Emily had a good day today.
She is beginning to find it rewarding to share her memories with a larger audience and in writing. She has so many memories and her stories have always been entertaining and have given her listeners a glimpse into her perception of the events in her life.
Here's an observation. A week or two ago we had some big wind in the neighborhood and damage to lots of trees. A tree man came in to the neighborhood and did work for several people, and several other people did work themselves, trimming up trees, removing several that were damaged pretty badly and trimming up lots of others. Mom got the tree man to promise her some of the wood he was cutting, but before he could get it to her someone took it. So Alan and Lynn got the truck and loaded up some wood from a different pile that had not been cut into such nice lengths. It's been parked at her house for a week or so awaiting someone to have enough energy or endurance in the cold to unload it. In the meantime, she was taking logs off the truck and burning them in the fireplace. Yesterday, she decided that she didn't want to wait around for someone to come unload the truck, so she did it herself! She also called a fellow and got a load of firewood delivered and stacked in the side yard.
Emily's always loved a fire, and she's all set now!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
January 12, 2010
Emily remembers:
The cook stove (range) was always one of the main features of the kitchen. It served the Van Sant family faithfully for all the years I was growing up and beyond. The stove provided three meals a day every day.
My first memory of the 'stove' was when we lived at West Liberty, a small county seat town in northeastern KY. The stove was very large; black enamel with silver trim and equipped to use either natural gas or wood. Mother cooked with gas at West Liberty. At all the other places we lived, she used wood. Coal was never used for cooking! When using wood, the whole top of the stove got hot,so you could place cooking vessels all over the top.
I learned to cook on the wood burning stove. One of the first foods I cooked was a cake. The critical thing in baking a cake was to regulate the oven temperature which was done by the amount of wood to be placed in the firebox. The temperature gauge said 'moderate' for a cake.
A fascinating feature of the stove was a big unusual word placed prominently on the oven door. It was KALAMAZOO. I later learned that there is a place by that name in Michigan!
From Mother's cookbook.
Plain Cake
Milk 11/8 cups
Flour (soft wheat) 3 cups
Fat 1/3 cup
Eggs 1
Baking powder 5 teaspoons
Sugar 11/4 cups
Salt 1/4 teaspoon
Flavoring 1/2 teaspoon
Cake Method:
Cream fat well. (I used lard) Add sugar gradually. Beat yolks until thick and add to creamed sugar and butter. Sift together dry ingredients. (Flour should always be sifted before it is measured.) Add dry ingredients and milk alternately. Beat or stir batter only enough to make it smooth. Add flavoring. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
This recipe gives ingredients for A Foundation cake or a Rich cake by increasing the amounts fat, eggs and sugar.
Equipment :
Tablespoon for creaming and mixing egg beater, teaspoon, teacup
My first memory of the 'stove' was when we lived at West Liberty, a small county seat town in northeastern KY. The stove was very large; black enamel with silver trim and equipped to use either natural gas or wood. Mother cooked with gas at West Liberty. At all the other places we lived, she used wood. Coal was never used for cooking! When using wood, the whole top of the stove got hot,so you could place cooking vessels all over the top.
I learned to cook on the wood burning stove. One of the first foods I cooked was a cake. The critical thing in baking a cake was to regulate the oven temperature which was done by the amount of wood to be placed in the firebox. The temperature gauge said 'moderate' for a cake.
A fascinating feature of the stove was a big unusual word placed prominently on the oven door. It was KALAMAZOO. I later learned that there is a place by that name in Michigan!
From Mother's cookbook.
Plain Cake
Milk 11/8 cups
Flour (soft wheat) 3 cups
Fat 1/3 cup
Eggs 1
Baking powder 5 teaspoons
Sugar 11/4 cups
Salt 1/4 teaspoon
Flavoring 1/2 teaspoon
Cake Method:
Cream fat well. (I used lard) Add sugar gradually. Beat yolks until thick and add to creamed sugar and butter. Sift together dry ingredients. (Flour should always be sifted before it is measured.) Add dry ingredients and milk alternately. Beat or stir batter only enough to make it smooth. Add flavoring. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
This recipe gives ingredients for A Foundation cake or a Rich cake by increasing the amounts fat, eggs and sugar.
Equipment :
Tablespoon for creaming and mixing egg beater, teaspoon, teacup
Monday, January 11, 2010
January 11, 2010
Emily continues to reminisce -
Team work
A wash tub could hold at least 10 or 12 gallons of water. So to make the task of getting the wash water , two people could carry a tub full from the well to the house. Tom was about a year and a half younger than I. We were assigned to carry wash water by tub. At that time I was into my growth spurt. Tom had not begun his, so he was smaller than I was. It was very necessary to keep the load balanced. Sometimes some of the water would splash over the side. Once when that happened, Tom just yanked his side up and let all the water fill my shoes! We decided the best solution was to refrain from reporting the incident to our parents. We returned to the well and proceeded to keep that load carefully balanced.
Few families had a refrigerator. Many had a spring house which was a small structure built over a spring or a cool part of a stream of water. This provided a place to keep milk, butter and eggs from spoiling. We were one of the families that did not have a spring house. Some people put their milk down into the well. Daddy and Mother thought the milk might spill and ruin the well water. In the summer time we cooled the milk with well water, placing the buckets of milk in a wash tub and pouring fresh water around it. The water needed to be changed during the day. The water that had warmed up was used for cooking and etc. It seemed to me that I carried enough water to fill an ocean!
Tom was an extremely brilliant child. There was a grove of mature oak trees between the house and the well. Tom made a road all the way through the grove for toy cars which included tunnels, bridges etc., working on it most of one summer. His tool for making the 'long way road' was a hoe blade.
Team work
A wash tub could hold at least 10 or 12 gallons of water. So to make the task of getting the wash water , two people could carry a tub full from the well to the house. Tom was about a year and a half younger than I. We were assigned to carry wash water by tub. At that time I was into my growth spurt. Tom had not begun his, so he was smaller than I was. It was very necessary to keep the load balanced. Sometimes some of the water would splash over the side. Once when that happened, Tom just yanked his side up and let all the water fill my shoes! We decided the best solution was to refrain from reporting the incident to our parents. We returned to the well and proceeded to keep that load carefully balanced.
Few families had a refrigerator. Many had a spring house which was a small structure built over a spring or a cool part of a stream of water. This provided a place to keep milk, butter and eggs from spoiling. We were one of the families that did not have a spring house. Some people put their milk down into the well. Daddy and Mother thought the milk might spill and ruin the well water. In the summer time we cooled the milk with well water, placing the buckets of milk in a wash tub and pouring fresh water around it. The water needed to be changed during the day. The water that had warmed up was used for cooking and etc. It seemed to me that I carried enough water to fill an ocean!
Tom was an extremely brilliant child. There was a grove of mature oak trees between the house and the well. Tom made a road all the way through the grove for toy cars which included tunnels, bridges etc., working on it most of one summer. His tool for making the 'long way road' was a hoe blade.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
January 10, 2010
Mt. Victory was located on a ridge about half way between Somerset and London, KY. There were no water sources nearby such as a branch, creek, or river. Our water was carried from a dug well. And carrying water was a job delegated to the children. Our well was about four feet in diameter and about 15 feet deep. The perimeter was lined with stones and there was a concrete base and box at the top. The water was drown in a 3 gal zinc well bucket attached to a chain or rope. The well was located about 3 or 4 football field lengths from the house. It seemed like a half mile to me! All water for cooking , drinking, bathing, and laundry, etc. had to be carried.
Wash day was just that, a day's work for a big family. Since Mother was a school teacher, our wash day was usually on Saturday. I remember our gasoline engine Maytag washing machine which was on the back porch, put-putting all day long.
Washday required water to be carried to the house the day before. It took at least a dozen trips to the well unless two people took one of the big tubs, filled it at the well, and carried it back. One large tub of water was heated early that morning to go into the washing machine and two additional large tubs were used for rinsing. All the clothes and linens were hung on clothes lines outside. If more space was needed some things would be hung on the garden fence. In winter time it was not unusual for the clothing to freeze.
I have a memory of Dan at about 13 or 14 years old one summertime wearing no shirt, just a suntan, carrying water in 5 gallon lard cans of water on his shoulder. It took lots of trips to make enough for washday!
Wash day was just that, a day's work for a big family. Since Mother was a school teacher, our wash day was usually on Saturday. I remember our gasoline engine Maytag washing machine which was on the back porch, put-putting all day long.
Washday required water to be carried to the house the day before. It took at least a dozen trips to the well unless two people took one of the big tubs, filled it at the well, and carried it back. One large tub of water was heated early that morning to go into the washing machine and two additional large tubs were used for rinsing. All the clothes and linens were hung on clothes lines outside. If more space was needed some things would be hung on the garden fence. In winter time it was not unusual for the clothing to freeze.
I have a memory of Dan at about 13 or 14 years old one summertime wearing no shirt, just a suntan, carrying water in 5 gallon lard cans of water on his shoulder. It took lots of trips to make enough for washday!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
January 9, 2009
Emily reports:
I undecorated the Christmas tree today. January 6th is Epiphany. which once celebrated both the birth and baptism of Jesus and later the visit of the Magi. Some people referred to it as "Old Christmas." Having a Christmas tree helps me remember when our children were little. So when I decorate for Christmas I am thinking of some very special times as we celebrated God's gift to the world.
A cold day 17 - 26 degrees.This was a special day to remember a brother on his birthday. I think
Dan would have been 86 today. His name, Daniel Milton VanSant. came from mother's family. There was a Daniel Shearer and mother was Jesse Milton. Her Grandfather was Granville Milton Jones. Dan was very protected brother and a highly intelligent person. He was a handsome boy with dark hair and brown eyes. He was fast promoted in elementary school and stayed home from high school one semester to take care of our little sisters, Frances and Joyce. That was probably 1939. Frances had a little kitten and if the girls misbehaved, he would get the kitten and some wire pliers and pretend to pull its teeth! They didn't want that kitten's teeth pulled!
Frances and Joyce were very close in age.Frances was just two when Joyce was born. They were good playmates. I was almost 6 when Frances was born. Daddy assigned me to entertain them and keep them safe. I took the job very seriously. The three of us shared a bed. I was in the middle.There were seven boys in the family. I liked my brothers most of the time. They were protective but liked to tease me. I adored my little sisters. Mama, (Grandmother VanSant) and our aunts made darling little dresses for them. They were dressed alike. All little girls wore dresses.
They were creative in their play. A hay rake might be a bank teller's window. Daisies could be fried eggs and Junebugs buzzing in a cold cream jar would be a boiling pot of beans. They liked to sing and folks at the country store across the road were an appreciative audiance.
Dan finished high school at mid-term at age 16. He went to the Uinversity of Kentucky and was with Ben for his first year. Being in ROTC at the University, Dan was activated and had OCS ( Officers Candidate School) at Ft. Benning, GA
I undecorated the Christmas tree today. January 6th is Epiphany. which once celebrated both the birth and baptism of Jesus and later the visit of the Magi. Some people referred to it as "Old Christmas." Having a Christmas tree helps me remember when our children were little. So when I decorate for Christmas I am thinking of some very special times as we celebrated God's gift to the world.
A cold day 17 - 26 degrees.This was a special day to remember a brother on his birthday. I think
Dan would have been 86 today. His name, Daniel Milton VanSant. came from mother's family. There was a Daniel Shearer and mother was Jesse Milton. Her Grandfather was Granville Milton Jones. Dan was very protected brother and a highly intelligent person. He was a handsome boy with dark hair and brown eyes. He was fast promoted in elementary school and stayed home from high school one semester to take care of our little sisters, Frances and Joyce. That was probably 1939. Frances had a little kitten and if the girls misbehaved, he would get the kitten and some wire pliers and pretend to pull its teeth! They didn't want that kitten's teeth pulled!
Frances and Joyce were very close in age.Frances was just two when Joyce was born. They were good playmates. I was almost 6 when Frances was born. Daddy assigned me to entertain them and keep them safe. I took the job very seriously. The three of us shared a bed. I was in the middle.There were seven boys in the family. I liked my brothers most of the time. They were protective but liked to tease me. I adored my little sisters. Mama, (Grandmother VanSant) and our aunts made darling little dresses for them. They were dressed alike. All little girls wore dresses.
They were creative in their play. A hay rake might be a bank teller's window. Daisies could be fried eggs and Junebugs buzzing in a cold cream jar would be a boiling pot of beans. They liked to sing and folks at the country store across the road were an appreciative audiance.
Dan finished high school at mid-term at age 16. He went to the Uinversity of Kentucky and was with Ben for his first year. Being in ROTC at the University, Dan was activated and had OCS ( Officers Candidate School) at Ft. Benning, GA
January 9, 2009
Today Emily spent the day at home. It's cold in Chattanooga, so she had a fire going to take the chill off in the house. She has made a resolution to work on her organization. She is spending part of most days doing something large or small in that area. While her computer was being worked on, she took the opportunity to work on the office area where the computer usually is. She made a big dent in getting it straightened out.
Today Amy came over and helped her out some. Many years ago, a young pastor named Martin Rudolph and his wife Margie served the church in Mount Victory. They became friends of the family and over the years, Emily and Gene kept up with them - seeing them from time to time. Some years ago after Lynn moved to Chattanooga, she discovered that Shirley, the Rudolphs daughter lived nearby. Amy is Shirley's daughter.
When Emily and Gene moved to Chattanooga, one of their first connections was with the Rudolphs. They enjoyed re-establishing the relationship. Shirley and her children have continued to be a support for Emily, and she often has Amy do work around the house.
Today Amy came over and helped her out some. Many years ago, a young pastor named Martin Rudolph and his wife Margie served the church in Mount Victory. They became friends of the family and over the years, Emily and Gene kept up with them - seeing them from time to time. Some years ago after Lynn moved to Chattanooga, she discovered that Shirley, the Rudolphs daughter lived nearby. Amy is Shirley's daughter.
When Emily and Gene moved to Chattanooga, one of their first connections was with the Rudolphs. They enjoyed re-establishing the relationship. Shirley and her children have continued to be a support for Emily, and she often has Amy do work around the house.
Friday, January 8, 2010
January 8, 2010
Today Emily went with Lynn to her last radiation treatment. The techs allowed her to accompany Lynn into the treatment room and then explained exactly how they line up the body for treatment. They showed her the lasers that they use to line up the body and explained how the big machine they use works. Of course, she had to leave the room when they actually did the treatment - no one can be in the room.
In the afternoon, she spent lots of time working around the house on the organization that she has promised herself for this new year. Today she worked on her collection of magazines. It has been awfully cold all day long, but she has stayed warm and has had a fire. This evening she went with Alan and Lynn to Mizpah for Friday evening services and a dinner.
In the afternoon, she spent lots of time working around the house on the organization that she has promised herself for this new year. Today she worked on her collection of magazines. It has been awfully cold all day long, but she has stayed warm and has had a fire. This evening she went with Alan and Lynn to Mizpah for Friday evening services and a dinner.
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