Sunday Pies, Shared Chicken, and the Funnies

Sundays were reserved for family. Mom got up at the crack of dawn and started baking the pies for dinner using pure lard for a flaky crust. Then she would make crescent rolls and cinnamon rolls and set them out to rise. One of my favorite Sunday meals was Swiss steak and mashed potatoes. Mom took a large thick round steak and pounded flour into it with a meat mallet to make it tender. About the time she finished pounding, I would awaken to the wonderful aroma of pies cooling, rolls baking and Swiss steak simmering on the stove. Another Sunday favorite was fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. I always tell the story that we were so poor we had to share one chicken among the ten of us. (Surely, we really had at least two chickens!) Mom always ate the wings and Dad ate the back, the liver and gizzards. I know they saved the meatiest pieces for us kids, but actually, today I find I enjoy the wings the most. So maybe Mom really did get the best part of the chicken. We ate right at noon on Sunday. There were always lots of dishes to do after these big Sunday meals. It was up to us girls to help Mom do them, but usually Barb would run over to Margie’s house to play and Diana would pretend she had to go to the bathroom, lock herself in, and sit there reading a book until the dishes were done. That left me and Dee doing the dishes while Bob stood there and tormented us by snapping towels at us. After the dishes were done we would read the Sunday paper Dad picked up in town. I loved the funnies.