I remember my grandmother who lived in Kenosha, Wis. taking our sheets from off the beds in the summer and putting them into the refrigerator. Just before bedtime she would put them back on and tell us to get into bed. "you will be nice and cool." She would say. We may have been nice and cool, and clammy for about 10 minutes, but we also smelled like onions, carrots and left over cake with rasberry filling. (She was Danish)and did't throw a thing out. What fond memories from childhood. I thought everyone slept in sheets that had been cooled it the fridge. Abcomatic
our relations from the past and their strange ways
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veg-o-matic
Well-known member
During the Easter season, when my great-grandmother would make massive quantities of Masa Sovada (Portuguese sweet bread), she would very efficiently let the dough rise by putting it in a washtub, putting the washtub in the bed, and having her granddaughters sleep around it.
veg
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geoffdelp
Well-known member
abc and veg ... those are great stories!! It sounds as if both your grandmother's were extremely resourceful people.
Thanks Veg and Geoff, she was one of a kind. In her apt. building when she lived in Chicago in the mid 50's there was a Bendix front loader for all to use. She used Tide and used the amount suggested on the box. That was my first automatic washer I had ever seen, we lived on the farm and mom had an ancient Thor wringer. Talk about suds lock! Oh my,suds everywhere. Out of the top where you added the soap, out of the front door and on to the floor. It was something out of a movie and I loved it. When she lived in Kenosha, we would go to the laundry and then hang the sheets out at the beach on Lake Michigan of all places. I would play in the sand and she would sit there in her slip and there we would be all day long. Loved those times. ABC
angus
Well-known member
At Christmastime, my mother would keep buy the multitudes of fish for the traditional Christmas eve dinner. Things like eels were purchased alive and kept swimming in the bathtub for a day or two before the slaughter.
Noodles
My mother's Godparents lived in Canada. On our National Lampoon trips from Phoenix to Detroit, we'd go there to visit them. Her Godmother was an excellent cook. As they lived on a large tobacco farm, she did all her own canning, everything was fresh or homemade.
One night she made chicken soup. I recall the legs of the unlucky bird sticking out of the soup pot! Not quite like my mother made her soup. However, it was delicious, except for the noodles. They tasted like cedar, roses and lilacs! The next night, she made more soup. This time I notice she took out a box from her linen closet of dried, homemade noodles. They had taken on the smells of all the sachet things she had in that closet.
My mother's Godparents lived in Canada. On our National Lampoon trips from Phoenix to Detroit, we'd go there to visit them. Her Godmother was an excellent cook. As they lived on a large tobacco farm, she did all her own canning, everything was fresh or homemade.
One night she made chicken soup. I recall the legs of the unlucky bird sticking out of the soup pot! Not quite like my mother made her soup. However, it was delicious, except for the noodles. They tasted like cedar, roses and lilacs! The next night, she made more soup. This time I notice she took out a box from her linen closet of dried, homemade noodles. They had taken on the smells of all the sachet things she had in that closet.
