Posted by Dinah on November 30, 2008, at 10:19:45
In reply to Re: too grateful » fayeroe, posted by seldomseen on November 30, 2008, at 9:33:56
My grandparents had a farm. My grandma never did like the newfangled stove her kids bought her and continued to cook on her wood stove. The bread was incredible. She did start using the new washer her kids got her. Drying was on the line. But she kept the old one too. It was some sort of tub with what looked like a meat grinder in it? I'm sure it wasn't a meat grinder.
They milked their own cows, and provided their own beef. I never much liked that the boy babies were destined for dinner. We also ate my bunny rabbit. And the chickens of course provided eggs and tasty chicken soup. Grandma chopped off their heads and plucked them herself. I distinctly remember her churning butter, though I don't think she did that regularly. Hard work, churning butter. I never really have liked the stuff they pass for milk in the grocery stores. Grandma's unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk, partially frozen, and with thick cream taking up half the bottle. That was milk. She canned too, of course. And kept her own vegetable garden.
Grandpa still drove the car my mother left their when she left to get married. Grandma's sewing machine was the sort with foot pedals. Loved that sewing machine. I don't think grandma had more than a few dresses. One Sunday best. Grandpa too.
I do know it can be done. And perhaps if I lived in northern climes it wouldn't seem nearly as unpleasant to me. Although... I seem to recall a lot of city slicker comments even back then. Apparently even at two or three, I could be a bit persnickety. I was there for two years, I loved my grandma to pieces, and of course I was way too young to help out in any meaningful way. The chickens scared me, so I didn't even gather eggs if I could help it. I named the cows, which annoyed Grandpa no end. I enjoyed having him squirt milk straight into my mouth, even though I didn't like warm milk. Most of the farm was off limits to a preschooler. I loved the snow. It was a different sort of heat there, and even when I went back to visit when I was older, I didn't mind the lack of an air conditioner.
I can't say I'd enjoy the life. But at least it wasn't hot there. I can't take the heat. Even when I was little, I was the kid who shed my coat and frolicked in cold waves, and sunk into torpor in the summer. Now I'm older, and fatter, I can't take the heat at all. To me, if the a/c isn't on, the house is broken and unusable. Even then, it's not enough in the summer, even with ceiling fans added. The inventor of air conditioning is on each year's Thanksgiving list.
I'd have to become a vegetarian too. No way am I chopping off chicken heads or killing boy calves or eating bunnies.
The ancestors on my mother's side were pioneers. I must take after daddy's side in that.
poster:Dinah
thread:865801
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20081115/msgs/865886.html