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World War II brought on many changes – production of cars, trucks and tractors was diverted to supporting the war effort and commodities were rationed. Being three years old when the war started, it was during the war years that I have my first memories of my grandparents.
Rationing
With the onset of World War II, the government found it necessary to ration commodities. Food coupons were distributed based on family size, and the coupon book allowed the holder to buy a scheduled specified amount. In addition to food, rationing also encompassed clothing, shoes, coffee, gasoline, tires, and fuel oil. Possession of a coupon did not guarantee that the item would be available. For more about WWII living with rationing, See: United State History World War II Rationing
The Studebaker dealer made an attractive offer to my father on a new car in the late fall of 1941 to clear inventory and make room for the next year models. My father purchased the car before we made a trip to Nebraska to visit family. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the next month after we returned and the dealer never received 1942 model cars. We did have a reliable car for the war years, but with the rationing our family was not able to make another long trip.
Gardening
Grandmother Kirmse maintained a large garden north of the farmhouse. It was a delight to pick and eat green peas fresh out of the pod and if one picked the immature pea pods they could be eaten whole. Cucumbers, melons, radishes and lettuce grew well. There were only a few scrawny fruit trees – they did not grow well in Oklahoma and the fruit that they did bear had to immediately be gathered before the birds took more than their share. There was a large mulberry tree on the side of the driveway that produced abundant berries. If someone would pick and wash the mature berries that fell to the ground, Grandmother would make a delicious mulberry jam.
Canning and Preserving
Fresh vegetables were available during the spring, summer and early fall. Canning was done to preserve these foods for the off growing season. I remember Grandmother filling jars, lightly screwing on the top, cooking the jars in a large pressure cooker on a coal fired stove, then removing the jars from the hot steaming water with thongs and quickly screwing tight the caps to form a vacuum. When peaches were available from Georgia during the summer, they were also blanched, peeled, stones removed and canned.
Chickens and Eggs
My grandparents had two chicken houses on their farmyard to produce and sell eggs. Grandmother would take me with her to gather the eggs that the chickens laid in nest boxes on the walls of the chicken house. Sometimes there were hens on the nests when we were gathering the eggs. Grandmother had a way of being able to withdraw the eggs without disturbing the flighty Leghorn hens. Not me, the hens would peck hard enough to draw blood and then flog me in the face while escaping from the nest box when I attempted to gather the eggs from under a sitting hen.
Butchering
Meat was supplemented from various sources including wild rabbits and occasional quail as well as catfish from nearby creeks. In the late fall, a family butchering operation of cattle and hogs took place. Fattened calves were killed, hoisted up and their jugular veins were severed to let the animal bleed out. Following that the animal was skinned, gutted and cut into meat chunks. Fattened hogs were killed, hoisted up and their jugular veins were severed to let the animals bleed out. Each animal was dipped into a wooden barrel of boiling water that was bucketed from two large cauldrons in the farmyard. Then the hog was scraped to remove hairs. Following that the animal was gutted and cut into meat chunks.
Soap
The fat was rendered in the same cauldrons that had been used to heat the boiling water. Some of the fat was stored as lard. Lye was mixed into the remaining fat to make soap. The next day, after the lye-fat mixture had cooled and solidified and was still soft, cubes of lye soap were cut from the mass and laid out to dry in the sun. During the year, this harsh lye soap was used for hand washing and bathing. Some of the bars of lye soap were hand shredded to provide “powdered” soap for washing clothes.
Sausage
Sausage was made by hand grinding meat – pork and/or beef and highly seasoning the meat with lots with pepper and other spices. The intestines were cleaned with lye water and filled using a hand cranked sausage maker. Guess who got the “privilege” of turning the crank while an adult threaded the intestines to make the sausages.
Food Preservation
There were no household mechanical refrigerators until after the war. Instead various methods were used to preserve food stuffs. An ice man came by about once a week to supply ice for the kitchen ice box. I remember that he would often give us children a chip of ice which was an exotic treat particularly during the hot Oklahoma summers. Some meats were cured and most cuts of meat were wrapped and stored in frozen lockers at a refrigerated ice house in Alva.
Milking
My grandparents maintained a herd of milk cows to produce and sell cream during the war years. The milking chore was generally completed by the men of the household, but during the busy harvest and planting seasons this duty fell to the women of the house. I was fascinated with the milking operation and sometimes was given the “opportunity” to hand crank the cream separator. My grandparents milking operation contrasted with that of my folks who maintained a single Guernsey milk cow to supply the household milk instead a herd of Holstein milk cows. Butter was made by churning cream and we kids often got the “privilege” of hand cranking the churn.
Cooking
Grandmother prepared delectable, healthy meals. I remember her crispy fried chicken. Preparing the fried chicken was a process: Grandmother would catch and twist off the neck of a chicken and then hold it to bleed out, dip the bird in a bucket of boiling water heated on the coal fired stove, pluck the feathers, singe the bird over the flames on the stove to remove the hairs, butcher the chicken, flour the parts and fry them in a skillet on the stove. I never gained the skill of being able to twist off the heads of chickens – instead I had to resort to trying to chop off the heads and then attempting to keep the bird from flopping around so that it would not bruise the meat while it bled out – oh what a bloody mess that was.
Grandmother make some of the best homemade bread and coffee cakes. When Grandfather Kirmse would take me fishing, Grandmother prepared a lunch including sandwiches made with thick slices of fresh hot bread variously covered with thick layers of butter, jams and meats.
Harvest Meals
Lunches were made and delivered to the men in the fields during harvest, plowing and planting. In the evening a large dinner was prepared. Lunches typically included fried chicken, sandwiches and fruit. Water was also brought to resupply the drinking water in the field. Rain water was cranked up from the cistern into jugs covered with burlap wappings. The burlap was wetted down with hand pumped well water to preserve the supply of rain water in the cistern. Evaporation from the wet burlap covering cooled the water.
Sewing
Grandmother and the other women adults sewed much of the family clothes. Cloth was rationed and hard to come by. However, the producers of sacked flour and animal feeds began to not only use white but also variously patterned cloth to make the bags. This “waste” cloth was reused extensively to make dish drying towels and shirts, blouses, and dresses. Besides using the brightly patterned feed bags for clothes, Grandmother would cut out pieces of cloth and piece them together as quilts. Embroidery was used to decorate the white dish towels and Grandmother Kirmse taught me how to embroidery simple patterns.
Grandmother guided me on my first sewing project – to make pouches to store the rationing stamps. A rectangle was cut from an old window shade, a hem was sewed on each of the ends of the rectangle to prevent fraying, the rectangle was folded and the sides were sewed, and the pouch was turned rightside out. This was my first experience using a foot pedal powered sewing machine. Learning how to simultaneously pedal and handle the pieces being sewn together was a challenge. Grandmother also had me thread her needles and would compliment me on how helpful it was for me to do this task.
Safety Concerns
A nephew of my grandparents, Peter Heinrich Edmund Lohmann, suffocated in a grain storage accident. We as young children were reminded of this and were not allowed near farming operations, particularly during busy seasons, for our own safety. We were allowed to accompany the delivery of lunches in the field.
As we grew up we did participate in harvest and land tilling operations. Years before I was eligible for a drivers license, I drove tractors pulling combines during harvest as well as tractors pulling one-way disc cultivators and harrows cultivating fields after harvest. I even slowly drove large grain trucks along side combines unloading grain on the go. I remember after sometimes eight or more hours of operating an open air tractor, cleaning off thick layers of dust from ground work and itchy chaff from harvesting. This contrasts sharply with the modern day air-conditioned cabins now on tractors, combines and other heavy equipment.
The one exception was planting. My father had pride in having very straight rows showing from the road as the planted grain sprouted and matured. My driving skills did not meet this criteria. However, in the fall of my junior year of highschool, my father broke his hand. And, I was withdrawn from school for two weeks to finish planting the winter wheat