Saturday, January 5, 2008

My Background-2


If you remember, I told you that I would give you a run-down on my grandma.
I guess the best place to start is at about 4:00 am..! That’s what time her feet usually hit the floor…! If it was in the winter time, she would light the heater so Grandpa would have a warm place to get dressed for his day’s work. Then she would have to take care of her personal business. Now the outhouse was about 100 yards from the back door, so again, if it was in the winter, she would have to bundle up for the trip. When she got back, washed up, she would turn on the oven, (They had water and gas piped in because they lived in town), Then she would start the dough for the buttermilk biscuits, putting them in a pan and in the oven they would go. Then she fried up a big platter of salt meat and a big platter of fried eggs. She always had plenty of Jelly and jam with a bowl of home churned butter, that’s where the buttermilk came from for the biscuits.
By this time the coffee was ready and she would wake everyone for breakfast and go back to finish setting the table. If you were too slow getting up, then you didn’t eat until dinner, because when Grandpa was finished eating, she was putting everything up and washing dishes. There was no snacking between meals! In addition to her house work, she took in washing and ironing for a little extra money. After she finished a load of clothes, and that was with an old wringer type washing machine. There were two rinse water tubs that she ran them through, then the wringer again and then hang them on the clothes line….! Now, by this time it’s time to start dinner, same rules apply at the dinner table as at breakfast, when Grandpa is finished, so is everyone else.…! This is where all us kids learned not to lolly gag at the dining table..! It sounds like Grandma was a mean old cuss, not true, it’s just that she had a routine and if it was interrupted it would ruin her entire day! Anyway, after dinner she would get the ironing and folding done. Between the ironing and folding, she would get supper started. At 4:00pm sharp, she would step out on the front porch and blow her police whistle, that would let Grandpa know that it was time to come eat supper…. Same rules apply there too. Now all this is done in winter. During summer, it’s a different story…! In the summer time, she had, what she called a back yard garden, well that back yard garden was more like today’s truck farm…! Between meals and house work she tended to her back yard garden. She also took in some washing and ironing if she had the garden in shape.

That my friends, was a routine day for my Grandma…!!
Nobie Mae Perry
JD

1 comment:

Robert said...

What an amazing lady your gran was.
We dont realise how well off we are today with washing machines and clothes dryers,vaccuum cleaners etc.
My gran had 12 children had 3 cleaning jobs ( one she still did until she was 78)was the local midwife and laid out the neighbours dead.
She lived to be 101 and gave up only when she went blind.
I often think of her always in a pinny cooking cleaning but always having time to give you a hug.
Smiles Robert