Mom's ice cream

Our days are getting warmer and all too soon we will be be sweltering in the hot days of summer. I am not a warm weather person, never have been and never will be. Our family like so many others would get out the old crank ice cream freezer frequently-- to enjoy homemade ice cream. Every child anxiously awaited to see if they would be the one to get to sit on the top of the ice cream freezer...After Mom had filled the freezer with the ice cream mixture, she put it inside of the wooden freezer bucket-placed the crank on it than put the ice and ice cream salt all around the bucket--alternating the ice & salt. The final step was folding a towel & placing it on top of the freezer..Now this was the place that EVERY CHILD wanted to be... it really cooled you off--also gave you the coldest bottom north of the Brazos. The job of turning the crank wasn't near as much fun, in fact as the cream hardened, the cranking became very hard to turn.
We had some peach trees and Mom was always making peach cobbler or peach fried pies to go with the ice cream. Sometimes she sliced the peaches, sprinkled some sugar over the fruit and we had it as a topping....That was my favorite.
Mom's ice cream recipe is not a real rich tasting cream but it is still our favorite-- in later years she started making a much richer ice cream I will post later---but for today, go get your ice cream freezer and lets "crank up" some of Mom's old fashioned ice cream ==
6 eggs-- beat good
3 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 can pet milk
Homogenized milk
Dash of vanilla--(I use 1 tsp.)
After mixing all of the above real good, pour the mixture into the freezer can- place the can into your freezer bucket. Finish filling the freezer can with homogenized milk..Put the lid on, attach the crank---now you are into business!! If there is a little one around, slap a towel on top and place your little sweetie pie on top -- don't forget while you are cranking be sure to tell them a story of the good ole days.....( I am well aware that probably NONE of you have a crank freezer but it may be a good investment--for you & for the lucky child that will have the memory .)

Storm cellars & Bad Clouds

If there is ever a bad storm cloud brewing on the horizon, It has my undivided attention. I hold a very heavy respect for storms and what damage they can do. In the old days most everyone had a storm cellar and it was always near the house, believe me when a bad storm hit you didn't want to go walking half of a mile to the cellar. People didn't call them storms as much as they were referred to as "bad clouds". The cellars were just dug by hand and most would be 6 feet deep or so, cross ties or some sort of timber would be the ceiling then of course the dirt piled on top of that. I remember our cellar door had a rope hanging down on the inside and while we where inside of the cellar during a bad cloud Daddy would sit on the bottom step and hold on to the rope to keep the door from blowing open. Many times I remember the winds being so strong he would brace his feet across the steps and hold on with both hands. Pretty scary, huh?? Mom would store her canned vegetables down in the cellar, there was a lantern down there & maybe a chair or 2. As we would be heading out the door for the cellar Mom would grab a couple of quilts for us to use as pallets.I remember one time we had gone to the cellar and she threw the quilts down on the floor before Daddy got the lantern lit--we were laying there- think it was Mickey,Mike ,Bev and myself on the quilt and Mike (he was very young)told Mom that something was wiggling under his back...I assure you a bolt of lighting couldn't have struck any of us we were moving sooo fast clearing away from the quilt. Unfortunately in a small cellar you just can't go very far--Daddy let go of the door & jerked the quilt up with one hand and used the old shovel he kept down there to club the BIG RATTLESNAKE to death. It was quite exciting, Mom hollering for Daddy to be careful,yelling for us to stay out of the way (HA, no problem there) the kids crying, the ole snake doing his rattling number VERY loud--a tornado could been on top of us and we wouldn't have heard it!! We spent many a night in our old storm cellar "riding out" bad clouds, and not one good memory do I have of those good ole days. First of all its just plain spooky being under the ground, BUT there was a time that many of us would have kissed the dirt floor of a cellar if we could have only been in one. You want to hear about a tornado??Well I have a tale for you!!Tomorrow--

Family time

I am the first to admit that the comforts of our homes today far exceed what we had in our homes in the good ole days --things like air conditioning--no longer necessary to grab your quilt and go looking for the coolest place to make your pallet for the night. Electric dishwashers have to be the best invention EVER--no more fussing whose turn it is to wash dishes--heating the water etc. Many things that have made our life easier and made us more comfortable--I think that these very things have also cost us in the form of time spent together as a family. While doing the dishes with any of my sisters or on a rare occasion my brothers (they always seemed to escape the dish washing)we would talk about everything and share things with one another.. Had we not been thrown into sharing our job together I doubt that we would have talked & shared as we did.
On cold winter nights I reflect back to the nights that Dad would have a big fire going in our old wood stove--which sat in the very center of the living room, we would all "drag" our chairs around the stove and Mom & Dad talked about their day or talked to us about something that was going on in our lives. It was always a family pow-wow--everybody had an input, some more than others (ahem). Many times Mom would pop popcorn and have homemade fudge for us to feast on while we enjoyed the warmth of the stove. If it happen to be a Sat. night we would listen to the Louisiana Hayride on the battery radio--Beverly was the only one that could find the station as something was wrong with the dial, she clamped a wooden clothes pin onto the dial wheel inside of the radio and would turn it just right.It just didn't get any better than those nights- Moms good candy and corn, the big stove generating wonderful heat and that ole radio pumping out great country music..Sometimes Mom & Dad would sing along with them... contentment filled the room. Isn't it strange that something so simple and really just a normal night in those days, left such a lasting impression ----a family of 8 sitting together around the stove,talking,laughing and listening to one another...Now that I look back on it I realize it wasn't just contentment that was felt in the room ,it was the love my family shared -- now dear ones I promise you memories like this can't be beat!!

My Goose

I told you about Mick & Mike horses and Cinda had her a dog naturally- but I have told you about my pet--guess you could call him that..Mean as the old devil he was - he would chase you to get a a little pinch of your skin than he would twist until you screamed. I am thinking that he got out of Uncle Huts truck one day while he was there--since I have told you how mean he was, don't guess any explanation is needed as to why Uncle Hut left him!
I have never really been a animal lover --(the rest of the family made up for my lack of it) but there was just something about the old contrary goose that I did like. He made me laugh that's for sure --- like the time that uncle Presley was staying with us and was sitting on the porch step about half asleep and ole goosie woosie snook up behind him and got a nice big chunk of Presleys ear--didn't have time to twist it though as Uncle Presley screamed. jumped up and was swinging his fist. The goose takes off around the house- half running and half flying just squawking like crazy...don't blame him as there was a crazy old man running barefoot through the grass burrs cussing him and making all kinds of threats of a cooking pot.
The goose would chase Mick,Mike,Jerry & Bev but never did me or Cinda. Do you think that he may have recognized the contrary nature of my ways?? He was pushing his luck with Daddy-- Mom was always telling Daddy she wasn't cooking a goose. One day Mom was outside hanging out the laundry and this awful commotion started up--the way Mom was yelling my name I knew it wasn't good. As I get to the door I saw daddy sitting in the truck laughing like all get out-all the family was peeking out the windows and telling me that I had better hurry--and what trouble that goose was in..and that this goose was cooked for sure!!!There by the clothes line was Mom going around in circles holding a wet shirt with a goose attached to the end of it -- poor old goosie woosie looked like one of those tilt a whirl rides at the fair being slung around with his wings flapping up & down---up & down-- around & around--. He refused to let go ... I took the shirt from Mom and thought that he would keep holding on and she could go the house---WRONG off he goes chasing her. She made it inside -- don't ever recall seeing Mom run like that.
I came in from school one day and there was no sign of the goose---there wasn't anything cooking in the oven--I couldn't find any feathers laying around. Its a mystery to this day whatever became of him but I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the neighbors didn't have him laying real close to some cornbread dressing!!

Mom

Today being Mothers day my thoughts have been on Mom (& also my sweet mother-in-law')

They were such wonderful women and a blessing in my life.
Being the mother of 6 children, Mom certainly knew every detail of being a mother and always seem to have a solution for any problem that we had, big or small she had answers. Mom was alot like Grandpa Corley- her ability to laugh at so many things when some would want to cry--and she had
the gift of telling great stories as he did. She took after Ma Blanche with her cooking --she was a great cook as most of you can recall. She would carry food to every elderly person that she knew and most likely some that she didn't know. The woman could sew ANYTHING--and didn't use a pattern most of the time. When Jerry was rodeoing -Mom made all of her
riding clothes--no pattern, just design it as she went.When Bev was in high school she wanted a skirt- I believe they were called squaw skirts-anyway they were very popular but too expensive for us to buy. Mom made her one that was beautiful! She made all of our clothes and I don't recall that it bothered any of us not to have store bought clothes--hers was much prettier. She continued loving to sew until her health and eye sight prevented it. One of my funny memories of her sewing is about a little cloth black doll. She called me one day and asked what I was doing--I tell her that I was sewing a little black doll with pig tails. She asked about how tall, how did I do the face, dress her etc.etc. So the next day when I called her she gets to laughing and tells me that after we had talked the day before she goes in & finds some black fabric and cuts out a doll--no pattern, of course--just free hands all of it. I asked how it turned out and she really laughed and said "its the ugliest thing you ever looked at". I told her to keep it that I wanted to see it. My next visit I walk in & she has it sitting on her table & I burst out laughing because sure enough it was the ugliest thing that I had ever seen. She was going to trash it but I told her I wanted it--The little ugly thing is on a shelf in my dining room and makes me smile every time I see it. Mom was a great quilter when she had the time. For years she would meet with the ladies in our community when they met & quilted at each others home. She never could put her name in the drawing that they held each time to determine what sort of covered dish they were to bring to the quilting--they just told her she had to always bring her angel food pie & coconut pie.
Like grandpa, she loved to play jokes on her children and grand-children. How many of you remember playing outside at night and she would slip out the back door and come around the corner of the house with a sheet covering her--making a scary sound? There are so many fun things that she did that I will tell later on....she was a character!!
She loved to make up poems and was good at it--the ones she mailed to us I have saved and I know that Tom has all of the ones she sent him-
There is much to said about Mom one doesn't really know where to start or where to end. We will be remembering her many times in our stories of the old days - she will continue to make us smile with the memories she left everyone of us--We were blessed to have had the love that she so freely bestowed upon all of us--

Little brothers

Children didn't have a lot of toys when I was a little girl--oh we had some toys but nothing like the children nowadays. We used our imagination and created things to play with. Mickey had all that he needed--in the little quarter horse Daddy bought him. Her name was Crybaby--she was a short compact heavy muscled sorrel-and would do ANYTHING he wanted her to do. He roped on her--competed in pole bending--she was good at running the barrels because she very fast. He had the patience to train her to do whatever he wanted--truthfully as long as he was fooling with a horse he was happy and content. Mike would work along with him but if we were playing rodeo Mike would use Daddy's horse. Seems we played rodeo REAL often--like everyday! I would normarly be the announcer and Cinda would clap and cheer. We had an old billy goat --(lands alive I can still remember how bad he smelled) they roped him for awhile until the goat got wise to it. He would go off and hide if he saw Mickey or Mike saddling the horses.
Someone left a mean ole jackass at our house once--now that got to be really fun!! They turned into bronc riders--got their tails thrown off the first few times but was persistent in trying for that 8 second ride... guess that was the first of many ,many 8 second rides for both of my brothers--they were good at what they did!
They had some little metal horses that we would play in the sand with--didn't have a truck or horse trailer so we made them out of match boxes--we'd pick up twigs from tree limbs and build our horse lot out of that. Onetime I carried a little doll out to play with her and fixed her up with a little match box car --colored bright red--really a snazzy little rig--heck I told them she was a cowgirl but before you could say "coming out of chute # 1"--Mike had stepped on the snazzy little rig and Mick had pulled the dolls arm off---they threw a fit that I would try to play with a doll in their rodeo.. NOT TO WORRY though because their sister stepped on the silly horses and bent them--trashed the precious rodeo fences and proceeded to knock the fire out of them--of course the fight was on. Cinda would get scared when we would get to fighting and would run to the house for Momma. Mom could call out our names in such a way that all action ceased in a hurry...
We would fight and fuss but don't all siblings? Not a one of us ever questioned that we were loved by the other. They were the best!

Wading mud Puddles

I got to thinking today about the different things that we were told as children for instance--we (Me-Mickey-Mike & Cinda) loved to wade in mud puddles --well in the front of Grandpa's house would be one as big as a small tank-oh it was great fun until grandpa told us we best get out before a turtle grabbed one of our toes because if it latched on to our toe it wouldn't let go until it thundered again ! That really gave us reason to worry about it a little because in that part of the country you can go a LONG time and not hear it thunder. On that particular day we decided we'd just stay right in the middle of the big puddle and Grandpa wouldn't come get us and besides we didn't see any turtles---wasn't long until mike gets to hollering & crying Momma ' Momma help me a turtle has my toe---Beverly came out there & removed her shoes & waded out to get Mike and to remove that big ole turtle--the way he was hollering it just had to be a monster of a turtle--She picks him up and gets to laughing --he had stepped on a big cockleburr & it was wedged between his toes...I don't know why me or Mick one didn't go to help him--guess being ornery or else we thought there may be a big turtle in there after all---

Remembering our ancestors

I hope that sharing stories about our Grandparent's has been giving you a pretty good impression of what kind of people they were and perhaps that you now know them in some small way....it is sad for me to think of these dear people being forgotten in time so hopefully sharing a bit of our heritage--yours and mine--taking a glimpse into their lives -will make all of us keep them alive in our hearts. I believe that the person we become has much to do with someone in our past that made a deep impression or inspired us in some way. That person for me was my Ma Blanche--her labors of love that she performed everyday for her family and other people--her creative and talented hands forever busy making something for someone.. My love for old primitive kitchen antiques goes back to those "good ole days"--my love for sewing and quilting I know I learned from sitting by her side. I would NEVER claim to be the cook that she was but I do still enjoy cooking many of her dishes --even my feeble attempt to tell stories goes back to listening to Ma Blanche & Grandpa telling us stories. Everyone should be so blessed in having such a remarkable and memorable Grandmother.Whenever I read or hear Proverbs Chapter 31 Verses 10-31---I am thinking " that's my Ma Blanche!"....She passed away at the age of 94..