Wednesday, March 15, 2023

SOL 15/31: Kitchen Memories

Funny how easily I can be transported into the kitchen where I grew up. It was U-shaped and  tiny by today's standards. We had a small eating area off the U-shaped kitchen work space. That space included a stove, a counter, the kitchen sink, a tiny bit more counter that always held a red dish draining rack, and a harvest gold refrigerator that stood on the wall opposite the gas stove. Refrigerators weren't built in then, they just jutted out in the middle of the room. There was one small window between the refrigerator and the tiny bit of counter. 

My dad was almost always outside either in the garden or his workshop. He mounted a bell on the outside wall of the house. Then he drilled a hold that held a wire that you could push from inside the house to ring the bell. That's how my mom called my dad to come inside for dinner, or a phone call, of if someone needed him. Necessity was the mother of invention. We didn't have cell phones in our pockets then.

Two of my favorite items in that kitchen were the pull-out dough board and the square tin of flour in the cupboard just beside the sink. I think my dad built that pull-out board where thousands of biscuits and hundred of pie crusts were rolled out. He was good at building things, especially when they made life easier for my mom. The square "tin" of flour could hold 25 pounds of flour. My dad built a wooden lid with a round drawer pull on the top to fit securely into the top of the metal canister of flour.

Shortly before the pandemic began, I decided it was time to have containers that held more than five pounds of sugar or flour. I ordered two circular bins with screw top lids. It's brought a wonderful sense of satisfaction to know that I have plenty of flour and sugar for my baking needs. And I feel a bit closer to that kitchen I grew up in with it's metal flour container with the wooden top that could hold 25 pounds of flour! 

This is my twelfth year to write a slice of life each day during the month of March.  Thank you Two Writing Teachers for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.   

5 comments:

  1. Dishes clanging. Stains on walls. Using the wrong utensils to cook things because we didn't have the right ones. Potato pancakes and tea bags in the sink. Seeing my mom's face in the small window above the sink as I walked home from school. Endless dishes.
    Great prompt and slice. I am in love with your Dad's pull out dough board.

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  2. Ramona, you Dad was quite inventive. I think that in itself is a great memory of your kitchen. Kitchens are always the heart of a home. When we were little, we had an attached table jut out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The phone with a very long cord was right above it. We thought we were very trendy. I remember Friday night fish brought home by my mother because back then Catholics did not eat meat on Fridays throughout the year.

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  3. Such vivid memories! From the house I lived in when very young, I don’t remember the actual kitchen, but a “play” kitchen in an outdoor building behind the house. The house we lived in during elementary school years was small, and it was an eat-in kitchen. I remember the fridge with rounded corners with one corner that was whiter than the rest because my uncle always stood there with his hand on that corner… you would think it would have been dirtier than the rest, but it wasn’t. I also remember the sink in that kitchen because of epic battles my sister and I would have when we were supposed to be doing the dishes. The kitchen of the house of my high school years was larger. It had a window over the sink. I remember holiday baking, and “dressing” for the turkey dinner being prepped there… one of the few cooperative cooking efforts of my mom and dad. Yes, the kitchen is the heart of home. (We never lived in a house with a dining room!)

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  4. This kitchen sounds lovely, as does your dad. I live in an old farmhouse built in 1900. My kitchen is not big. I have a cupboard that pulls out that I think used to store something like flour.

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  5. I was amazed that my daughter-in-law's grandmother had big drawers in her kitchen for flour and sugar. It was so cool.

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