Coffee and...part 12 :-D

I remember the milk boxes on the back porch, the breadman coming, jewel tea man, drycleaner man (who my mom later married!!) Desperate housewives in the making back then LOL I used to get raw milk down the road to make yogurt and a soft cheese - farm since went kapoot.

I really need to make a trip to the store - we're out of everything! But I hate to waste the day shopping, unless it is for flowers! We are out of bread and milk, so I guess I will have to do it soon.

Went to McDonalds yesterday and ended up with the worse stomach ache in the world!!! Either I am getting a really touchy stomach or that stuff is bad. I used to eat it daily!!

Congrads on your presentation Wood. I never like to get up in front of a group - get the 'nerves'. But I spent 33 yrs up in front of 8 yr olds, but then that was a whole different thing! I could be a goofy as I wanted and they liked it.

Cleaned my cousins (stroke) house and man was it a mess. He has about 4 inch of water in the basement again - Last year I mopped it all out and it about killed me. This year I am not touching it. I finally got him to put his dirty clothes in a clothes basket in his bedroom instead of tossing them down in the watery basement.

Well, the sun is peeking out and I need to go out to the greenhouse and see how my babies are doing...I did get some stuff from the co-op yesterday and they were gorgeous - wish Id ordered more...

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I was just a pup, we got milk delivered in glass bottles. In the dead cold of our Wisconsin winters, the milk would freeze before we even got it in the house.....and if we removed the cardboard cap and licked the frozen cream off it (yummmmmm) we got a good swat after we brought it in. ....! We heated with a wood stove so getting dressed in the morning required either dressing under the covers, or gathering up your clothes and standing beside the stove to keep warm. We had outdoor "accomodations" too, Brrrrrrr. Went down to the town hall for showers, smelled like disinfectant in there. Town had a movie house though, and a river with a dam for kids to swim in. Got tossed off that dam more often than I liked, and always sank like a rock. Learned to swim when I was over 40...because I was going on a cruise and I wanted to be able to swim in the ocean at a beach.

I grew up near Brainerd, MN., on a farm so we just brought a jug of milk in from the barn. We had a little 1 gallon milk can!
Brainerd has about 13,000 people.
A farm on the edge of town milked 120 cows back in the 40's & 50's. They had a bottling plant attached to the barn, bottled in glass bottles, then delivered in town. By 1960 town was trying to put them out of business, so they passed ordinance outlawing door to door delivery. So everyone would drive to the farm to get milk. Long lines of cars every night.
Finnally got drove out of business with the laws.
This is called progress!
Bernie

I fall right in with all the home-delivery milk memories... the cardboard tops, the milk freezing and pushing the tops up, the metal box on the front porch for the milk & cream. NO homogenized milk, either. Woe to the person who skimmed off all the cream for their coffee leaving the skimmed milk for the babies.

M5, your time description (time of dinosauers!) is funny. I have a friend who says he's known me "since God was a little girl" LOL.

Bernie, I can remember going down to the spring house and fetching a bottle of milk that was sitting in cold, clear running water, and how cool and peaceful it was in there. And I can remember milking when on a visit, but don't remember milk straight from the barn. Probably had it, just don't remember.

I do remember a hand pump in the kitchen which we'd prime and then pump cold sweet water. Lifting the eyes off the stove to add more wood. Hoping not to be the last one in the bath water in a big galvanized tub by the stove.

It's cold here, about 40 this morning but supposed to be in the 60s before the day is over. It's beautiful out and we're supposed to get about 5 days of sunshine, a rarity here in the mountains so I will be busy in the garden when I'm not at work, except for Saturday because I'm going to..........(guess) to see the tulips. What's even better is that I got free tickets for helping them do some research in regards to business connections in this area, just over the Pisgah Forest from here.

Betty, that's fantastic! Their tulips are fabulous... and regular admisssion is nearly $40 (or was the last time I went)!

I am really excited because I am taking a really funny and highly intelligent woman with me (from work) and her 10-year-old daughter. The daughter had a cleft palate and lip and is still undergoing surgery for it. Because of this problem, I'm sure she has been teased unmercifully as only kids can do, and is a bit shy. I'm also taking my favorite niece-in-law. You seeeeee, I got 4 tickets!!
This is picture of the tulips in 2003.

Hah !
..............My DH used to deliver milk door to door in his ' funny little Divco milk truck' soon after we were married in ' 59 . He has stayed in the industry all this time except for .............
a 4 year period ( 70's) when we had a Harley Davidson shop, got certified by HD and all that other legal stuff.
WE had a 'handshake ' partner/backer that ended up causing us loose all and he sold the dealership to what is now one of the largest in the Chicago area.
Ahh , the blind faith of youth !

So back to the milk business. No more home delivery , drives a semi the last 22 years and supplies large chain stores with milk products now.

Ditto on Darius home delivery memories. I always got to lick the little cardboard lid though.

During the war (WWII) I lived in Savannah, GA. The milk was delivered by a horse drawn milk truck, and he knew the route as well as the driver. Waking up in the early dawn, hearing the clip-clop of the hooves, then the calls of the lady street vendors that carried vegtables on huge flat baskets on their heads. You could never understand what they were selling because they sang everything in a rhythm. Lovely memories.
Pati

pati, some of my first memories were if watching out the front window for the horse drawn wagons of the ice man and milk man with the horses wearing the long 'leather string' fly sheets.

There was also the rag man and a tinker man ( fixed pot & pans and sharpened cutlery) that drove wagons thru the alleyways behind the houses shouting their sing-song announcements.

My first ever word was 'horsie' as I found written in my baby book .

Oh my, I had forgotten all about The Ice Man! And the fun of chipping ice off a 25# block for icing watermelons or sodas. : )

Oh yes, following the ice man and begging for chips, or snatching a few while he was inside someone's house putting the block of ice in the icebox. Remember the cardboard sign that had numbers on it for how much ice you wanted, 25, 50, or ?, Did you get the job of emptying the pan under the icebox? Did I ever learn to empty it when it was half full or did I always wait until there was a little trickle of water running across the kitchen floor ? Uh huh. And I always managed to spill some on the way out the door, or get it in my shoes, if I was wearing any. I remember telling my dad he should drill a hole in the floor and let it drip out that way...that didn't get me anywhere. Probably thought it would mess up the mushrooms he was growing in the crawl space!

LOL, M5... I can see the mushrooms now!

Do you wonder what the nostalgic memories of today's kids will be?

Darius, with all the drugs and ****, it's a wonder if any will have memories. The one's that do will remember color TV, and ref with a TV. home theaters, etc. Wonder what planet they will think that we're from.

I also remember taking rides on a horse-drawn sleigh owned by our neighbors. What a thrill that was.

Nobody mentioned out houses with Sears catalogues; or the thunder mug under the bed. Those I have used.

My bedtime stories from my grandmother about her trials and tribulation of living "out west" in Montana before the turn of the century with all the indians. That was the 19th century, people!!

Oh well, it's fun to remember..

Hap

Hap, it's so easy to take our ease for granted. I have a story in my lineage of a husband, wife and 3 children who WALKED barefoot over the Appalachians to Ohio, carrying bedrolls and all belongings on their backs. Can we even begin to imagine what that was like... or your grandmother's indians...

Yes, I also remember chamber pots and outhouses. Hated the chamber pots but hated the long walk in the snow and dark even more. We learned not to drink much liquid after supper, LOL.

That's quite a trek for a little family. Tough people in the ol' days. Can you imagine anyone doing it today?

Ditto on the water.....


Hap

Speaking of treks, the Oregon Trail goes right past Baker City. We have an interperative center here with all kinds of displays and reinactments that attracts a lot of visitors every year. Talk about a plunge into the past! Outside the building you can see ruts made by the wagon wheels. Indeed they were tough people. They would probably think we live like royalty or creatures from some other planet. That would make a good movie. Picture a family with their covered wagon, oxen, milk cow, trudging through the dusty sagebrush country suddenly transported to 2005. Wow, what a trip!

Yeah, that would be quite a trip, Mary! Wouldn't we like to be there to see it?

FLIES everywhere here... I SWEAR they must hatch in the house somewhere. The outside door stays closed (no screen) and the only open window has a screen.... yet I kill hordes daily. Anyone else have this problem?

No flies here, Darius....better come back!!

LOL, but no thanks! I'm over Florida (for 40 years now) even though I still like the winter warmth. How ya doing, BTW?

Pretty good. Going N tomorrow, 30 degrees yesterday, to see my boys, grandchildren and dad who will be 98 in August. He's a corker and his mind is better than mine. Don't have my outside lights in as yet because I'm still working on the garden in that area. The plants that I got at the RU are doing great.

I see that you are still in NC. Any prospects on anywhere else?

Take care.

Hap

Yeah, working on a retail spot in TN at the moment. BIG decisions, LOL.

WOW, Darius....

What will be for sale....you really want to work 24/7?

Hap, we (sister and I) are contemplating a bird feed/supplies business, and maybe garden art.

No, I really don't want to work at all, but I'm not making ends meet on my social security check.

Gee, Darius, that sounds like fun. I would think that plants would be in there somewhere. Tenn is beautiful. I've been there a couple of times; very peaceful.

Grew up on a dairy farm so we just brought in a pail full of milk 3 times a day. (9 kids 2 parents and often a foster kid) We'd skim off the top for mom and dad's coffee. My oldest sister would sometimes whip up a bowl of whipped cream and who ever was home would sit around the bowl on the floor, with a spoon and share the whole bowl full. I didn't join in, always found it too sweet. lol DS once ate it till she got sick!

The milkman would leave a case of butter the first week of every month, more if mom needed it. The bakery van came by twice a week too. I remember when they quit the deliveries and mom bought store bread. Dad wouldn't eat it so she baked 5 loaves of bread every Mon, Wed and Fri for quite a few years. She quit baking bread when they sold the dairy business in the early 70s.

We also had a delivery truck come every other week with all sorts of European (mostly Dutch) goods. He had deli meats and cheeses, cookies, pastries, chocolates and wooden shoes, utensils, aprons, Delft blue, etc. all imported stuff. He mostly went to all the Dutch immigrant families - there was a large influx of Dutch immigrants after WWII in Southern Ontario. We loved it when Bill stopped by!!!

Well, had my first emergency call yesterday and then had another today. The first one was actually a misdialed nbr. I think the caller meant to dial 911 and instead dialed 711 and got us/relay. The caller asked for the police so I asked if he/she was having an emergency. He/she didn't think an ambulance was needed but thought he/she should go to the hospital as he/she was having chest pains. That's it, I decided. I'm not taking a chance on this one. Locked in his/her nu, called supervisor, with her help, called 911, patched caller thru to 911 operator and then just listened. I think it's really great that we can just call 911 for someone and patch them thru rather than having them hang up and dial the right number. The caller was not deaf, hearing-impaired or speech-impaired but we could still get the help on the way for him/her. Kinda gives u a warm fuzzy! (The caller today was just a regular wrong number.)

Helpppppppppppp!! I need to change my email address but I can't seem to find how to do it. I went to "my info" but that didn't help also tried subscriptions, I'm stuck. Darius where are you when I need you? LOL Busy day, see ya later.

M5, go to "My Info" and click on "Manage Preferences"... it's in there.

Ahhhhhh the memories! Milk man, Ice man, Fuller Brush man...and Watkins. Rainbow bread wrapped in waxed paper (Always "crusty" and dry on the 'heals') and for real 'Soda fountains' where you ordered up a Vanilla Coke or a Cherry Pepsi...man, *those* were the days!

About the only different 'memory' for me came before we moved to 'town' my dad 'tended' a 'farm' in exchange for rent. He used to milk one of the cows (I think it was a beef cow and I don't think he was supposed to be 'stealing' the milk. LOL) He'd bring the pail into the house for mom to strain through cheesecloth. OMG I think that's why I hate milk to this day! All that *stuff* floating around on top of that *warm* milk...and they expected *me* to drink it! NO friggen' way!

And as for bread...well...there were pigs on that farm too. And about every other day a huge truck would pull in the farm drive way and dump off, what seemed to a kid to be, a mountain of day-old bread. It was dumped into a special crib in the barn and was meant to feed the pigs. As soon as the truck was out of sight my mom would send me out to the barn to 'steal' as much of that bread as my little 4 y/o arms could carry. Strange aroma memories are attached to that...stale bread and pig poop! LOL Would you believe that quite a few years ago I told me dad how vivid that memory was in my head...and he told me "It *never* happened." It seems to me that my dad was in denial of just how we managed to survive back in those days.

Yep...that's the place where I came to know about the wash tibs baths on Saturday night, outhouses were bad places to be in the middle of a tornado, and how to prime hand pumped wells. (Shoot! I remember when mama got a hand pump installed IN THE Kitchen! (What a convenience *that* was!...and most of the time, it didn't freeze in the winter! WOW!) :-D

And we wonder what it is in our past that makes us the people we are today.

Thank you ALL for sharing THIS part of your lives at our table. It really made for some great conversation.

Now it's back out in the yard to do more planting, over to the GH units and down to the basement to do watering...and then it's time to start moving seedlings out into the "covered wagon" (hehehe the plastic covered PVC hoops over the Hardening off garden bed.) I can't imagine 'gardening' back in *those* days. LOL (I couldn't pump all the water needed to keep my stuff from getting thirsty. :-) )

See ya later...
~julie~
P.S. HI, to everyone!

Good morning. The sun is up, hubby has had breakfast and will soon be off to work, horses are munching their hay, and in a couple more hours I will be leaving to drive to Madras, Oregon to my endurance ride.That is pretty much in the middle of the state and I am starting out from the northeastern part. It will take about 6 hours to get there. I have a few more last minute things to pack but am pretty much ready to go. This week I'm going by myself but next week will have my traveling partner back. She can't take much time off from work and said she would only go to an event about once a month depending on where it is. The weather will be cool and showery so I hope to miss the showers especially when I am out there on the horse. Getting wet is no fun when riding all day.

See you guys in a few days. Take care.

Have a great ride, Mary!

Hi all, hope it's been a good day-all this talk about past. Sure do miss that fresh milk and the butter we used to make...Really appreciate now having been raised on a farm-got to run in the fields etc. Picked asparagus along the road (would not eat the stuff) now I have to buy the stuff in stores and no farm to go back to and glean along the road-Sigh!!
Better close up-freezind down here-sure keeps my computer time down!!

Mostly when I was little, we lived in hotels because my dad was a manager & we moved a lot. But I used to go stay with a favorite aunt in Windsor Locks, Connecticutt. Every moment there was wonderful. Home cooked meals, a garden, being free to roam the neighborhood, filling the bird feeder with suet and especially my uncle's prize dahlias. I still have the glass slides of them.
My aunt used to can or freeze everything. They even had a large basement with an area for the freezer and shelves for the canned goods. They made their own vegetable drink similar to V-8.
When there was a drought, my aunt watered her roses with dish water. That was in the days when soap had a lot of phosphates in them. She said her roses never bloomed so well.
I named my daughter after her, Laura.

Hi All! Long time no see. Been very busy with work and haven't had much time to get on line. I chatted a long time last night over the phone with iLovejesus99! What a lovely lady. We're working out a state quarter exchange - but we chatted like we'd been friends for ever! That's what I like about Daves - everyone's like that.

ANYWAY - haven't even had time to do much in the yard. But, I'm going to have an extra afternoon off each week now (new flex time schedule) so I'll have more time at home and maybe I'll get caught up. Sure hope so.

Hope everyone is doing well. Gotta go check out the other forums.

Later!

M.

Yes, all this memory lane stuff has been fun!

Update on my sister's house: she signed the listing contract Monday but it actually didn't get on the MLS until late Thursday afternoon. It was shown 9 times yesterday (Friday), and by 4 pm had 5 showings already planned for today. The agent thinks there will be a bidding war and that she will get more than the asking price.

I'm going over to Andrews later to have dinner with my long-time friend Bud and probably spend the night.

Y'all have a great day!

HI, just checking in-drat Darius-hope that no one else is interested.
Hi other M- glad that you will have garden time-good for the spirit>

Sounds like your sister will have a sale pretty soon Darius. Then you really get to make your mind up time on the new place!
Memory Lane.. isn't it a great place to wander down.. somehow it is only the nicest things that leap up and get noticed. You have to ferret in the undergrowth to remember waking up in an ice cold bedroom with frost inside the glass, no heat in the house till someone got up and lit the open fire. Having the house full of steam and wet washing drying round the fire on Mondays, and sometimes Tuesdays too, all winter!
The nice things that stick are grandma's apple pie and playing draughts with grandpa in front of a blazing fire. The 'pop' man with pint glass bottles of Sapirella and 'Dandylion and Burdock' sodapops, who came every week to the village. This of course was avillage where the sun always shone in summer and the snow was fresh and white all winter :>)!!
have had visitors all week so I haven't been around to post, I've struggled to keep up with reading what you've all been up to. Its great taking friends out and about though, you see familiar surroundings through fresh eyes, and get to visit places on your doorstep that you always meant to, but never got time to somehow.
Off to refill the fridge now!
Carol

Darius...all that activity in showing your sister's house sounds quite promising. Here's wishing you both the *best* of luck...and a HIGH selling price (and a LOW buying price on the commercial property...hehehe).

Hi everyone! I can't remember when I stopped in last and I'm not about to waste time looking back to find it. I think it was sometime yesterday but there have been at least 24 hours in between. SOoooo...I forgot! :-D

Yesterday I worked with the plants in the mini-GH's (they're ALL full! LOL). I got a LOT of seedlings transplated to 6-cell packs, tomatoes transplanted to individual 'cups', took some cuttings of my Silver Lace vine, planted a few more seeds (this time it's marigolds) and got all my pots and containers out of the shed...just to see what I had. Actually, I *had* to removed them from the shed before I could get to my portable potting bench. It's one of those 'domino' effect kind of things. LOL Touch one thing and the rest falls over...so the best thing to do is work from the outside, in.

I have to give my most hardy recommendation to anyone who is thinking of buying those little mini-greenhouses. I *love* mine!

This morning my eldest DS called me. He said "Hey, Mom! There's a brand new flower bed over here...and it's got *your* name on it!" I was a little puzzled until it hit me. The kid is *already* putting 'dibs' on my extra plants! hehehe I couldn't be happier. If I can leave this life having left behind a little of my love for the garden in the hearts of my kids, I'll die a happy person. But, unless something quite unforeseen happens, I'll be sticking around for a little longer.

Obviously, I'm having a *ball* being able to be outside. I hope y'all don't mind me checking in, and leaving on the fly with just a "Hello" and quick WAVE!

See ya later!

~julie~

Evening, all...

Julie, that would be quite a legacy! Glad he is showing an interest in gardening.

I went over to Andrews, had a very lovely afternoon sitting on the deck with Bud but decided not to stay for dinner nor overnight. Stopped at Lowe's and got 10 more bags of mulch... that should finish my herb bed.

Also fetched my weedeater from storage. Tomorrow I plan to cut down the weeds that are in places not accessible by my mower. I cannot believe I forgot to look at Lowe's for more plastic string for it. I know I have 2 rolls, but who knows where in all my storage stuff. LOL. Might even get more of the herb garden weeded and more mulch applied. Whoopee!

Okus, yes, I remember the ice on the insides of the windows, dressing by the stove (or under the covers) but all in all, my best memories outweigh those that had some inconvenience and/or hardship. : )