I remember my Mama making a lot of my clothes out of the pretty flowered
material that flour sacks were made of. It had to be washed a few times to
work the stiffness out of it, but Mama would save all she could of the same
kind of print and make me little dresses, skirts, short sets, etc.


I also remember the cups and saucers that came in such things as oatmeal,
flour and such. A lot of the times, the cups and saucers looked like
depression glass because they were colored and it would change colors when
you turned it different ways.


My husband used to have a car with fender skirts and pipes that sounded
soooo good. I could hear him it seemed like halfway back to town after he
brought me back from a date. I think he was sorta showing off a little too. Ha.


Do you remember the "ice box"? We had one of those and that's exactly
what it was, an ice box. Daddy went to the ice house and brought back a
large block of ice that they placed on a towsack (burlap bag) in the back
of the car to haul it home on. They'd pick it up with a big set of tongs with
sharp ends. The ice would last several days in the ice box. If we needed
any small pieces for anything, we just chipped some off with an ice pick.
A lot of stuff was lowered down into the well in a bucket to keep cool
before we got the ice box.

Mama also made our lye soap in a big black wash pot out back. That was
another great memory. I also remember watching her boil water to wash
our clothes and scrub them on our wash board.


I had to churn our milk and make butter and buttermilk. I thought that
was a terrible job because it was so boring. I loved the homemade butter
though. There wasn't anything any better.


We used to take a couple of eggs to the store to trade for a coca cola
and a candy bar. So eggs were very important to us kids. We also loved
to buy those boxes of peanuts that had money in them, or the boxes of
Crackerjacks that had great prizes in them.


There were some really great times back then. One of my favorite things
to play with was an old wheel that I pushed around with a forked stick.
And of course, my paper dolls that were cut out of Sears and Roebuck
catalogs. The old catalogs were also delegated out to the outhouse for
toilet paper. To make it soft, all you had to do was wad it up into a ball
and straighten it back out before using. Ingenious, huh?

Joye ©February ~ 2010

Psalm 94:19
In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight
my soul.

***********