maxine wrote:
> On Aug 9, 2:58*pm, "Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq." wrote:
>
>>Serene Vannoy wrote:
>>
>>>ChattyCathy wrote:
>>
>>>><g> I thought about putting in a 'more than one of the above' option -
>>>>but then I realized that's what the MCINL option is for.
>>>
>>>Right, I think the MCINL option is the best thing you could do, because
>>>no one's ever going to anticipate all possible answers to any quiz
>>>that's not a straightforward yes/no/maybe or something.
>>
>>>*> However, I am
>>
>>>>surprised that nobody (so far) has chosen the N/A I never 'don't feel
>>>>like cooking dinner' option...
>>>
>>>I can't imagine always feeling like cooking dinner, and I really love to
>>>cook.
>>
>>>Serene
>>
>>Me mum's definition of good food was anything she did not have to cook.
>>
>>Later on in my adult years i had the pleasure of introducing her to
>>commercially available frozen entrees. *Stouffer's lasagna, swiss steak
>>& such.
>>
>>At one time in my life, when i was a child, she cooked & baked for 20+
>>grown men every day. *She was a very good cook but needless to say she
>>didn't find it the pleasure i do, in cooking as a hobby.
>
>
> What did your Mom do? Who were the 20+ men she cooked for? Were any
> of them your Dad?

Me mum was a wife and mother, she cooked a big breakfast & dinner every
day for my father, grand father, uncles, brothers in laws and some
assorted "hired hands" that lived on the isolated, rural place with us.

And that does not include all the rest of the cooking & preserving
(canning, smoking meats) she did for the rest of the family. It was
also up to her to supervise the production of milk, cheese, butter etc.
tend the kitchen garden and do all the baking, washing, cleaning etc.
And still have the time and energy to create fond memories of that time
for me her youngest child. She did have help, i had 3 married sisters &
a couple of aunts & uncles with their families that lived with us on
"the place" at the time and they of course helped with everything. But
it was all on me mums shoulders to get every thing done correctly and on
time.

I remember those days as idyllic but in my late 20's early 30's it began
to dawn on me how much work she had to do.

Most of the men listed above, including my father would have a very
early but very substantial breakfast, around 4 -5 am, drive miles and
miles to work all day as 'loggers' and then come home to a big dinner
waiting for them.

When she finally had a moment to sit down, usually in the evening before
bed, out came the sewing basket and she would darn and mend socks &
clothing or knit.

When, around the time i was 12 years old, for various reasons, it was
decided by the adults to move off the old place (too complex & sad for
this recounting of it) and i & me mum & dad went to live in a house with
just the 3 of us and the occasionally visitor she still kept her self in
harness, cooking, baking, preserving etc. She just did not know any
different way of living.

So it was a treat for me after spending a year or so in the "Big City"
to come home and rather than let her spend a few hours in the kitchen
cooking for me to purchase some of the aforementioned frozen entrees i
had been exposed to in the 'Big City' and she took to them like manna
from heaven.

I can recall my sister Mary Kay, coming to visit when i was home on
leave and me mum taking a frozen food entree out of the oven and Mary
kay, not realizing i was awake in the next room hearing it all, saying
to our mum, what a bad son i must be to foist such crap on to my mom,
and boy did my mom lay into Kay, one of the very few times i ever recall
my mother getting angry and reproaching some one for their opinion.

And just BTW when we lived at the old place where me mum worked from
before sun up to after sun down year round she did so without indoor
plumbing, electricity or any of the modern conveniences. Wood fired
kitchen stove, oil lamps, out houses, kitchen hand pump etc.

*Sigh* those were the days, my memories of them are very fond, lazy hay
rides at harvest time, sitting on me dads lap when he had to plow a
field with a tractor, the swimming pond we kids could get a penny apiece
for every crawdaddy we caught, tricking a 'city slicker' cousin into
doing what he thought was some macho bravery in petting a bull
(basically tame but he did not know that) which he had to walk past a
chicken coop to do and when he walked past the chicken coop watching him
freak out as the chickens rushed him expecting a feeding. We still
occasionally get a chuckle out of that

One of my sisters convinced my dad to take in an old Clydesdale from
another farm that was going to be put down for lack of anything for it
to do, and that old horse "Clyde" would let a half dozen small kids just
clamber all over it and when it finally got tired of us would walk into
the pond till we all floated off his back. It was just a pet, we did
have cars, trucks, harvesters, tractors and other farm tools but
naturally one of my sisters was horse crazy and indulged to the degree
my parents could. And Clyde did come in handy occasionally, i can
remember a couple of winters when horse drawn sleds were the only way to
get around, and Clyde was a wonder at that, he was originally a working
horse and i can remember my father and uncles commenting on what a good
sled horse he was, nothing stopped him in those situations he could plow
through a 10 foot snow drift like it was water.

Ah well.....memories....
--

Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq.

Domine, dirige nos.
Let the games begin!
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