Sunday (yesterday) after church and "brunch" at home, we took a pail of plums to Jeff and Sandy at the farm. We had such a good time visiting them; when we were ready to leave Jeff says, "I have something to give you, if you promise to share it with others." And I said, Well, it depends on what it is.........So he took me to the back room of the garage, and there on a shelf was my grandad's old cream can with "G. Bolenske" painted on it, just like it was years ago.......My, oh, my.......what a bunch of warm, wonderful memories that old cream can brought back......I was very touched! In the can was some old, homemade laundry soap. I don't ever remember Gramma making soap, but Jeff said he remembers Lillian making some.......Anyway, I am so excited to have this old cream can. It brought back the memories I have of watching Grandad milk on his three-legged stool, with his head against the cow's warm side, the sound of the milk hitting the bucket, and how fast he milked, striping the teat at the end with his two stubs of a finger. And the warm, dark, cozy feeling in that old barn.. And how he carried the warm, foaming bucket of milk to the porch, where he poured it into the separator...the cream going into the cream can to take to the Laurel Creamery......The Creamery was next to the Lutheran church we attended, and has a particular clean, moist smell to it when you entered. Later, we would have to pick up the cream can and the cream check at the Creamery. I also remember the time Dandy let me "try" to milk Old Roan, the tamest cow, whose huge udders would just drip with milk because they were so full.......I still remember how weird, and rough those udders felt, and really how difficult it was to get the milk to start flowing.......
Anyway what a special gift that was......It is rather amazing because Gramma and Dandy moved into Laurel, you know, and somehow that old cream can was saved......probably by Dandy.....because Gramma was pretty good about cleaning useless items out...... !
3 comments:
Hey Wendy,
I don't know if you ever read fiction, but this past week I've been reading these books by a guy that Glen works for, Gary Slaughter. It's set in the last year of WW2, and it's set in Riverton, Michigan. It's loosely based on Gary's life, but it's just the daily adventures and life of two ten year old boys. It's all about small town and farm life. You might really like them.
They're called Cottonwood Summer, Cottonwood Fall, and Cottonwood Winter. What you just wrote reminded me of exactly the feel of these books, so if you're ever just needing a fun, but really interesting read, you might just really enjoy those.
I meant to add that it goes into a lot of detail about how the farm was meant to completely sustain their families, and a lot of detail about how various things were done. All in story form of this ten year old boy and his friend helping out his grandparents. And how everyone in the town worked together to look out and help everyone. Raising and selling livestock, gardening, canning, war time efforts, ten year old boy adventures "fighting the nazis," etc.
i can assure you your mom is wrong. i have never made soap. ;)
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