Saturday, November 28, 2015

Seamed Stockings, Sleeping Under Quiilts, Vinegar Pies and Garters

Before heading home, I picked up the local paper, 
The Sandersville Progress.

I want to share an editorial by one of
my favorite writers. 
Please allow me the liberty of cutting the article 
to save time and boredom. 

Thanksgiving in Cotton

I had waited a long time for this day and now I was 14 years old, a junior in high school, and I was getting my first pair of stockings.  It was before seamless, nylon pantyhose "ran" their course-they were pure silk with seams up the back and kept in place by blue satin garters. 

I placed them in my little lingerie case and packed them with the other clothes in my overnight bag. A friend and I were taking the school bus after school to Cotton, GA, 7 miles in the almost undisturbed countryside to spend Thanksgiving with an older friend.  

The evening was spent helping Mrs. Joiner cut up things for the next day's feast.  The food was put in crockery bowls and covered with waxed paper bread wrappers.  The cakes and pies were placed in a cold room.  After gathering around an old pump organ and singing "chapel" songs, we went to bed and slept in a cold room under three quilts.  We slept like big brown bears. 

The morning started early with excitement.  Sisters and aunts and uncles began to arrive and first cousins and first cousins once removed.  They brought preserves and jellies and arms of greens. The old folks would gather at the first table while the children waited for the second table.  To pass the time, the girls played jack stones on the floor in front of the fire.  The boys would sneak up behind us and kiss us on the cheeks and run away laughing while we screamed, chased them, and slapped at them perfunctorily. 

The food was amazing.  The turkey that only yesterday was roaming around the yard, was now before us.  I remember vinegar pies and applesauce cake with brown sugar and walnut icing, and strong coffee with chicory that I wasn't allowed to taste. 

Later on, Mrs. Joiner said, "Now come here and let me see your legs in those new silk stockings. They're pretty," she said.  The garters were digging into my inexperienced legs, but I smiled and was thrill that she noticed. 

Yes, a different day in time, I was unfamiliar with some parts of this article. 

First of all, I've never actually laid eyes on stockings with seams except in old movies.

Killing the turkey that yesterday ran around the yard?   

A junior in high school at 14 years old.  I was in the 9th grade when I was fourteen.

My grandmother had crockery bowls and because I looooove vintage, I'd like to have a few.  

I know what wax paper is, but what are waxed paper bread warmers? 

I remember my mama telling me about how they put the cakes and pies in a cold room.  Why?  I would think the turkey would go in the cold room instead of the entire meal being covered with a tablecloth until supper time. How did they survive without getting salmonella?

I loved sleeping under quilts.  I love to feel the cold on my face.  I turn the temperature down low when I go to bed and I still sleep under an old, worn soft quilt.
  
Vinegar pies??? What on earth?
  
Garters?  Yes, my mama worn a long-line bra, a girdle with garters and hose.  Thank goodness, my first pair of hose were panty hose.  I got my first pair the same Christmas that I got my white laced vinyl boots and white fur coat.  All my friends got black shiney boots.  I'm still glad I got white. Groovy!  

What part of the items in the article are you familiar with?  This should be fun.





10 comments:

  1. I have a recipe for vinegar pie pinned but I have yet to try it yet. Maybe I should!

    ~Trisha

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  2. I missed the seamed hose, but I remember wearing newly invented panty hose, which sagged and almost fell off. I also remember visiting people and sleeping in ice cold rooms. I guess I'm spoiled now, because that part doesn't even sound fun. Fun to read her memories!

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  3. Panty hose and garters...and thankfully, I will no longer wear panty hose...I HATE them (and when we lived down south, you didn't need to wear them as it was always hot and our legs were tanned). Up here, up north, Bonnie, we have cold cellars or basements---our basement is unfinished and we do store can food and drinks down there as it is about 30* colder than up here in the house. I prefer a ice cold room to a hot one to sleep in.

    That was pretty fun, thanks friend....Blessings

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  4. Oh the memories, some I haven't experienced... but we always had chickens running around outside that soon were dinner:) I don't know about vinegar pies, hmmm! Happy that when I head out to Church this morning, I'll don my pantyhose instead of the ones with seams:) Have a blessed day dear friend, HUGS!

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  5. Sadly, I am familiar with quite a few of those things- my first pair of stockings came with a seam up the back and belonged to my mother...lol I was in my late teens when pantyhose came out and I was the first girl in our area to wear them...lol
    I have had Vinegar pie- it is basically a custard pie with just a couple of tablespoons of vinegar in it-to give it a bit of taste-much like adding a little bit of lemon to something. My mother always raised turkeys for Thanksgiving for us and all the neighbors around-so I knew that one! Have a great Sunday. xo Diana

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  6. I'd like to know what vinegar pie is also.......YUK! My mom wore silk stocking...not sure if they were real silk, but they had seams, not sure if I had any, I know I had a garter belt YUK! Pantyhose were fabulous!

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  7. I love this post! Reminds me of my grandmothers & aunts and sleepovers with girlfriends. Yes, I wore the stockings with the seams ~ you cannot imagine how time consuming and difficult they were to get on straight and keep them that way. :) Hated the garter belts with a passion...and they were part of the cause of the seams on the stockings moving around.

    Vinegar was a slight addition to a custard pie...just gave it a bit of a tartness like a citrus extract would. The women used what they had ~ no running to the grocery store even if one was close by. A lot of people put excess food in a cold room or in an enclosed porch. Dairy and other type items were placed in the fridge. I do have to say that, unless it was a large gathering, there usually wasn't enough food to worry about being out of the fridge.

    I can't remember where my mother got turkeys...if she did. We usually had chicken and those were from locals that raised them to sell. My first mother-in-law raised chickens and "did the deed" that we couldn't and then cooked them. She never ate chicken...ever! I certainly understand. I remember sleeping under a pile of quilts in an icy cold room! You can barely move or turn over during the night, they were so heavy! :) My mother would get up around 4 or 4:30 a.m. and light the stove so the main room/kitchen would be warm when we got up. She made biscuits every single day ~ along with eggs, sausage or ham/bacon, gravy, etc. The adults worked hard physically and needed good meals. She also cooked lunch and dinner every day along with all the other jillion things she did.

    Waxed paper bread wrappers were just that! :) Every item that was purchased and wrapped were used and the wrappers saved. One did not throw away *anything*. I remember when foil was first sold...my mother & aunts would wash and dry it so it could be used again. They might use the same piece for many different items before it was tossed out, well worn!

    Lots of hardships in the day but such a kinder, gentler way to live! It's sad that the youth of today are so into instant gratification and rarely use their imaginations to play. Of course, we played outside and rode bikes until the street lights came on...that was our signal to hurry home to eat. If you had chores, they had to be done before play.

    Well, I've rambled on quite enough as you can tell! Sharing my "age group" is obvious. :)
    xo
    Pat

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  8. Bonnie, I liked this post. Reading of all the prep that went into a big family meal.. The pain of being a young girl wanting to be grown up. The silliness of boys kissing girls with out being charged with sexual harassment. Blessings to you, xoxo,Susie

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  9. Fun post! My mother wore stockings with seam when I was a little girl. I thought they looked nice....but what a pain they must have been!! Never had a vinegar pie. But I loved a vanilla pie! We raised chickens which became dinner. Hated butcher day and didn't like chicken till I was much older and bought it in a STORE!!

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