More From the Daltons...

I have some more questions and answers from Aunt Dolores...

(2/1/2001)

foods...Another thing Grandma Ethel made was good bread. Again, no recipe and a certain size pan, etc. Often she would make bread on "wash day", Monday , in those days and for lunch we would have "fry bread". She would take a handful of bread dough, pull it apart, and fry it. We would call them scones now, but it was "fry bread" in those days. It was wonderful. She also made wonderful cakes, and she made good candy. She hated to make cookies and rarely made them. She said cookies took forever to bake and get done with, and the kitchen was a mess all day.

Family Home Evening?? Heavens, no. We had never even heard of it when I was growing up. The closest thing to Family Home Evening was watching "The Lawrence Welk Show" (Also, realize that this was after I was grown up and left home. When I left home at age 20 to come to Salt Lake, we didn't have TV yet in Circleville.

More advice from Grandma Ethel..."Let your head save your feet" In other words, organize. I still think of that when I come upstairs for two things and only remember to take one thing back down.

I think my father's best traits were his honesty and his work ethic. He was very honest, and very hard working. Also, he was very clean. he kept himself and his home and yard immaculate. He was very proud of having the greenest lawn in Circleville. Each spring about February, he would spread manure (he liked chicken manure best) all over the grass and it would be very green by March.

Mama was immaculately clean, and she couldn't stand dirty windows. She was always washing her windows, especially the glass in the front storm door. When we ate dinner, half the time she would clean up the table before we were through eating. Daddy used to say that Mama threw the paper away before he could even read it. Mama was really fussy about how her bed was made. She couldn't stand an unmade bed, and it had to be made perfectly. Mama was also immaculate with herself. She was always in nice, clean clothes, would never, never go around in her housecoat (unlike her daughters!). She always looked nice. She was always positive, up-beat, and good natured. She rarely complained, and never said she didn't feel good. When she was about 66, she fell and broke both her wrists. She was standing on the edge of the ditch bank, and slid on the grass. She put both arms behind her to catch herself, and broke both wrists. She was so independent that it was hard to help her. Daddy had to make the bed every morning and he said he about wore himself out, running back and forth around the bed, getting it made to suit her. She really had a hard time, depending on someone else to do the things she couldn't do for herself.

(This is a picture of me on the tire swing in the back yard in Circleville)