Lemonade

I just came back from having my dinner, and while I was eating, I don't know why, but I thought about my aunt & uncle's house, and decided to write a little about it. I don't think I have told too many of my family about this, and I know I have never written anything about it, but I think it is worth noting. And I know, now, what made me think about it. That's almost a story in itself, but I'm going to take time to tell it. When we have seafood of any kind for dinner, we usually get a slice of two or fresh lemon. And one of the ladies who used to sit at my table would make lemonade out of her slice, so I started doing it too. Works great. We always have a four ounce glass of ice water at our setting, so I take the slice of lemon, squeeze it into the water, add a package of artificial sweetner, and Voila! Lemonade. It's good, too. But it made me remember when my aunt & uncle first built their house in 1945. I'm not sure, but I think they put electricity in the house as it was built. Their old house did not have electricity, it was built before the turn of the century. Anyway, Aunt Mable would make up a bunch of lemonade syrup - maybe a quart or more. This was just lemon juice and sugar. She would boil them together and have a nice thick lemon syrup. Just pour about 1/4 Cup of this in a large glass, add some ice and fill with water, and you had lemonade. The rest of the syrup was kept in the refrigerator for future use. So, thinking about this made me think about the rest of their house. I don't know just who designed the house, but I don't think they had an architect, a surveyor, or anything else like that, for reasons you will know as I go along. It was a three bedroom house, but it had only one bathroom. A second bath was unheard of in those days. But, the bathroom was distictive in that it was actually two rooms. The first room had the toilet and wash basin. Go through another door, and there was the bathtub. There was no shower, just the tub. But by having it in a seperate room, while one person was taking a leisurely bath, another could be using the toilet or washing their hands. It was a real neat idea. The house had a basement under the dining room and kitchen and back porch. In one corner of the kitchen, there was a "cooler" cupboard. It looked just like an ordinary cupboard, except it had no bottom to it , or any top. It just had a screen or slat floor. And all the shelves were made of slats. This allowed the cool air from the basement (cellar) to rise through this cupboard on into the attic, and this is where the butter, shortening, jams & jellies and anything else that really needed to be cooler, but did not actually need to be kept in the refrigerator stayed. Neat! In the dining room, which was designed to seat about 12 people because they always fed their harvest crews, there was a door directly to the outside. Also, on the West end, next to the kitchen, there was a built in china cabinet. Well, I guess actually you might not call it "built in" because Dad built it apart from the house, and then moved it into place, and guess what? The house was not square! See what I mean about no architect, designer, etc. Someone had screwed up and the whole house was just a little off square, so anything prebuilt would not fit. But it all worked out. In the East end of the dining room, there was a large window, and across the top of the window was a half moon shaped window which had come out of the main entrance to the old Pierce Christian College (High School) in College City. This house was built in 1945, and a lot of the lumber used in the house, and I guess some of the other things, like windows , came from this old school. I don't know if Dad tore the whole college down, but I can remember, and I would have been about 13-14 years, going with him and sitting there, knocking the square nails out of the boards as he took them off the school. I wish I had some of those nails now. You don't see square nails very often any more. Anysay, in the back porch of the house, one of the windows was a pane from a window in the science lab of the old college. There were about 7 or 8 names etched into this glass with acid. I think they were the names of the students from one of the classes. I keep speaking in the past tense, but I hope these are still there. I haven't been by the house in several years, and I have not actually been to the house since my Aunt passed away in 1971. I have no idea who is living there now, maybe one of the great grandchildren ( I hope).

In my last post I mentioned we would be attending the memorial service for a member of the family who had met a tragic death. Oh, please, if there is any way possible, keep in touch with the members of your family. I mentioned in my post that this young man was in his 30's and left small children. Shoot, he was 40, and his children are at least in their teens now. How times do pass. I think that I mentioned that I have lost most of my contact with the family, especially since I established my relationship with another mate. But it was good to see them again, I just didn't relize how people can change in 15 or 20 years. One of the "kids" I still think of as a teen-ager, is soon to be a grandfather. Wow!! There are plans in the wind now for a huge family reunion next fall, and I sure hope it materialzes.

Guess this is a good place to stop - when I get wound up, I could go on and on, but I'll keep some for next time.

See ya -