Where does our time go? Someone once said that the poor man and the rich man both have 24 hours in a day...time is the great equalizer. Each person is given 24 hours...it is what we do with it that sets us apart. So often I get caught up in a hectic schedule and before I know it, it is time to go to bed...what did I accomplish during the day? If I am honest with myself, I would have "more time" if I managed it better. Ralph Gregory speaks of the memory of a hot breakfasts prepared by the time he got up in the mornings...this was prepared by those who had none of the "time saving" conveniences of today. Maybe "time savers" only give us more time to waste. I am speaking to myself here.

"Remembering Breakfast" from Ralph's book above.

"Grandma was frying sausage and eggs. Biscuits she had made and set aside. Coffee was near to boil and the big table in the kitchen, covered with oil cloth was set with tableware. I remember vividly the wooden handled forks and the Meakin china. (Meakin China was hyperlinked by me for clarification). Some of the plates were cracked. When all but baby mouths came to feed, we sat down. Most of the children sat on a bench with their backs to the east wall and window. Some egg shells were put in the coffee to help settle the grounds. (again hyperlinked by me). Adults would drink the coffee and children were given milk.

After breakfast we dressed in heavy clothes and stocking caps and got into the snow. Some children began immediately making snowballs and throwing them at somebody. The older boys went for the homemade sleds of wood. We had skis made of barrel staves. Few families farming could afford "store" sleds, but some had large sleds used for farm work and horse power to pull them. With these big sleds and homemade "bob" sleds we had good sleighing. ................

In 1912 there was at Washington a heavy snow and drifts of snow to six feet deep. The river froze solid and thick. A few horses and wagons went across the ice and a Ford car was driven over. I saw some men cutting ice, pulling it from the river and hauling it away.....With horses, ropes and tongs they easily brought the ice out of the river and up a slide into a wagon. I think these men were getting ice to store and sell. Some farmers also cut ice in the river or from the creeks near their homes.

Ice compartments were in the cellars of some houses. The Owens house in town had one. I remember a crude ice house in the country made in the side of a hill. Wheat and oat straw were used for insulation. My folks in town and on farms near town bought ice from Busch's Brewery. "


Next we will see how "courting" took place last century.