Easter at the Farm

The Lenten Season brings to mind Easter at the Farm. I have many memories of the Saturday before Easter Sunday when we would be so excited about the egg coloring process. Early in the morning mama would get out one of her largest pots and fill it with several dozen eggs to be boiled. It seemed it took forever for the pot to begin boiling and then boil long enough to cook the eggs. Mama would get the special Easter Egg Coloring Packet that had little "tablets" of different colors. Cups were set out for each color and the little tablets were dissolved in hot water with a little vinegar added if my memory serves me right. In the packet was little transparent papers with different designs on them. After putting the eggs in the color cup and turning them until they acquired the shade you wanted, you then applied the design and let it dry. If you could "hold your mouth right" the design usually turned out as you expected. After we were finished dying the eggs mama would place them in a large basket or bowl and I thought that was such a beautiful sight.

After coloring the eggs, the next chore on the list was to make a "rabbit's nest" for the Easter Bunny to put your Easter surprise in. This required finding just the perfect spot on the lawn, or yard, as it was called then. Next you had to dig a hole and then fill it with grass clippings to make the nest. You had to refrain from looking out the window to see if the Easter Bunny had come because just like Santa, the bunny would not come if you were looking. You always hoped for one of those large chocolate bunnies or a bag of jelly beans.

One of the things I enjoyed on Easter was watching the men participate in their Egg Fights. The object was to take the pointed end of the egg and tap it against your opponent's egg hoping your egg would not crack, if so, you were the loser. The winner was the one that wound up with the most uncracked eggs. One good thing about the cracked eggs was that you could eat those or mama could make Deviled Eggs out of them. It seems there was always a "gentleman" in the game that would use an egg other than a hen egg to try to be the winner and I did not think that was fair.

I always looked forward to Easter Dinner (it was not lunch back then). Mama, my sisters and sisters-in-laws always put a lot of effort into making sure there was plenty to eat. Mama usually fixed fried chicken, some of the best you have ever eaten fried in her woodstove oven and then made gravy in the pan from the drippings.

She would also cook a hen and either make dumplings or white gravy to go with that because it could be stretched to go a long way to feed the large family that would come home for Easter. In fact, most of the family that lived near the homeplace came each Sunday for dinner and mama had a way of making sure she had enough to feed everyone, even if they brought guests with them. It still amazes me how she was able to do that.

Easter usually meant you would get something new for Spring, for me it was a new dress or a new pair of Sunday shoes. I loved going to church on Easter, not only to hear the Easter Story but to see everyone dressed up in their new clothes, the ladies would be wearing the Easter hats, white gloves and corsages. Sometimes the men had a new suit or tie, and they too wore hats. I remember the first Easter after I finished school and started working I bought my brothers, Ken and Jerry, a pink shirt and blue pants for Easter and I thought they looked so good in them. We have pictures of them in that outfit. Easter Sunday was usually the time when the Youth would join the church and that was a very special time.

One special memory of Easter that comes to my mind is when my sister, Ethel, loaded up the children on the back of daddy's farm truck and took us up in country to Macedonia Church for an Easter Egg Hunt. Other adults followed behind in their cars.

The church was special to the family because that was where my mama's mother was buried and we got to visit her gravesite. Ethel would often load up the children and take us on a special trip to buy a "dope" (usually Orange Crush) or a Popsicle and we looked forward to those.

I hope by sharing my memories it will bring many fond memories to you. I am looking forward to going to visit the homeplace to see what the new owners have done in the way of restoring it, I have heard it is looking great and they plan to have an Open House upon completion and invite the Houser Family. I look forward to seeing the upgrades but also hope my memory will allow me to go back in time to see and feel the warmth and love of family that I did growing up there.

Winter On The Farm

The snow, ice and freezing temperatures remind me of times on the farm growing up. The first thing that comes to mind is having to go out on a very cold morning and fix the strainer for straining the milk that my brothers were out at the barn milking from the cows. My hands would stick to the aluminium strainer and it felt as if I was pulling the skin off when I tried to get them unstuck. After the milk was strained into the milk can to be taken out to the road as we went to school I had to go back out in that cold and wash the strainer and milk buckets to prepare for the evening milking. Mama used the money from selling milk to Coble Dairy to help buy groceries and a few other necessary items. She bought my high school class ring with one of her checks and I think of that every time I see that ring in my jewel box.

Some mornings when we got up and went into the kitchen to start a fire in the wood stove to prepare breakfast the water would be frozen in the water bucket and the frost on the windows would be turned to ice. Once the fire was going it would soon be nice and cozy and eating hot milk gravy over rice with fat back or sausage warmed you up on the inside. Occasionally daddy would let us have "coffee soup". It was made from toasting some of mama's biscuits until there were crisp, adding sugar and pouring coffee over them. It was a special treat and made you feel almost grown up as children were not allowed to have coffee.

There was no heat in the upstairs bedrooms and on cold winter nights mama would let us bring a blanket down and hold it next to the heater to warm it and then we would fly up the steps as fast as we could and get into bed with that warm blanket wrapped around us. The worst part on a cold night was if you had to sleep with someone who had "an accident".

When it snowed we did not have sleds so we improvised. Some of my brother's friends used to pull me around in the snow in a scoop shovel and it was so much fun going down that big hill behind the barn. I remember in particular one time when Carol Ritchie pulled me around and gave me the best ride.

Another thing we loved to do when it snowed or when the ponds were frozen over was to get with the Cody children and others in the neighborhood and go exploring on Cindy Hill. We would stay out for hours at a time skating on the frozen ponds created when the river got out and sometimes the ice was thin and you would go through and that was no fun at all.

We had lots of chores to do when we would get home from school. Fresh cold water had to be drawn to put in the milk tubs to keep the milk from souring, kindling had to be cut to start the fires and lots of wood brought in for the woodstove in the kitchen and the heater in the den, the cows had to be milked and all the animals fed.

During the winter months Charlie used to have his friends come over and they would pick their musical instruments and sing at night. We would sit around the heater and listen while we ate parched peanuts and it was a great family time.