The Colebaugh Family in Ottawa County, Mi

The Home

Then I would run up the stairs to the back porch. 5

My aunt Lorraine is in this picture. She married my Uncle Jack. They lived in Chicago but came out to visit and stay in the granary at Gram's farm. They used to help out a lot at the farm. I really liked my aunt Lorraine but she sure could talk a lot.

6

As you can see I would enter the lean-to. To my right would be a big waist-high wooden cupboard. If you opened the door, a slanted square barrel would present itself filled with flour or sugar. In front would be the white sink with a big black pump on its left. Pump, pump, pump really hard and cold water would pour out into the sink. Granma would give us each a brightly colored metal cup and tell us to remember which one was our cup. She should have given me the same colored cup every time, I could remember blue. . 

Then on to the kitchen. The door was held open to the right concealing the closet that it made. Then there was a BIG BLACK wood-burning stove that gram used for baking. Maybe the wood was stored to the left of the stove. She pick out a particular type of wood, pine or oak or a mixture, depending on what she was cooking. She would start the fire early in the morning. But wait, I just looked at a picture and the stove was white enamel. It was just the top that was BIG and BLACK.

To the left was a bright orange kerosene stove. Grandma would go out to the granary and bring in a big red metal can. She would lift up a side flap and pour the kerosene in. Then she would open the big front flap the exposed four big round black cylinders. She would wiggle this little black thingy under each cylinder. Gram would put a big kettle on filled with cold water.

I got this picture from the internet. Gram's stove wasn't this fancy but it was the closest I could find.

There was a cupboard over on the left but it didn't have a counter top. That's where she kept those metal cups and china plates from the dime store. Then a small refrigerator that had legs. She didn't keep much in there not even milk. Opposite the back door was a metal cupboard with a metal counter top. That's where she kept her canned goods. She always boiled everything that came in cans, for twenty minutes, even my Campbell's Tomato Soup.

In the center of the room was the kitchen table. It had a red-checked shiny tablecloth that was easy to clean.

Aunt Lorraine and Gramma. 7

Aunt Coila would sit at the table at breakfast time. It was her job to cook the toast. She would open the slanted door and use her long stick that her dad had attached a comb at the end to put the piece of bread in. Then she would watch until it was done. open the door, flip the bread over, and toast the other side.

After breakfast Gram would fill a little white enamel pan with hot water from the kettle on the stove and put in on the table so Aunt Coila could wash up. Then Aunt Coila would put a broom under her right shoulder and using her crutch under her left arm, she would sweep the kitchen floor. I learned how to sweep from Aunt Coila who made short little movements with no strength. I thought that was how everyone swept the floor.

Aunt Coila with her niece Ellen Venzke.

Then Aunt Coila would go into her bedroom that didn't have a door only a curtain. And granma would put a little enamel pan between her legs so she could pee. Then Gram would help her into her chair in the corner of the Living Room. It  was puffed with pillows just right to fit her twisted  frame and she would sit in her chair all day. She broke up her day into two hour shifts. She would read and write letters for two hours. Then she would read magazines for two hours. Then she would sew crewel work for two hours. It was like embroidery but used thicker thread and thicker needles. How I treasured her work and we had a quilt that she had made  and some pillows but my sister secretly sold them for CASH.

My grandma tried to teach me how to sew. I saved the 9-patches she had made but threw away mine. Aunt Coila could remember every dress and from those Quilt patches. I gave them to my cousin Janet when I became too ill to save them anymore. Grandma would give me a tin of buttons to play with on the floor beside Aunt Coila. I liked playing pretend with Betsy McCall in the McCall Magazine. I didn't dare ask to cut out the McCall paper dolls. I just pretended.

Then grandma would go out to work in the vegetable garden. She wore a hat and a long-sleeve dress down to her ankles. Ladies did not get a tan that would announce to everyone that you were a farm laborer. She'd come back in and I'd help her cut up the vegetables. Then she would put them in a big pot with some fatback and a little big of water on the Kerosene stove to cook ALL day.

Then it was time to make bread. I only remember Pound, Pound, Pound. Then she would put it in a bowl with a towel over it near the stove and it would rise up. Then she would cook lunch. Aunt Coila told her and told her and told her it was not necessary to boil my soup but boil it she did. And I ate it.

I played outdoors but that's the next page.

Grandma would call me in for supper. It would be a big bowl of those vegetables and her home made bread.
Maybe a glass of milk but she made that too.  And for dessert: Karo syrup over her home-made bread. Delicious.

Then it was time to wash dishes. She would pour hot water from the kettle into the sink then pump cold water until it was the right temperature. She washed, I dried and put the dishes on the table. . And she put the dishes away as I wasn't tall enough.

Yard

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Last modified: 05/17/10