A List of Items in the kitchen of our Penrose home 1944-1949

As best as I can remember, here are the items that were in the kitchen of our Penrose home during the years I was there between 1944 and 1949:

• Starting on the east side of the room to the right of the door to the living room: the clock shelf, with a succession of alarm clocks, some of which worked, some of which were cussed.  The clock on the clock shelf was the monitor of our lives, time for school, time for church, time for bed.
  
  
  
• Below the clock shelf was the woodbox (blue?) with kindling and paper to start fires in the kitchen and in the living room.
• In front of the woodbox was the coal bucket.
• Somewhere in the vicinity was the shovel, alternatively called the coal shovel or the fire shovel, used for adding small lumps of coal to the stove fires or for scooping ashes out of the ash pits of the stoves to haul outside.
• Next, moving to the right, the coal stove for both cooking and heating.  That meant trying not to cook much during the summer heat. As I remember, four removable lids were to the left on the top of the stove.  To the far right was the hot water reservoir.  Under the stove top was the oven.  A shelf was two or three feet above the stove top where the matches were kept.
• 
  
  
• On the south wall were two cupboards, one with doors (to the left of Liz who is drying dishes) and one open cupboard (to the right of Louise who is washing dishes).  Mother's meager collection of pots and pans were kept in the lower cupboard on the left.  Louise and Liz are using the two battered white enamel dishpans, used for bread making and everything else, but one for washing and one for rinsing at dish time.  To Louise's immediate right is the flour bin.  And then, in retrospect, the incredibly tiny fridge that served a family of eight people.  This is the only known photo of the south side of the kitchen.
• On the west wall just around the corner from the fridge was the wash stand on which were kept two water buckets carried in from the pump 20 yards away from the kitchen.  Also on the wash stand was an enamel wash basin.  To the immediate left on the floor was the "slop" bucket, in which leftovers and waste were dumped.  I taught Steve the principles of centrifugal force in showing him how to twirl a full slop bucket (outside, of course), over one's head without spilling a drop. Mostly, we threw waste water out the west door a little way out in the yard.  A single dipper for drinking was in the water buckets.  And, yes, we all drank out of it.
• Above the wash stand was the medicine cabinet.   Dad kept his HIS brand shaving soap and Gillette razor and blue blades there, which we replenished each Christmas for 25 cents a package from Fryer's Pharmacy in Powell.  Also, we had aspirin, but very little else.
• To the right of the washstand, between the washstand and the west door, was the cream separator.  The buckets of milk were carried in from the cowbarn after milking and the milk was separated from the cream after saving out enough milk in bottles in the fridge for drinking.  The cream was dumped in the cream can which reposed behind the slop bucket, where it soured and got hauled to town once a week to sell to the creamery there, and often provided the only meager ready cash for buying the week's necessities.  The skim milk was carried back out to the barn and fed to the calves.  Dad always said the skim milk gave the calves pot bellies, so I was always reluctant to drink skim milk for many years because I thought the same fate awaited me.
• To the right of the west door out to the yard and along the north wall was the table where eight people gathered to eat.  The clock shelf is on the wall in the background and you can see the stove back and shelf.
• 
  
• 
  
  
• This concludes my inventory of the items in the very tiny kitchen in the Penrose home in which I spent my final five years at home before leaving for college.  A few years later, Dad added an electric stove and replaced the coal stoves with gas heat.  
• Additions and corrections and stories about what went on in this kitchen are welcome.

Antique Baby Spoon

This baby spoon is a far cry from the soft, padded "first" eating utensils that I have seen the babies in the family use now. So who all used this treasure?

The Real Salt Shaker

I do believe that Louise is correct in the fact that the little blue salt and pepper shakers were considered too small. I remember Dad at one meal shaking the blue one and saying forcefully that he couldn't get anything out of it and he wanted a "real" salt shaker.

Mother replaced it with this version and it was used at the table thereafter.

Wedding Present 1930

This salt and pepper set was given to our parents for a wedding present. (I do not know who the giver was. ) While they were small and required frequent refilling, the pretty blue glass earned a place of honor in the white cupboard above the refrigerator. They were used on special occasions and whenever we could talk Mother into letting us use them for a tea party.
Does anyone know any more about them?

Remember the Coal Shovel???

Sonja's father has rebuilt a sheepherder's wagon. I was delighted to see the fire shovel hanging by the little stove. (Sorry, you can only see part of it.) I'm sure that none of us were ever paddled with it - or not? Steve? I just remember scooping all the ashes that didn't fall into the ash box with it.

And then, there were the cream cans. Scooping out sour cream for the new crop of baby potatoes, or for raisin meringue pie or even for cream to churn for butter was all right, but I didn't like having to stir the sour cream - and remember the time that the cream can turned over in Grandpa's car. Mother scrubbed and scrubbed, and never quite got rid of the smell. However, having cream to sell to the creamery gave us extra cash money for things from the store like sugar and flour.

Letter From Aunt Rose

This letter is priceless. It gives the history of several treasures that are out there among us. Who has what? Pictures please. I do have the battenburg lace tablecloth and the battenburg lace collar that Grandmother Louise made, and will get them posted.

Our Love for Sewing

As I have been looking at the postings on the blog, I decided it was time to check out my cedar chest. One of the treasures I found was this pattern. Mother probably bought it on sale, but the original price was 10 cents and it cost 3 cents to have it mailed from Lovell to Garland. The date stamp is Oct 13, 1933. Mother patiently taught the four girls (Louise, Elizabeth, Judy and me - Ann) to sew on her wonderful treadle sewing machine. Could the comment on the Advance Pattern Dressmaking guide have given her encouragement on the days when we just couldn't quite figure out how to hem the dishtowels? For some who may not be able to read what it says, it goes as follows (keep in mind the year on this pattern):
"One of the extreme delights of every woman is to be well and attractively dressed. Fortunately, with modern dressmaking methods she can with little effort, construct for herself and for her family complete wardrobes at a minimum of expense."

The Children's Literature Book

Remember the times Mother would read to us from this old Children's Literature book? (Her college text) One time that I vividly remember was when we were all so ill after Christmas in 1942, with Louise, Dwight and me in bed at one time. I particularly remember Mother reading the myth of Bacchus and Philemon to us - the one where the poor couple entertained a traveling vagrant when no one else in the village would, and he rewarded them by ensuring that their pitcher pouring "milk" would never be dry. What was my astonishment in 6th grade when we read the myths, to discover that the pitcher was really a wine pitcher. I suppose that grape juice would have more nearly fit what we knew about what people drank. (Being of a romantic nature, my favorite story was "Beauty and the Beast".) Be sure to click on the text page, so that you can read the story that is there.

Mom's woodchip carved clock shelf

This clock shelf was made by our mother about 1931 or 1932. Our dad had started to experiment with various kinds of wood craft and Mom wanted to try something herself. This clock shelf became one of the icons of our home for over six decades, hanging on the wall near the kitchen stove. A succession of clocks came and went from the little shelf, but, together, they all marked the passage of time that recorded the history of our family. Since only one of us can keep the shelf at one point in time, posting the photo on this blog provides a means for all of us to remember it and the role it played in our lives.