Reminisce...old stories. I notices from my post on another thread about being pulled out by a tractor when I floated a car onto a snow bank that others wanted to do the same so I thought a thread for such stories would be good.
There is also a magazine by this name that my mother used to get. Reminisce.com
When I was small, Mom just loved hockey. As soon as it was cold enough, we would start hauling buckets of water into the back yard. Over the course of several days, we would create an ice rink so I could practice skating and puck handling. I was never very good and the wind blowing off the prairie was very cold at night. I was placed in a game with boys 3 years older than me with the obvious results. I decided it was not a game for me.
Every Christmas at my grand parents lake place I would go out and shovel a small rink so that when my cousins arrived, we could all go out and skate. If it was not smooth enough to twirl and dance on, I was back to hauling those buckets of water to get a smooth surface.
Joe, I grew up in Northern Michigan where hockey was a way of life. If you were a boy, you played hockey and if you were a girl, you figure skated.
We did the same thing with water freezing and we had a good skating stadium in town. For some reason, my Dad used to take me (a girl) to hockey games with him on the weekend. I loved going. Gordie Howe played at the rink when he was a young man for one of Detroit farm clubs. This was before he was famous.
We had 2 more girls and 1 boy in my family, but I don't remember any of them going. I think my mother probably told him to "get her out of the house for awhile." That's all I can think of. I never played hockey, althogh girls do nowadays. I still go to hockey games with my husband or daughter. We have a UHL or IHL team in town here and they are pretty good. They keep changing what their designation they are. IHL or UHL...........
The magazine you speak of is still around I think. When I went to visit my childhood friend in the northern peninsula, she showed me the book and she has a subscription to it. Hockey is a pretty rough game. Even figure skating is a rough one when you take to the ice and one of the boys runs you over.
This isn't so long ago---ahem!!! Well, maybe some will think it is. My dad and mom ran a restaurant when my sister and I were growing up. They bought an old house about 3 houses from main street so it was close to walk to work.
This old house was kitty corner from the library where I spent a whole lot of time growing up and across the street from the towns ice skating rink. Man, did I have it made!!! I loved to ice skate. Most all the kids ice skated back in the late 50, and early 60's.
The lights were so bright on the rink at night and they played this really neat music plus the Christmas music. The kids would gather just about every night and play games, crack the whip, etc. Most of us could skate pretty darn good. At first the warming house had a wood stove and we would go in and place our mittens on the stove to dry. What a memorable smell. There was an old grandpa that worked there and would help put on the skates of the really young kids.
This was back in the days when you could send two 7 year old neighbor kids on the walk across town to the ice skating rink and not worry about them being kidnapped. Boy, the freedom of those days was awesome.
When our boys were growing up they didn't skate much cause I would have to take them into town, etc. WE hobby farmed and they were too busy cleaning barn, etc. I remember the one year in the early spring when after a winter with a ton of snow we had an early thaw only to have a hard freeze again with cold weather.
The county tiles backed up and froze and our pasture had a huge pond that they skated on and played hockey. I can still see them in my mind with the sun shinning in the late afternoon having a ball. Back in those days the kids played outside just about all the time. Life was sure different for them than it is now. The internet changed all of our lives forever. Irish ;D
Navydad, Sounds like you were a thrill seeker as a kid!
Wow, that brings back memories of canoeing! We portaged around waterfalls like the one you showed. We came to one in a lake that stretched about a 1/4 of a mile with a two foot drop. The scenery in the "boundary waters canoe area" was fantastic. One portage that we did was into an isolated lake surround by rock cliffs. Fifty foot from the top of the cliff and Fifty foot from the high water level on the rocks was a script that was carved into the rock. Several lines across a 20 foot wide band. It reminded me of the dancing men code from the Sherlock Holmes books. We were told that the natives of the area had no idea what it said, how it was done or when.
We tied two canoes together as a catamaran and sailed some of the lakes. We camped on huge boulders using rocks to hold the tents up. I did the trip as a Boy Scout. The things that I did not like was that a couple of the boys wanted a lighter pack and I had to wear the same cloths for ten days. This was complicated by the blood poisoning that I got from Black Flies. My head was swollen like a basket ball. Every morning I pealed my clothing off my weeping wounds and washed it out to wear for the new day. I think that may have contributed to my not liking the outdoors like I used to.
To paraphrase a line from a movie, "It is not the age, it is the mileage and the damages".
I remember all the nuances to using a wringer washer and two rinse tubs to do laundry.
Also how and where you hang clothes on the line (Undies in the middle.) and not to let the cat or dog near the line if you have sheets or something hanging low to the ground. LOL
Pisces
I remember the washers with the wringer - particularly the electric wringers that squashed my fingers >:( when I was about 10 years old.
My clearest Christmas memory is when my three sons were little. They shared ne bedroom and went bed very excited on Christmas eve. When they were all asleep DH and myself crept into their bedroom to fill their stockings - or should I say tried to. The little monkeys had booby trapped the room, to capture Santa Claus. OH had a very sore leg for a few days, and the boys did a lot of nudging and winking, when they thought we were not looking! Christmas was never quite the same after that.
Kathyx
Remember when Christmas was a more relaxed holiday---lots of homemade treats that none of us would eat today because they have too much cholesterol. Remember when the stores all closed for the holidays. You could drive through town on Christmas and not a soul is seen on the street.
Christmas Eve was the kids church programs and the bags of apples and candy that were handed out afterwards. Man, life has gotten so stressful that people don't enjoy the holidays lilke they used to.
I told hubby tonight that I can't believe the amount of advertising that the stores are doing as the paper is loaded with flyers every day. The stack of flyers that has piled up in the last 3 weeks is unbelieveable. There is just so much money a person can spend, isn't there???
Remember going to the big department stores to shop back when main street was still there. Also, the little shops on main street that sold only womens clothing or mens clothing. It was so much fun to shop then. Clothes had more quality. Everything in Walmart, Target, etc looks the same. There are very few of those nice little shops left anymore.
Friday night shopping on main street with the popcorn wagon by the curb. The downtown movie theater that always had a line on the weekend. Everyone going to town to shop and visit. Wow, such memories. Irish ;D
Does anyone remember hooking up Bessie to the wagon sled to take a load of hay out to the pasture or for a quick trip to the neighbors?
Way back when I was a child, the downtown had a movie theater. For a Saturday in December they would have free kid's cartoons/movies for the afternoone (about 2-3 hrs) to free the parents to shop the downtown merchants.
We also had the animated window displays that I really miss not seeing anymore.
Hi :)
No animated shop windows?? Maybe we are just back in the olden days. We still have a store in town that has an animated shop window every year.
Take care - Scottie :)
I remember the wringer washing machine. I would help my mom and one day I put my whole right hand through the wringer along with the clothes. It hurt.
Also, Pisces, I had forgotten about the free cartoons on the Saturday in December. Santa Claus would come the give out candy. Glad you shook that memory loose. I need to write some of this stuff down before I forget it again.
Scottie, we hardly have any shops left in our town. Up town is mostly insurance offices, etc. We have Walmart, a couple grocery stores, a dollar store which is very good. Quite a few of the gift shop/antique shops. I really miss having all those stores full of business. It made Christmas shopping and all shopping so much better.
Remember when the stores were all closed for Christmas and while waiting for the Christmas dinner you would sit and crack nuts and suck on those hard Christmas candies that all tasted the same. I haven't had nuts with shells for years or that candy. Irish ;D
Irish - my husband and I were just talking the other night about when we grew up and our parents had the "nut bowl" full of various nuts that you cracked open and used a pick to get the "meat" out of the shell. Ahhhh . . . the memories. Both hubby and I have our Moms nut "tools". Most people today buy the nuts already shelled.
I also fondly remember the Christmas candy my Grandmother had in the glass candy dish on the coffee table. The "ribbon" candy and the kind that was hard candy in cut glass designs that also included those little "pillow" candies. They still sell them in the store - they usually come in a little tin. These ones had different flavors.
At Grandma's house us kids would very, very carefully lift the candy dish lid and get some candy and very slowly put the lid back so the adults in the other room wouldn't know we were into the candy dish. Then we'd hear . . . "get out of the candy dish!" from the other room. Moms and Grandma's . . you know they have radar hearing!! LOL
Now you make me want to go to the store and get some clearance Christmas candy - just for old times sake. ;)
Another fond memory of growing up is my Grandmother's Christmas tree. She had one of those 6 ft. silver pom-pom trees. We have many, many holiday pictures with all the grandkids standing according to height in front of this tree. Several years ago I found a 4 ft. silver pom-pom tree at a garage sale for $1. I LOVE this tree. One year my parents got me a color wheel for this tree . . best present ever. ;D
After seeing Genko's tree with all those old ornaments on it - next time I am "home" visiting my Dad - I want to go up into the attic and see if there is any of Mom's old Christmas ornaments up there. Preserve those memories from when I was growing up.
Bucky
We went to our daughters in laws for Christmas day. The kids had made a sled path down the hill. I saw a brand new (grain) scoop shovel. I remember as a small child using that to slide down the hill. I think I was about six or seven at the time. After what seemed like hours going down the hill I went back to the car for sandwiches and coco. I continued sledding until sunset. My cousins and I went back to the cars and rode with our parents back to our grandparents to open presents for Christmas eve.
Writing it down now I realize that it was a distraction so the presents could be placed under the tree. It still is a great memory.
My mother grew up in the 30's in the middle of Illinois on a farm where the snow drifts blew what roads they had nearly shut quite often in the winters.
Since they had a large farm and made most of what they needed, they only went to town on Saturdays. In snowy weather, they would have the farm horses pull a wagon with Grandma, Grandpa and all 7 kids. The parents went to get some fabric, maybe a tool, and enough sugar and flour needed, and talk with their neighbors who were there doing the same.
My mom and her siblings got to go to the movies for a while, and get a candy stick from the general store. She loved those times; running around the little town with her brothers and sisters, and taking the trip about 10 miles into town. They might stop by her aunt and uncles house on the way back and play a card game, and have hot chocolate.
They all had lots of daily chores, but those Saturdays were a break for the kids. She said sometimes they would come home so cold and tired, but they really had fun and always looked forward to it. It was really a different way of life... :)
Hi all,
Bucky - my grandfather used to make his own ribbon candy. It was sooooo good. When we were growing up our family( parents and 5 kids) used to start listening to Christmas music right after Thanksgiving. My sister and I loved a particular album made in 1958. It has never been made for store sales into a CD. Neither of us have CD burners for LP's. Well I found a place on line that makes copies of this album( she has the record). So I sent her a CD of it for her Dec. Birthday.
I also ordered the album and a CD for myself. It brought back memories of the special cookies we would make and putting glass wax on the windows using stencils of snowflakes and reindeer and ginger-men figures in different colors. Yes, life felt less hectic back then.
Catilee 2
That was soo nice of you.
My folks were big Grand Ole Opry fans so I have a lot of old 78 records from that era.
Maybe I should look into getting something so I can burn em on cds.
This has been the best thread. I hope that it continues cause it is so comforting to read about the "old days". They had their problems too, but life was so much simpler. For one thing, we didn't have electronics and a radio was the first electronics I remember.
I remember sitting on the floor in front of the tall radio listening to the David Stone show at noon.They played county music and would have the news and the market report.
I know that I played outside more than my grandkids do. I do have to say that our 3 boys played outside every day of the year for hours. We lived in the country and they had chores and could not sit still in the house for long.
For being such a sicko now I don't remember being that sick when I was little. I know that I played outside a lot but I don't remember having an ear infection until I was 12 years old.
Oh, remember making fudge for Christmas the old fashioned way years ago. The old fashioned way is without the marshmellow fluff. The sugar, milk, butter, cocoa and vanilla and stand at the stove holding the darn thermometer and putting a drop of fudge in the cold water to see if it formed a ball. I loved licking the pan when it was done. That is still the best stuff.
Also, going to the grocery store and buying the candy that came in the big barrels. I loved the chocolate with the white insides. The ones that looked sort of like a teepee with a rounded top.
Oh, I have to mention fruitcake. I was never crazy about it when it had so much of the candied fruit in it. I just bought a little tiny loaf a few weeks ago for me only. It is so good. Lots of nuts and none of the fruit that I don't like.
I will be 68 but it seems like today is a whole different world. When I was a young wife with little kids I would stay up into the wee hours baking for the holidays. I can remember making at least 10 different types of cookies plus many kinds of bars. I would put some on paper plates and wrap in paper and bow and give to the neighbors and also take some to work.
All that baking has gone by the wayside since women have started working full time and the kids have all gotten into sports that keep them and their parents out and about so many nights of the week.
Time to hang it up. The rain came last night and tonight the wind has started to blow. We will see what tomorrow brings. Irish Happy New Year. ;D
One of my holiday week memories was going to stay with my grandma in Grand Forks, ND. At the time I thought of it almost as punishment as she had no radio or TV. The house was two log cabins but together covered with clapboard siding. There was an oil burning heater in the living room that I had to keep fueled. Vents in the floor of the second level floor allowed heat into the bedrooms. Tucked into the back hallway closet was the toilet. The kitchen stove was a wood burner. My days were splitting wood, cleaning house, moving furniture, and helping in the kitchen. I would also empty the drip pan for the refrigerator and put the new block of Ice on top.
Grandma was in her 60's at the time. One day my uncles came over to help make lefse and klub for the big family meal. We peeled potatoes most of the morning and boiled them. We then riced all of them. Some were used for lefse but most was mixed with lard to make klub. The ham had boiled for hours before the klub bricks were dropped in the water to boil with it.
It was the last Holiday at Grandmas house. She was getting senile. After that get together she stayed with one of her kids for part of the year all year long. My aunts and uncles cleaned out her home. My mother helped her get Social Security (which was new at the time). A couple of years later she had to be put in a nursing home.
Is that a bittersweet memory Joe?
Kathyx
<<Also, going to the grocery store and buying the candy that came in the big barrels. I loved the chocolate with the white insides. The ones that looked sort of like a teepee with a rounded top.>>
Irish - I think Cracker Barrel carries those. I think they're called Cream Drops? I agree - they're goooood!! ;D
Bucky
Kathyx, one of many.
Last night, I had to work on New Years Eve. We had the restaurant decked out with white linen tablecloths and black linen wrapped silverware. It really looked sharp. (our "normal" color scheme is maroon tablecloths and linens for silverware.)
We had one "older" group (party of 14) of diners who came in and the men were in tuxedo's and the ladies in either evening gowns or dresses. They looked really,really sharp! (There's something about a guy in either a uniform or suit and tie that really, really looks nice. ;))
The way these diners were dressed reminded me of days gone by when it used to be the "norm" to "dress up" when going to a party or church. If you look back at pictures from the 40's and 50's you see how people dressed when they went out to celebrate. The ladies got all dolled up with their finest dress, shoes and jewelry and their hair all fixed up. You definitely didn't see any of the men in jeans and t-shirts!
Somewhere along the way - things changed. I still have a hard time with the way some people dress to come to church. I was brought up to wear a dress and the guys wore suits and ties. I remember my MIL saying how at her church in the south, women didn't dare come to church in slacks - it was not acceptable then. I do wear dress slacks now if it's really, really cold out. It's the shorts, jeans and flip-flops I see that still bother me.
Last nights celebration for the diners would have been so awesome if EVERYONE had dressed up for the occasion. (We don't have a "dress code" - but the ones that were dressed up looked very impressive!)
Bucky
Bucky, I PREFER dressing nicely for church, but I have 4 daughters, and I don't care what they wear (as long as it isn't torn, revealing, PJs, etc..LOL) as long as they are next to me in the pew. I don't even have a dress. When I lose weight - one of my resolutions!! - I am going to buy some pretty skirts . :)
Joe, Can you describe what klub is. I have a potato ricer and we used to have them a lot back in the early days of our marriage. I haven't made them for years. Will have to get it out and make it for the grandkids.
Also, Joe, you reminded me of when I was very young and going to see my aunt and uncle in Wisconsin. They were what would be defined as very poor. But, they didn't know it cause there was always an extra plate at the table for a guest.
She had the wood stove and baked everything in it. She did have a little refrigerator but no indoor plumbing. It was always a challenge going to visit and staying overnight. They got the water from the pump in the front yard and then kept water in a big pail in the entry with the ladle in it. Everyone drank out of it. Also, the wash basin for washing up to eat.
She had a wringer washing machine but no dryer and everything was hung on the line. Must have been so hard on her cause my uncle just sat and watched her work.
We had the newspaper in the outhouse cause they could not afford to have the toilet paper. Also had the chamber pots under the beds. All this inconvenience and yet she could bake the best biscuits and put the best meal on the table. She canned on that old wood stove but never was able to freeze food.
Bucky, you reminded me of back in the 50's when dressing up was so much more fashionable. We all wore dresses and skirt and only on Friday could we wear jeans to school. It was so much fun to shop for clothes in those days cause everything was different. Now everything looks the same and you can pretty much tell if it is from Walmart or Target.
We didn't have many clothes back then and we had to be careful with how we took care of what we had. Nothing was disposable back then. We even went to actual shoe stores to buy shoes and hat shops to buy hats. Yes, we still wore hats when I was little. Every little girl would pretty much get to have a new dress and hat for Easter and Christmas. It might be home made or even a hand me down, but it was a "special" dress.
Thanks again to all of you for sharing your memories. Joe, you live in MN also so I can relate to lots of the stuff you talk about. My MIL and FIL lived on the farm as did many of my aunts and uncles. So much history and memorable get to gethers where we butchered, canned and froze food for several families all in one day. Lots of hard work but very rewarding and fun!!! Happy New Year to all. Irish ;D
Klub is a heart attack on your plate. I think it is the reason that most of my fathers uncles died of heart failure like my dad. My uncles and aunt died from heart attack also. It used to be a meal that they had multiple times per week while growing up. It hits your stomach like a stone. It is one of the foods that they used to have on the farm before chores. It did a very good job of clogging your arteries.
It is equal portions of Pork lard and potato rolled in flour and boiled in Ham broth. The brick (dumpling) is served hot with a 1/4 pound of melted butter and several slices of ham. I do not remember the actual recipe today. It was almost as hard to cut as a piece of wood. You had to use a sharp knife like a steak knife to cut it.
Intrigued by this strange dish, I had to Google it, Joe. The potatoes are almost outweighed by the equal amount of flour used in the recipes online. Not lard mentioned, but maybe that was your family's version. Recipes called for bacon, flour, potatoes, etc... wow, definitely not heart-worthy!
One of my aunts used to fry up bacon and used the grease from that to mix with the lard. She would also include the bacon bits in the Klub. Yes it is a strange dish that some in the family view fondly like Lye soaked white fish and pickled smelt. My wife tried it once and made a polite excuse to find the restroom after having Klub. She understood my lack of desire for fish after the lye soaked white fish from a family gathering.
One of the other specialties I remember was Sweet soup. It was made with beef tongue, beef heart, and dried fruit.
As you may guess, these dishes came from the Scandawhovian side of the family.
Joe, Those old timers didn't waste anything and ate just about anything also. I could see potatoes and bacon grease with lard but to be so hard you couldn't cut it is hard to understand. It's a wonder they didn't die from scurvy cause they sure didn't eat fruits and vegies much except in the summer with the garden.
My husband remembers eating fried sweetbreads when he was little. I am thinking that was the beef brains. Something that his family also made that we did too when the kids were little is dic icky pon. I think that is the way it is spelled. Don't ask me how they came up with the name.
This is made with eggs, flour and milk and fried in a skillet. I can't remember the exact measurements but sort of like 6 eggs beaten with 1 cup flour and 1 cup of milk. Melt butter in the skillet and pour the egg mixture in and let it cook. You put a cover on and just cook it like a big omelet and never turn it. When done you cut it in pie pieces and sprinkle with sugar. It is like a tough custard that isn't very sweet.
They had to use up eggs and milk on the farm cause they had the chickens and cows. Irish ;D