Happy Birthday, Lil Brother !
I very well recall your Birth Day as well as Ron's, Linda's, and Morris David's! Having an addition to the family was always an exciting time in our household. I'm sure I was just as excited about Brother Bernie's Birth Day, but probably gave him undue grief as a just older brother!
Gerald, you were great fun and the fun was not ALWAYS at your expense. One of the nice things about you being younger is that I can recall and relate memories that you may just as soon not have related! But, I will not get into those today. As a celebration of your day, I'll take you and Brenda out to lunch on Monday if you are open. That will give me an opportunity to load up your fire wood gift (the birthday boy is suppose to get a gift, not give gifts, but again. . . ) to give some traction just in case the snow gets bad while I am in Lexington. Then I can come by and pick up Dexter on Thursday after the meeting closes (hopefully by 3 PM).
We enjoyed the views of ice and snow though it was sure good to continue to have electric for heat though we were without TV cable and internet access for several days and then the phone decided to join the TV & computer so off it went for a day plus (all come in on the same line). I was with Morris David yesterday and they have much more damage on their homestead and in their area than we have.
Saw Mom several times this week; I often wheel her about and she enjoyed seeing the sun outside this morning much more than the views of ice and snow earlier in the week (She doesn't care for winter weather). She asked about or made comments about all of you as I related what information I had. Gerald, she indicated that we needed to send you a birthday card for your birthday and then related the story about your concern and perplexity because we gave you grief over not getting out to see your shadow and of her reassuring you that you had a special birthday. Yes, you are a special brother with a birthday on a special day.
In talking with her about the economy, she repeated the old Depression saying of "Use it up, make it do, or do without." For a while she gave me trouble about leaving this morning when I told her that I would go on and eat my lunch as they had brought hers. "Why are you leaving now with all this to eat here?" We need to just enjoy her for what we have and that she can still talk and that she generally recognizes us.
Have a good Monday, Brother! I'll see you then if it fits into your schedule. Le me add my congratulations on completing your book. I also look forward to reading it.
Love, Boo
3 comments:
(Gerald)
Thanks for the accolades. Look forward to seeing you Monday and Thursday. I told Bernie you would be in Lexington and he should get together with you if you have any free time.
One of those things I did as a kid that I know you did not appreciate was when I threw a big dirt clod into your full bucket of freshly milked milk. I meant to hit YOU with the clod but it went right into the bucket! I figured you would kill me but you never showed any disdain, so thank you for being nice.
gem
"Still in One Peace"
(Kenn)
Awwwwwwwwr! A big dirt clod!
What did you do with the milk? Did you tell Momma, or did you just scoop it out and pass the milk on as pure and natural??????
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That brings back memories--of milking,. etc. When we were at the Lowe's place, we milked 20 cows, twice a day, by hand--Dad, myself, Kelly, Boo, and I think, Bernie. Twice a day. If one guy went to town on Saturay, the other s had to make up!
And, at Preston's place we had only six cows;mostly it was Dad, Kelly, and mys elf then who did the feeding and milking and then the cream separator, which Boo helped with . Mom would take her cream bucket to the creamery in Columbia on Saturdays, they would use a Babcock centrifuge to test the butterfat, and she would get a CHECK for that cream, which, along with her egg money, helped to buy necessities.
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But, back to the Lowe's farm, 1949-50-51. At Prestons, we were just a family operation, which was very common. I don't know what they did with the cream; probably to butter and cheese factories etc. But the Lowe operation was a commercial enterprise, and we sold via a co[-op, or a commercial company.
The milk would be strained via a large stainless steel funnel with a filter, into a larrge (10 gallon?) milk can; those cans would be kept cool in a tank of water, and then picked up the next morning by a large truck, running a pick-up route. . We usually had 3 or 4 cans , as I recall. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall.
But--we did not wash the udders or the teats of the cows, nor did we use gloves or wash our hands before milking. And, if cow hair, flies, straw, bits of manur e or mud go into the funnel, well, that was part of the process, and that was what the filter was theoretically for. I have seen all of thes mentioned delicacies on the strainer funnel. . One of my skills was to see how many flies I could knock off with a stream of milk fro m the cow's teat or leg. Occasxionally one or two fell into the pail. That was not encouraged, but it was not a "get a whipping offense." , from our supervisor (Dad). He would just say "Milk as clean as you can, boys"
Man, what bacteria we must hav transposed! Salmonella, Shigella, E Coli, Campylobacter, various streptococci and acid fast bacteria ! Wow! I shudder to think what we did!
(Boo, was there some sort of additive chemical pwoder thad we added , occasionally, to the cans, to help keep the bacteria count down? Maybe--citric acid , or such?)
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But, strangely enough, we sold the milk, and we drank the milk. And, we never got sick! The non-pasteurized, non-homogenized, cream topped, , spring cooled milk from the farm was the best I have drunk. And, even beter, the home chruned buttermilk. You see, we would take whole "clabbered" milk, put it in a churn (a jar, a pottery churn, etc,) and agitate it until we had clumps of delicious butter, remove the main parts of the butter; and there woud be thes e little flakes of butter in the buttermilk. Upon "manye-a-time", that, plus a chunk of cornbread put dogethere and called milkanbread, was supper. With probably some pinto beans with pepper sauce thrown in made a good supper.
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I still like buttermilk, which, my wife cannot understand. (Montana city girl) And of course the current Bacillus acidopholus cultured milk, even though it contains the good old alpha-hydroxy-propionic acid (lactic acid, just like dill pickles and yogurt) isn't the same. (I put that last sentence in there just to brag. One of the very few things I remember from Organic Chemistry 101 from Prof Julian Capps at Berea.... I sent him a post card from Loouisville once,m when Kelly ands I were were working at the Hirsch Bros. Pickle Factory in the pickle vat area, in 1953, wasn't it, Kelly?)
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Hasn't life changed, so much?
And, comparing our very primitive sanitation things way back when, with brothers throwing mud etc, into the milk pail, and we were healthy--and now--"dozens of deaths attributed to Salmonella poisoning from peanut butter cookies!"---what a change.
Thanks for writing and giving me a flashback to "the good ole days".
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And, if I forget, GEM, Happy Birthday, on Feb 2 which I think is Monday. I was going to pass along a very fine secret of coping with growing old, but heck, I done forgot what it is ...But I do not have trouble remembering GEM's birthday. Groundhog Day. How can you forget that? I remember mine, because it is the same as Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, although, I am not really too proud of that association. Would have rather been Abe Lincoln's birthday.
Kenn
There are those of us in natural health who believe that pasteurized, homogenized milk is not food for anything & not fit for consumption. Raw milk is much healthier & has higher health standards these days.
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