reach. Living with You forever--I'm so glad I didn't have to earn that one!! It was freely given. Thank You!

EE's devotional

newAutumn Leaves

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