Journaling:
My Dad and I were sitting in Cracker Barrel the other day and he points to this stove on a shelf (you know how they have all sorts of memorabilia on the walls). He says that his momma used to cook on a stove exactly like that, except with 3 burners. And she had a little oven she would put over the burners to cook her biscuits. Its a kerosene stove, he says. I know that because I had to go every day to get a gallon of kerosene for the stove and it cost 16 cents. I, of course, was dumb-founded! Then he proceeded to tell me that his momma ran her whole household on$15 a week! That would cover the light bill, water bill, groceries, kerosene and the ice man, who delivered twice a week and it cost 50 cents for a 50 lb. block. Since we were talking about food, I asked him what he remembered as one of his favorite foods to eat. He said, Momma and Daddy would go on Saturdays walking at 9:00 to the A&P and come back with 8-10 bags of groceries. Daddy would have bought 2 loaves of white bread, some sort of cold cut, a little jar of mayonaise,and a little jar of mustard. We were allowed to have as many sandwiches as we wanted til it was all gone. It was a real treat at the time! Now this was around 1950-1955. His dad made $40 a week, give or take. Their house rent was $15 a month. Wow! Some say weve made progress, I just dont know. I do know that my dad looks back on that with fond memories, he wasnt scarred from it by any means! Just as I wasnt from being made to drink out of the water hose, get up and change one of the 3 channels we had on our TV (which we got when I was 5, AFTER I had learned to read), and do chores around the house because it was expected, not because you got an allowance. I asked my dad one final thing: Was the food his mom cooked on the stove any good? He laughed and said, She could make a buzzard taste good! You know, somehow I knew that would be the answer!
Credits:
KB Glamtidings plain paper