Grandma and yeast bread and quick bread

When I grew up I lived close to Grandmother, my dad's mother. Grandma, my mother's mother lived further away and I did not know her as well. Both of my grandmothers raised families and farmed with her children as each lost her husband early. Grandmother farmed with her 4 sons, though she had 7 in all. She lost 3 as little children. She fed her boys yeast bread. Once a week she would make a large batch of loaves of bread to feed the family. Grandma had 2 sons who worked the farm with her help and training and also a lot of daughters. She and her daughters made bread fresh every day- cornbread and biscuits. When my mother and dad married my dad loved the quick breads that mother made. He considered that far superior to the yeast bread he grew up on. As I child I would often go to Grandmother's for a visit. She would give me bread and jam and I loved that, since I had biscuits and cornbread at home. If I went to Grandma's I usually got homesick because I did not go as often, and if I did, I was sometimes supposed to spend the night. Later in life as I learned to cook I did the quick breads, but never could make biscuits as well as my mother. She kept a cloth rolled up on the kitchen counter and made the biscuits on it each morning. Then she would wash the cloth once a week. I did not make yeast bread.

I didn't have skates

When I was a girl I didn't have skates like the girls in town. I wanted skates, but where would I skate on the farm? I did walk the fence top around the house. Then Mother took that out so the house would look more like a plantation home with the big yard out front. Closer to the house was where we played croquet and further down the way, in the grove, was the basketball court. The main gate was down by the spring and the barn.

I didn't skate, but I would catch a mule and go for a ride, or go down to the barn and play with a newborn calf. I had the feeling that some of the mothers of my friends in town did not approve of me. I was a tomboy and liked sports. I earned some money picking peaches or berries and I asked Forest to go to town and buy me a rope and tie it up high in the tree out in the yard. I learned to swing around and around that tree. I was a human tether ball. I learned to twist myself as I went around the tree so that I would always hit the tree trunk with my feet and push off again. Kids would come to our house and see me do that, and they would try it. But they would hit their backs on the tree trunk. I would show off for them. I feel bad about that- well, a little bit.

I didn't get to skate, but the boys played a game called mumble-peg. You take a pocket knife and open it to the shape of an L and then you throw it and try to get it to stick in the ground. I would challenge Jim, but I was never any good at it.

I always wanted to skate, but we had a swing on a tree up by the house. We would carry the swing up onto the roof and get in the swing and jump off. All of us except for John. He was afraid of heights. Even in the barn, dad could not ask him to go high into the loft. My dad was never afraid of heights, so I don't know why John was. None of the rest of us were.

(NOTE: I have a picture of me on a skate at probably less than 2 yrs old. Now I think I know why!-- Mom)

Halloween long ago

When I was a girl Halloween was celebrated with parties and bonfires
and practical jokes. The first time I ever heard of "Trick or Treat"
was when Edd and I were traveling and were in Wyoming. This was before
Leahbeth was born. Some children knocked on the door all dressed
funny and said, "Trick or Treat." We had no idea what they were
taking about. When I was a girl we sometimes had friends over to our
house for a bonfire. We had a place for a big fire in the grove in
front of the house. We would roast marshmallows and tell stories and
sing. The singing was great. Lester and Forest had friends who could
sing well and they would sing so loud. I loved it. Being in the
country, they could sing as loud as they wanted to. Most of the
parties were in town, so I missed most of those. Some of the pranks
played were common ones, like turning over outhouses. But one year
some big boys were somehow able to get a cow into the schoolhouse.
That was quite a surprise to everyone the next morning!! Happy
Halloween!!

Did you have any songs you sang?

When I was in school we had what was called "Chapel" about 9:00. School started about 8:00, but around 9:00 we all gathered in the big room. There was a lot of singing. We had songbooks. I have a copy of my mother's song book. Its called "The Everybody Sing Book". It cost 25 cents. It was copyrighted in 1930, but the books we used at school were similar. I probably had a more original form of this book. The forward of Mother's book says, "Nevertheless, although EVERYBODY SING, even in its original form, would logically be expected to reach increasingly greater heights of public acceptance, its publishers are not content to see it remain a static, inflexible collection of songs. They wish it to be entirely elastic in the adjustment of its contents to the shifting trends in public taste."

The songs in the songbook are divided into what are called "Classified Groupings." Mixed Voice Songs, Interchangeable Songs, Hymns and Carols, Unison Songs, and Song Texts.

The book starts with the patriotic songs and I liked those the most probably because everyone sang the loudest on those songs. My favorite song was Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Here are some of the songs (there are 128 pages) to give you a flavor of what we grew up singing.

The usual patriotic songs

The Christmas carols

Yankee Doodle

Dixie

Old Folks at Home

Old Black Joe

My Old Kentucky Home

Oh! Susanna

Home Sweet Home

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

When You and I were Young, Maggie

Good -Bye My Lover Good -Bye

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Some Folks Do

Billy Boy

Little Brown Church in the Vale

Scotland's Burning (round)

Nobody Knows the Trouble I See

Three Blind Mice

O My Darling Clementine

Man's Life's a Vapor

Go Down, Moses

Santa Lucia

Row Your Boat

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny

I've Been Working on the Railroad

Bring the Wagon Home, John

Oh, Eveline

There's Music in the Air

You Tell me Your Dream, I'll Tell You Mine

Aura Lee

On a Chinese Honeymoon

Dinah, Won't you Blow

De Camptown Races

The Old Gray Mare

Home on the Range

Down in the Valley

Red River Valley

My Bonnie

The Quilting Party

Goodnight Ladies

Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

Holy, Holy, Holy

Now the Day is Over

Faith of our Fathers

Cielito Lindo

Beautiful Dreamer

Didn't my Lord Deliver Daniel?

Ezekiel Saw De Wheel

All God's Chillun Got Wings

Are You Sleeping"

Little Annie Rooney

Daisy Bell

Oh, Dem Golden Slippers

Loch Lomond

La Cucaracha

She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain

Funiculli, Funicula

Blow The Man Down

I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen

The More We Get Together

When the Bees are in the Hive

The Rose of Tralee

The Merry Widow Waltz

Vilia

Of course there are more, but you get the idea.

Did your mother work outside the home?

Bessie Able Neergaard, Mother - 1930 - Age 65

No. She helped on the farm and had a large vegetable garden. She raised chickens to sell in town to the residences there. She also had laying hens and sold eggs by the crate to the stores in town. One year she raised turkeys to sell at Thanksgiving. In the summer we helped. We picked berries, peaches etc for canning that we would use all winter. My mother quilted for warmth on cold winter nights. She sewed and made my clothes.

What did your father do for a living?

Farmer.

What is the date and circumstances of your Father's birth?

John Theodore Neergaard - 07 Feb 1880

Dad was born on a farm on the Tennessee River, about 3 miles out of Kingston, Roane, TN. The Doctor was probably Dr. John Patton, a grandfather who was a family doctor and came on horseback.

What is the date and circumstances of your Mother's birth?

Bessie Ophelia Able - 09 Feb 1885

Mother was born at home a couple miles out of Rockwood, Roane, TN. Several other Abel families lived on this road. She was the 9th child in a family of 10 children. There were 2 boys, the rest were girls.

Name your brothers and sisters, the years of their birth

1927 - Jim - Area where we played catch and other sports

Ruth 02 Apr 1905, died 15 Jun 1905 - My dad said she had the bluest eyes.

John Robbs, 29 Apr 1906 died 17 Feb 1987

William Forest 15 Jan 1908, died 11 Jun 2003

George Lester 04 Nov 1909, died 26 Mar 1996

James Theodore 18 Mar 1912, died 24 Sept 1998

Pauline 24 Sept 1913

How to kill a chicken

I have watched my mother kill a chicken many times. Here are two ways to do it. There might be more. One is to grab the chicken by the head and with a good snap start to twirl it round and round. Soon the chicken is off in the yard and the head is in your hand. You go pick the chicken up and pull out the feathers. The second way is the pick up the chicken and tuck the chicken under your arm with its head tucked in also. Then your rock the chicken a minute or so and it will be dizzy and you can lay its neck out neatly on the stump and chop its head off with the ax.