Mother's Day Part 2

Several years ago when I lived in Kirksville, MO and I was a (new) stay home mom to 1 child and I lived in a tiny apartment that took 2 minutes to clean, I found myself with extra time on my hands. So, one day I mailed (not even email!) my Aunt Dolores some questions about what life was like when she was a child. Here are some of her responses:

Question:

What meal do yo remember your mother cooking most often? Did you like it?

Our favorite meal that Mama cooked was homemade chicken and noodles. She made it all from scratch. I tried to learn her noodle recipe but you had to have a certain pan and certain size "handfuls". It was her own recipe and did you use precise measurements. She would make all the noodles for Sunday dinner, and leave them on the stove after dinner, and we would go back all day and get more noodles. No noodles have ever tasted the same.

She also made wonderful homemade bread.

Question:

What did you and your sister fight about the most?

Well, I just knew that NanNell was the most spoiled brat in the world, and she bugged me to death. Sharing a room with a sister 9 years younger is really a treat. She would get in all my stuff, dress up in my clothes, wear my lipstick, and--read my letters from my boyfriends. Before she learned to read, she took them to Daddy and had him read them to her. I was always wanting to take the car and drive around on Sundays, and she would beg Mama and Daddy to let her go with me. She was all ears, and repeated everything she heard my friends and me say. She was the worst!! Because she was the baby, she would bawl and whine if I even looked at her, and Mama and Daddy would take her part because she was little.

Tell me some good advice that your mother (Grandma Ethel) gave you:

Mama used to always say "Get up and shake the stink off and you'll feel better".

That meant to get out of bed, wash your face and brush your teeth, and get cleaned up and you would feel better--and it is true. Mama also told me to "never learn how to milk the cow". She knew if I did, that Daddy would know I could do it so he would not bother to come home and do it and it would be my responsibility. Well, I didn't learn how to milk the cow, literally, but figuratively I forgot her advise. I learned how to run the lawn mower, the snow blower, the edger, and do all kinds of things that I wouldn't have had to do if I had only remembered, "don't learn to milk a cow."

Share a memory of going to church. Did your family go together?

Going to Church was weird in Circleville in the old days. We didn't go together as families as we do now. Sacrament Meeting was in the afternoon at 2. Then later changed to 7 in the evening. We would go and sit with our friends. Mostly the women went to church during those years. When I was little I went alone, then later I took NanNell. Sometimes I would ride my bike and pump her on the back fender. During my high school days, Mama and Daddy started to go. Daddy was always the first one ready, and he would announce that "this bus is leaving in five minutes." Then he would go out and get the car and pull up out in front and honk at us. I usually went to Church brushing my hair and putting on my lipstick. When Daddy was Sunday School Superintendent and Mama was Jr. Sunday School Coordinator, the phone would ring all morning, with people calling to ask questions or say that they would not be there and couldn't teach their class.