From: Marlena
DearMYRTLE,
I have a two-piece cast iron ruffler. The top part is curved and fluted,
whereas the bottom is flat and fluted. One heated it on the coal or wood
stove and then put a piece of material between the two halves, rolled the
top over the bottom and Voila! ruffles on your clothes. I also have the
pieces of a still my grandmother-in-law used to make whiskey during
prohibition, but we won't go into that too deeply. And a brush cut and
curved to fit into a cream separator from the days when people milked more
or less by hand. And a wooden hay fork with a very long handle to put hay
on a wagon before the days of balers. And a milk can from the days before
bulk tanks. And last of all, 2 very sharp camel nose plugs, for guiding
said camel when one is riding it.
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From: DeLoris
DearMYRTLE,
As a child I churned many churn s full of butter. I am 74 years old and I
was born and raised on a farm, where if one did not work, one did not eat.
We did not have electric until I was 16 years old. I loved my farm life.
Keep your column coming, it is salve to my soul.
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From:
EGood64137@aol.com
DearMYRTLE,
Old "STUFF" -- The All-Bran muffin recipe on the back of the box of
Kellogg's(?) All Bran. My chore was to make muffins each week to go with
Saturday's home baked beans and brown bread! The trigger-like shifting
gear on the steering wheel of the 1936 Terraplane automobile. The butter
churn, of course. The "ski-skates" which were about 20 or 30 inches long
that would strap onto your shoes so you could ski on the sidewalk in the
winter. Remember the rabbit-skin mittens? Guess you can tell, I grew up in
the cold northeast part of the country! -- Good luck with your list, there
are bound to be many memories stirred at your request.
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From: Dolly
DearMYRTLE,
I enjoyed this column so much! (Although we live in Maryland now, we are
Montanans. And very familiar with s**w and i*e.) No household implements
have been passed down, sorry to say. Mementoes? My granddaughter probably
still has doll clothes made from flour sacks about 1944. Interesting
memories? On a rural farm, I do remember my mother ironing clothes with a
heavy iron (made of iron!) heated on the wood stove, and watching her
refill the kerosene lanterns. But thousands of folks my age will have
those same memories. Years ago, I bought a reproduction 1897 Sears,
Roebuck catalog. It's fascinating to browse -- gift idea for your favorite
genealogist?
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From:
Jknitl@aol.com
DearMYRTLE,
LOL There are a plethora of items this latest generation can't even
fathom. Like, why would one ever watch a black and white TV. Many don't
know what a 5 and 1/4 inch floppy disk is, and soon won't know why we had
the smaller floppies.
How about a hand cranked meat grinder? Or a
pastry cutter? A meat cleaver? I'll bet I have more things in the kitchen
the kids don't recognize as having any purpose than things they do
recognize. If it can't be nuked, why would you want it? Yet I tossed out
an old microwave popcorn popper the other day and was asked what it was.
A zillion and one things more I could list,
but I'm tired of typing!
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From: Terry
DearMYRTLE,
I loved your story. Just think, you will be ready to go to Alberta
[Canada] once you go through boot camp in northern Utah. We had a high
school buddy and family that lived across the tracks on a hill in the
1950s, mid century past. They had milk cows and hogs back then. They lived
in a wood boarded rental house that had one layer of lumber, no inside
walls covering and a pot-belly stove in the middle of the house/living
room. That was a warm spot to churn the butter in, as the cold wind
whistled through the wall, as they were living on the top of a
north-facing hill.
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From: Cis1052@aol.com
DearMYRTLE,
I do love the ideas that you throw out and we respond to. Thanks for
including us in your quests. Happy Thanksgiving. My favorite is the small
corn cobs that were used in the outhouses. And you know what for.
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From: Mary Finley
DearMYRTLE,
Alas! Opportunity passed me by in an antique shop about five years ago. My
beloved father and his father before him had an ice business. In that shop
sat ICE TONGS, not the bitty tongs in an ice bucket, but those big black
iron tongs that gripped [huge] blocks of ice. I said "That's not an
antique"! (Translated... "I remember Daddy's ice tongs very well, and
anything I remember CAN'T be an antique!") I would love to borrow
Hermione's "Time Turner" to purchase those ice tongs. |
