A Mother's Everyday Care and Treasured Handwork

The second son. The third child.

I REMEMBER MOM. Actually, I didn’t realize or appreciate it at the time, but our mom was truly extraordinary. Just having seven kids seems an impossible task. But with the help of her dad, Iris, and the neighbors, she did a great job of raising us kids. When you think of the cooking, sewing, and cleaning and all the other things she did, it’s just amazing. Like the early years at the little four-room house on 39th Street with no bathroom. How did we all keep clean? I remember the round galvanized tub on the kitchen floor for Saturday night baths. We all hoped the kid who bathed in the tub before we did didn’t pee. And, that awful out house—yuk! Mom always sent me off to school in clean clothes and with a good breakfast of a peanut butter sandwich dunked in cocoa and a special lunch in a brown paper bag. (After lunch the brown bag was folded up, tucked in a pocket to be used again and again.) Mom always made me an angel food cake for my birthday. I remember it had thirteen eggs in it. The garden was a huge annual undertaking. Rows and rows of tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, and corn. There were watermelons, and cantaloupe. (We called them muskmelons.) The pumpkins and cucumbers were planted in little hills. Then the harvest and all the canning Mom did. It’s always hot that time of year, so canning was a real chore. What was it… two-hundred jars of tomatoes and pickles? Mom sent me out to pick the beans one day. When I was done she asked me, “Did you do a good job picking?” I said, “Yes.” Then she took the bucket and went down the row and picked three more buckets. She never said a word. A good lesson. With all the work Mom had to do she still found time to crochet those beautiful doilies. I still have and treasure several of them. Mom also became a great crafter. Her Christmas ornament balls were the greatest. I have forty or fifty and my boys, Steve and Brian, have some, too. I still display and show them off each holiday. Also, I display the Mr. and Mrs. Santa dolls with the velvet clothes and the wire glasses. I know we all have them, but I ended up with two sets. (Eat your hearts out, guys!) It’s just mind-boggling what our mother accomplished in her lifetime. Too bad moms can’t live forever.

MOM’S CANNING

Every year, Mom put up the produce from our big garden and orchard. We had hundreds of Mason or Ball jars with glass -lined lids that she used year after year after year. Grandpa Williams was Mom’s biggest helper in canning season—Iris, too. Sometimes the jelly, which got used up first, would be sealed into old jelly glasses with only a thin layer of melted paraffin, which we all loved to chew on. Sometimes she put waxed paper covers on the jelly jars with a rubber band. The basement was lined with shelves that Dad built like library stacks. Sometimes something would go bad and explode—usually peas. And if something got a little moldy on top Mom would just scrap it off and we’d just eat the rest. Iris remembers these canned items from the early years: Catsup, cooked for hours. Pork. It was cut into small pieces and cooked with spices and packed in quart jars. When it was heated up to be eaten, it made a nice gravy. Pepper hash made of red and green bell peppers, onion, peppercorns. Cabbage and cucumber relish. Bernie remembered that, in the late fall, Mom would fry up some pork sausage and sage patties. When they were cool, she put them into a gray crock with blue hunting scenes on it (Bernie still has it) and then covered them with pork grease which would solidify. The crock was kept on the cold porch where the patties would keep for months. These were made strictly as a delicacy for Grandpa Williams, who ate them cold directly from the grease.