Sunday Dinner

Our ESN Scavenger Hunt theme this week is Church.  Growing up, my brother and I would go to Sunday school and occasionally, church services.  We lived across the street from a large Presbyterian church, Tabernacle Presbyterian Church.  Located at 34th Street and Central Ave in Indianapolis, In., they had a large recreational ministry.  Four baseball diamonds were active just about everyday and evening during the summer.  Boys and girls of all ages from the north side of Indianapolis came to play softball and baseball at Tab.  I think I really only played softball 2 or 3 years before I realized it was more fun to just watch the older boys play.  There certainly were some cute boys that played baseball.

View of baseball field from our front porch in winter

OK, back to the theme - church. So, while my brother and I might go to Sunday school on Sunday, my grandmother always listened to church services on the radio in her sewing room and my mother had to catch up on laundry and ironing. That was back in the day when we used wringer washers and hung laundry on a clothesline to dry. It wasn't a throw a load in the washer and push the button. No, doing laundry back then took continuous active participation. But the best part of Sunday was Sunday dinner. Our big meal on Sunday was midday. We didn't have counter space for preparing food, so we used the kitchen table for preparing dough or mixing up a cake. My grandmother would roll out the "pot pie" dough (flat dumplings) and let them dry on the table. She would either boil beef or chicken and then let me help drop the pot pie into the boiling broth - not too fast or it will stick together. Sometimes she would boil a beef tongue. Now don't make that ugly face, beef tongue is really good and one of my brother's favorite meals. Or we would have fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. There is nothing better than chicken fried in a cast iron skillet. It was always the best meal of the week and, in my eyes, my grandmother was the best cook in the world.

My sister helping my grandmother with a Sunday dinner 

By the way, I now have my grandmother's kitchen table and chairs in my kitchen. It may show some age, but it reminds me of some of my most treasured memories with my grandmother and Sunday dinners.  I also have that hand beater my grandmother is using.  Make sure you spend time with your grandchildren - cook together and share your memories and stories.  What better way to give them wonderful memories to share in the future.
    

OK, so do you see where I am going with this?  I really don't have any "church" items in my store.  But, you can find some great vintage mixing bowls at CAROLINABLUELADY Vintage Collectibles.  Here is an Anchor Hocking Gay Fad Fruits Large Colonial Mixing Bowl.  I also have one in the medium size and one in the small size.  I just love this pattern - it is so bright and cheerful.  Just makes you want to smile!

I bet these vintage Anchor Hocking mixing bowls could help create some wonderful memories for your kids or grandchildren!  

Oh, Silver Christmas Tree!

Just removed my Christmas tree from the house and it is now down at the curb.  Surely, they will still pick it up.  I know, it is January 22nd.  There was still some water in the stand and you know, it wasn't as heavy as when we brought it into the house.  I just follow the saying "Don't do today, what you can put off until tomorrow."  Oh, that's not how it goes?  Sorry, too late to change now!

I'm not sure why or exactly when I started thinking about my Grandmother's silver Christmas tree, but I have been obsessing about the tree for sometime now.  Is it still in the house somewhere?  When was the last time she used it?  In Indianapolis?  In Marion?  In Greentown?  Just can't remember and my sister doesn't remember either.  (By the way, she was of no help in trying to talk me out of getting a silver tree).  We haven't gotten through everything at the house, but is it even there?  Now, my grandmother would have gotten rid of something she no longer wanted.  Just don't know.  Hmmm!  Maybe I need to start looking for one.  It would just be so cool.  Oh, I would still have to have a real Christmas tree.  Maybe I could set the silver tree up in my pretty lavender guest room - that room faces the street and wouldn't that be so pretty and festive.  Ok, searched for one in eCrater - no vintage silver aluminum trees.  Well, let's just check eBay and see how much they run.  Oh, quite a few and wouldn't you know it - lots of people are searching for vintage silver aluminum Christmas trees.  OK, we'll just put a few on my watch list and see how it goes.  I'll need one of those rotating color lights, too.

  

In the meantime, I will look through old family pictures to see if I can find any pictures of the silver Christmas tree.  Wow!  Found some pics.  Christmas at my Grandmother's with the silver Christmas tree.  This was when we lived on 34th Street in Indianapolis, In.  This must have been when I was around 15 so in the early 1960s.  My grandmother's sister, Goldie and her husband and daughter had come up from Florida to spend Christmas with us.   

My Grandmother would also decorate the fireplace, stringing lights and hanging net stockings filled with fruit and nuts.  By the way, that furniture is still in the house that we are going through.  This second picture is of my brother, sister, mother and I (sitting in the rocking chair). 

The last picture is my Aunt Goldie (my grandmother's sister), Uncle Earl, Uncle Acel (my mother's brother), my grandmother, sister, mother and me.  Isn't it weird that we use to dress up to open gifts?  I love looking at old pictures and remembering my wonderful memories. 

But, I really need to get back to cleaning up my living room and rearranging the furniture back to pre-Christmas.  Tomorrow is football!  So, I really need to get it done.  Can't put it off until tomorrow ......... or can I?



Lunch At The Five & Dime With My Grandmother

I loved spending time with my Grandmother when I was little.  When we didn't live with her, I would still visit her on weekends or a week here and there.  I loved watching her sew.  When I was really little around 3 and 4 years of age (early 1950s), she would let me sit on the sewing machine extension and watch her.  I loved seeing how fast she could get that needle going and listening to the whining hum of the machine - it always whined higher the faster she would go.  She was a dressmaker by trade and had her own business.  She not only did alterations, but also made clothes for others.  I loved watching her customers trying on their clothes and her pinning and marking the alterations to be made.  She would let me play with scraps of material so that I could make clothes for my dolls.  There was a card table next to her sewing machine for handwork and I had a chair across from her so I could work too.  She always had a radio on - we would work, listen to music and talk.  And, when I got tired of sitting, I could dance in front of the floor length mirror and pretend I was a ballerina.  Every once in a while I would check to see if she was watching me (it would embarrass me if she did) and she was always working on her sewing project not paying any attention to me so my freedom of dancing could continue.  She never called me a princess, but I was definitely her princess just like my oldest granddaughter is to me.

Every Saturday morning, she would go downtown to get her notions, supplies and materials needed for the next week.  If I was staying with her, I would get to go downtown to shop with her.  We got dressed up and would catch the Delaware-Central 19 bus to go downtown.  I loved her holding my hand when we walked up those big steps of the bus and the bus driver smiling at us.  She always bought most of her notions at J.C. Penney's.  This store was located on the Circle in Indianapolis and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument was in the middle.  Here is a picture of it (Photo by Ruth Reichmann) - copied this off the Internet so hopefully, I'm not in too much trouble. 

It was  really tall and there were cascading water falls on two sides of it.  It was so beautiful.  The fabric department at J.C. Penney was on the second floor.  It was so much fun touching all of the fabrics and feeling the different textures - velvet, corduroy, flannel, satin, silk and organza.  I think my favorite fabric was polished cotton - it was so shiny and smooth.  I know, sounds weird, but I was a child.  And, yes, I still have to touch everything when I go shopping for clothes or material.  Now, if we were going to more than one store, it was hard keeping up with her - she walked fast.  And, there was no such thing as a mall.  We had to walk out in the weather, cross busy streets and it was noisy and so many people.  But it was all worth it because we always got to eat lunch at the five and dime.  We had a choice of Woolworth's, Kresge's or the G.C. Murphy dime store.  Sometimes she would let me choose.  Usually, we had to wait a few minutes so we could get two seats to open up together.  I loved watching all the people while we waited and the anticipation of a waitress asking me what I wanted to eat made me feel so special.  

After we ate, we would have to walk back to the Circle to the bus stop and catch the bus back home.  Did I tell you that my Grandmother was a fast walker?  My legs were always hurting by this time and I couldn't wait to get on the bus and sit down in those big seats.  But, once we arrived home and she was putting away her threads, zippers and seam binding, I was looking forward to going shopping with my Grandmother again and eating lunch at the five and dime.