Grandma Rita's Ramblings
:Yes, it’s true! Today I’m 84! I’m actually feeling great! Other than cataracts, profound deafness and a bum knee, I haven’t a thing wrong with me!
I attribute being able to make it this far because my Creator God has allowed me soooooo many wonderful blessings. One blessing is that I owe my good health to my parents. I know, I’ll be the first to admit that in some ways they were not perfect, and when the kids get together sometimes we tend to be quick to point out these imperfections! Yeah, I’ve been guilty. I would guess most offspring would like to point out the dumb things their parents did. There seems to be less of that once we become parents.
Some in our day would frown on our “unhealthy eating habits.” In the summer, almost every day we had fried chicken fried in lard. I drank lots of unpasteurized whole milk and had thick unpasteurized cream on my oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast. Whipped cream cakes and homemade ice cream made with raw eggs and cream were often served on Sundays or Holidays. Garden vegetables including corn on the cob were seasoned with butter and salt.
In the winter we enjoyed pork sausage, pork chops, pork roast, and many times accompanied with fried potatoes also fried in lard!! :0) In case you are wondering, my parents both lived to be 90 and 94.
I must admit that my parents were abusive! They expected me to work when I wasn‘t attending school. Twice a day I helped with the milking, gathered coal and corn cobs for heating purposes, gathered the eggs from the henhouse, and other chores that were typical to farm life. In the summer I learned to run the old John Deere and Chevrolet truck. I picked up milo and/or corn by hand and threw in the wagon pulled by a team of horses. I helped in the wheat harvest,--I learned to kill chickens and cut them up etc, etc. It was all tough work but the strange part was that I didn’t realize how mistreated I was!
Instead of a proper education, I had to go to a one room school house where the teacher taught all eight grades! There were very few books-the bare minimum texts. The only reason I learned anything at all was that I heard it all over and over again.
I’m guessing by now you are feeling real sorry for me and are wondering how I ever made it to adult life! The hardest part was getting through those cold Nebraska winters . The outhouse was some distance away and sometimes we walked through snow banks to get there. We had no central heating--rather a pot bellied stove and wood and coal was used for the oven range for cooking. And no electricity!! Think of that!-and mark down in one day how often you use electricity. We had only gas or kerosene lamps! And the hardest was walking to school 1 ½ miles in the snow banks!
I must tell you that it’s a wonder my lungs are in good shape after living through the dust storms of the 1930’s in NE. Depression? I laugh to hear the word used so flippantly as none can compare to the 30‘s. Being quite young, the hardest part was seldom getting a nickel for an ice cream cone! When I did, it was such a special treat.
Yes, when I think about it, -----it’s quite amazing that I’m here to tell about it!
