This 'n That...

It's a cold and rainy day here in New England, but better than snow. Although I love snow, we've had a wonderful snowy December and January and I'm ready for spring. Time to peruse the seed catalogs and dream.

Adriana and I have been making dog-bone treats for her 'wholesale business'. We are using a wonderful recipe found on-line that includes cornmeal. Now, you folks in the south may not be seeing what we're seeing up here, but cornmeal is getting "scarcer than hen's teeth". When I can find it, it's packed only in 1 and 2 lb packages and costs over $1.00 per pound. I've checked on-line for bulk suppliers and find the same $ there. In the past I've always bought 5 lb bags that are not found at all anymore. Cornbread and muffins have always been a favorite of mine, maybe now only a special treat.

While re-organizing a bedroom drawer recently, I found my old (50s) hankies. Many have crocheted or tatted edgings, some embroidered, some of beautiful floral prints, and all still smelling sweetly of the perfume that we always dropped onto one before tucking it into a purse or pocket. I was reminiscing again of the things that have changed, for we used these lovely linen and fine cotton hankies before "Kleenex" was the norm. In fact, as a small child, I learned how to iron by ironing hankies. I've seen several ways to preserve these relics, usually in quilts or pillows, and now must think of how I want to preserve these little trinkets of my childhood. Currently, they are back in the drawer, still with their sweet smell.

That brings me to think on some other past customs gone forever. One is a 'fire-barrel'. Do any of our kids and grandkids know what that is?

Before 'going green' and 're-cycling' were politically correct phrases, our families engaged in much of these practices. I'm referring to life in the 40s and 50s. Our groceries were not packaged in plastic, or, in may cases, packaged at all. Vegetables were just there to be picked up, not already wrapped in plastic as are carrots, peppers, celery, tomatoes, potatoes and lettuces today. Milk was delivered in glass returnable bottles, cheese was bought in bulk, sliced from a wheel and wrapped in butchers paper. The butcher cut meat to order and again wrapped it in butchers paper. Flour and sugar were sold in muslin sacks, many of which were bleached and turned into dish towels, or made into under clothes for children. And the grocery store was teeny, compared to the mega-stores today. Choices were limited, most folks grew many of their vegetables and fruits and canned them for winter. (My mother and grandmother canned hundreds of quarts of fruits and vegetables every summer). We ate well and simply.Mailbox wasn't littered with unwanted advertising. In fact, many a day there was no mail to be collected. You might get a letter from a distant relative, one or two magazines (Saturday Evening Post and Farm Journal) and an occasional bill (usually just the telephone and electric bills)When Joyce and I walk each morning, I am appalled by the vast collections of wasted cast-off fast-food containers and coffee cups along the side of the roads. (We've been collecting them for the trash pick-up). Years ago, MacDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts wasn't. Folks didn't have access to the cardboard food containers that now litter our roadways.

Oh, yes. That 'fire-barrel'? It was a steel drum (formerly oil drum) standing on end, with top removed, that almost everyone I knew had in their backyard. Dad punctured a few small holes near the bottom (for air). We burned the few papers (remember that meat and cheese was wrapped in paper) that needed disposal. There just wasn't much else to 'dispose'. The old adage that our mothers and grandmothers lived by, one out of their 'depression era' youth, was "Use it up, make it do, or do without". Our world has changed, and I think much of this is impractical today. Plastic has taken over our lives.