I think I remember a time when a coal oil lamp got knocked over in the kitchen and someone throwing a blanket over it to smother it. It seems like there was a burned place on the north wall of the kitchen down low. Cleo once pulled a burning pan of grease off the kitchen stove and carried it out the east kitchen door and threw it on the grass. I always admired how calmly she did this.
A farm child learns a certain language. For calling the cows to come home, we called “soooouuk, sooouuk,” for calling pigs it was “soouie, soouie, soouie,” and for calling field workers in for a meal, it was “youu hooo.” Many times lunch was carried to field workers instead of them coming all the way in from the field to eat. I guess this was determined in the morning before they went out. The truck patch was in the northwest part of the farm. I always got stung by “sweat bees” in the truck patch. The sting of a sweat bee hurts more than the sting of a regular bee. They like sweaty places on your body. If you have sweat on your leg behind your knee, that is their favorite place. When you bend your knee and squeeze the bee, you get stung. Try not sweating behind your knees on a hot day!
Julie Baker says
I haven’t been stung by a sweat bea in years! But your right they hurt bad!
cleo says
Thanks for the memories. You can tell them so well.
Aunt Lolly says
I can remember, when I was little, and we all went someplace in the car. coming home, the first thing Mother would look to see (at the first gate) if the house had burned down while we were gone. After a while that was what I would watch for too. I always strained to see the house when we got to the first gate. What a relief when we seen no flames.
Julie says
uuuummmm it is Friday!! Looking forward to this weeks photo fri photo!
Christina says
You will have to send in some photos!
Julie says
OH well! I dont have anymore old pictures. I know he took some of my moms albums with him from the reunion. I was hoping he got some from other people too. I have uploaded the ones I have to flicker but I dont know how to do anything other than that with them!!! They are on the flicker account with the sommererfamily tag, so he should be able to access them!!
Christina says
Hey…..I was just thinking that there was a box of photos under the couch in the dinning room at Grandmas for a number of years before she died. It had the most beautiful photo of Uncle Felix and Aunt Carol in formal clothes….it might have been their wedding, but I am not sure. The photo was taken from above and looked like they may have been sitting on the floor. If anyone has a copy of that photo, would you please send a copy to Lloyd so he can post it? It was soooo lovely!
Naomi Vetter says
I’ll look through my photos to see if I have one of those Christina. Lolly do you remember the time we went somewhere and we got up to the second gate and Mom made Daddy (or was it Felix?) drive back to make sure the iron was turned off? Well, it’s inherited…when I leave our house, I always check to see if my iron is turned off. I guess her fire concern really made an impression on me.
cleo says
Yes I do remember it.Felix was taking us to the Lake of the ozarks. It was really nice of him to do that for her. He didn’t want her to worry the whole trip.
Aunt Lolly says
I don’t remember that time, but Mother was always concerned about fires. Does anyone remember,us having a fire around the stove pipe that went into the east bedroom upstairs (then the girls room) I was small, I don’t remember much about it, but the burned marks on the floor by the pipes. I think we changed cloths around the pipe in the winter, and some was left touching the pipe, and caught fire. Do you remember this Cleo, Mahlon or Bea?
cleo says
When we were all grown up and living away from home and we were all going to mothers one Sunday afternoon, I was the first one down the road and for some reason we knew there was a problem and I got a bucket of water and took it up stairs and took that thing out of that hole in the wall and poured water into that hole and i dont remember what happened next because others came and took care of it.
Naomi Vetter says
I don’t remember it, but I do remember Mother telling about someone’s house burning down because of that same situation.
Naomi Vetter says
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Danny!
Danny Sommerer says
Does anyone remember picking spearmint sprouts/leaves in the old orchard and Grandma making us tea from it? Sure wasn’t as good as U. Mahlon’s but Grandma didn’t use as much sugar as Uncle Mahlon does. Remember going to the garden and picking kohlrabies to eat, they were the best when you would take a knife into the garden and eat them out there. Kind of tasted like a turnip.
Cleo says
kohlrabies Were a vegetable that our parents started growing in about 1950 or so. They were much better then turnips in my opinion but were best eaten very early, before they got very big.The peppermint tea was really a treat for us. I got some plants because I remember drinking it at home and how much we enjoyed it, but I hardly ever use it. I think when they started putting the cows in the orchard, the tea plants got eaten up.If anyone wants a start , I have some , i will pull for you.They are a rhizome root and will spread, so put then where the wont get into something you don’t want them in.
Jane says
I found one plant in the garden in a small hole one summer. It was terrible hot that year. I planted it in the blackberry patch and yes the tea is good. There is a chocolate mint as well and that is good too. Uncle Lloyd likes to mow around them. It reminds him of being a kid again.
Happy Anniversary Naomi and Louis
Christina says
I seem to remember having tea with leaves floating in it…..which seemed kinda weird as I recall, but I really LOVED Grandma’s sassafrass tea! There were sassafrass trees by the creek behind Aunt Elizabeth’s house and I remember going down there with my dad to cut roots for Grandma to make tea.
Aunt Lolly says
Steve and Melanie Sommerer are the proud parents of a son, Micah James, born Aug. 8, 2011, Micah is 21 in. long, has blond hair, and blue eyes. His daddy says, he is a look looking fellow! Melanie is home now. Her mother is there to help with the boys. They are both doing fine. PTL
Naomi Vetter says
Three wonderful little boys!!!! Following in Mom & Dad’s footsteps…so far…. CONGRATULATIONS STEVE AND MELANIE!
Julie Baker says
Pretty name!
Julie says
I guess we’ve been left to amuse ourselves!!!! I found this online you might enjoy. It’s a 1940’s jukebox. Lots od good old songs like Tiny Bubbles, Rum and a coacola by the Andrew sisters.
http://upchucky.com/JukeCity/40s/OldJukes/40splayer.htm
Julie says
#6 is Anything you can do I can do better. If that came out in the 40’s it sure hung around a long time because I even remember that song!!
Naomi Vetter says
It’s from “Annie Get Your Gun” I love all those old songs. Christina, I looked through my wedding photos and I do not have the one of Carol & Felix on the floor pose, only the standing. Oh, where or where has our Internet Genius gone, oh where oh where can he be????? I only get up on Friday mornings to look at the pic on the website and my heart just drops when there is none there.
Julie says
watch this video and tell me what you think!
Is it accurate? Did Grandpa use this method?
Naomi Vetter says
Yes, that’s it! We had the first machine cutter thingy and I don’t know what that second machine was. I don’t think we had one of those. The third machine we did have to rake it in piles and then after that it was thrown up on the wagon the nearest I can remember. It was hauled to the barn and that big door on the top floor was opened and a great big grabbing hook came down to grab a big bunch of hay off the wagon and was deposited in the barn loft. I may not have all this right. That was all before the days they had the hay balers come around.
Cleo says
I wish it would have shown how the big old hay fork come and lift the hay from the wagon and took it into the barn hay loft. This was fun to see again.The good old days.
Aunt Lolly says
Yes Julie, Grampas was very much like that. I don’t remember him having that second piece of machinery, that was used before the rake. His mower and rake were like that, Sometimes he put it in the barn and sometimes he made hay stakes. I can remember being on top of a hay stack walking it down.
Julie says
Now I learned something. I didnt know you were suppose to “walk it down”. By watching several videos of making hay in the old days they mention that it is part of the process!! I just thought kids were playing in it.
Julie says
I found a movie of a big hook lifting the hay into the top of the barn. Is it like the one you used? It is a the very end of this video. The beginning is of children of the family. There is a child riding a tricycle type thing that looks familiar. Did you have one of those? Now a little more than half way through a guy that looks a lot like my grandpa shows up!! Watch what he does with his mouth!!!
lesson to be learned from this video: record the daily mundane things. I am guilty of recording special occasions… the everyday life things will be important too to someone 50 years from now!
Naomi Vetter says
Oh, that was just awesome! Thanks so much for finding it and adding it to the site. Everything there could have been us growing up. The little thing the boy was in is called a Taylor Tot and we had one. I’d give anything to have it now. They are hard to find and bring a good price in antique stores (if you are lucky enought to even find one). That man did look like Daddy…did all men in those days stick their tongue out? That big fork taking the hay up into the barn is just like we had. I had forgotten about how the horses were used to do the pulling of it up. I don’t know how it was hooked up to do that. The only things we did not have on the farm was that 2nd machine and then that thing that was probably called a loader. We never got to have a sleigh ride either or snow that deep, that I can remember. I wish Mahlon would comment on this movie. Thanks Julie!
Julie says
I about died laughing when that man stuck his tongue out!!! I decided right then and there that it belongs on our web site!!!!
Aunt Lolly says
It was Mothers job to walk the horses, while the hay was being lifted from the wagon into the hay loft. I can still see her doing that. The horses pulled the rope that was connected to the vice that held the hay,while it was being pulled up into the top of the hay loft. The hay was then dropped by some sort of lever into the top of the barn. It was wonderful playing in that soft, pillowy hay. While Naomi and I watched them put hay in the barn, we decided to get our own load of hay. We took our red radio flier wagon out in the hay field. loaded it up with hay, stomping it down just like we seen the adults do it. Them we caught our dog Birtie, and tried to make a harness for her so she could pull our wagon up to the barn.Birtie just wouldn’dt help us, she layed down on the ground and wouldn’t get up. We were so disappointed. When you are small everything seems possiable.
Julie says
I am glad you explained that> Walking the horses. I just thought they were recording their horses like how pretty they were or something. *I thought they were concentrating on them a little much. It went over my head!!!
Julie Baker says
Is this how you would string the tobacco?
Christina says
No, the last time we raised tobacco was when I was in 7th grade I think…..they didn’t use string to tie it together. You would strip a group of leaves off (they were never that pretty green when we raised it, Dad would let it dry in the barn for months, so it was already brownish) when you got a full handful, you would pick a really long leaf and wrap it around your group a few times. When you didn’t have much leaf left, you would tuck it under the wrapped part to tie it off. I would think that string would make it harder to process, but I might be wrong.
Julie Baker says
how did he dry it? This is what they do to hang it up to dry…I think.
Julie Baker says
Did you start the plants from seed and then transplant into the field, or did you buy the seeds already started?
Mahlon says
A tablespoon of seed would plant a couple acres. We only planted about an acre.In order to sow it in the hotbed you had to mix the seed with ashes and this would allow you to get it spread thin enough so you could get the transplants. The hotbed was made by piling heavy wood in a BIG pile and burning it. It was about ten feet wide and thirty or forty feet long. It was burned and this killed all the other seed where you planted the tobacco. After it was burned it was worked smooth and we planted the seed in this bed. Around the perimeter you laid poles about 8-10 inches in diameter. Around the very edge we planted the tomatoes, cabbage, kohlrabi, to transplant into the garden. The rest of the hotbed got planted in tobacco. Mom sewed a cover of cheesecloth to put over the entire bed – it’s like a cotton netting to keep the bugs and birds out and protect the plants from the frost. This seed planting had to be timed so when the chance of frost was past the plants would be ready to transplant in the field or garden. The plants we didn’t use were shared with the neighbors or left to die. There were always more plants than we needed.
Julie Baker says
wow thanks for sharing that info. That was very interesting. Burning the area first to get rid of other seeds! genius
Naomi Vetter says
I didn’t realize how much effort went into making the hotbed. I do remember the cheesecloth-like covering. I also remember pulling out the plants to take to the field to plant. Thanks Mahlon for the information. Can you tell us anymore about “making hay.” I wonder if that hook/fork thing is still in the fallen-down barn.
Naomi Vetter says
That was interesting to see another way to string tobacco. I had never heard of doing it that way. Like Mother always said, there’s more than one way to “skin a cat” ooooops ….. Sorry, Julie.
Julie Baker says
Did you put the whole stalk on a stick to dry like this?
Christina says
Julie, do you remember being in the hayloft in the barn? 1/2 of the hayloft was used to store the hay bales, the other half was criss crossed with beams? Those beams were where they hung the tobacco. They were about 4-5 feet wide. I remember helping with planting the tobacco and with harvesting, but I don’t remember how we got the plants hung on the top rungs of the barn??? I don’t imagine they used a latter, but they would hang them almost up to the top of the barn….I bet there was a lot of cussing involved in getting them up that high.
Naomi Vetter says
Yes, like that. Except One person chopped the stalk and handed to a person holding the stake in a vertical position with the spear on the end and it was done vertically from the best I can remember. It could be pushed down easily onto the stake. The video shows a more efficient way, I believe. We did not have one on those horizontal gizmos that the man in the video is using. Lolly or Cleo may remember more clearly how we did it.
cleo says
The picture showed that they put green tobacco on stakes by winding string around the (hands of tobacco) onto the stakes. We never put green tobacco in (hands) we only put dry tobacco in(hands) When we had a green leaf of tobacco we would string it on string or twine (something strong) with a large needle and hang it up to dry. after it dried we would put it into (Hands) like Christina discribed> You would take a handful of tobacco by the end of the leaf, and when your hand was full of the tobacco at thier ends you would wrap a dry leaf around the dried tobacco and and tuck it under itself. We didnt do this when the tobacco was wet or green . It had to be dried for a month or so before we picked it off the stalk to put into (hands)This had to be done when there was a lot humidity in the air or the tobacco would be to dry to work with . It would crumble
cleo says
If you can see it, there is a metel spear on the end of that tobacco stick.It is very sharp. Father would hammer the stick into the ground with a mallet and put the spear over the end of the tobacco stick, then He would spear the tobacco onto the stick. It would go down the stick, he would continue to do this until the stick was full of tobacco, then move on. I dont think we ever had tobacco this short. When we worked in the tobacco, the tobacco would be over our heads and get onto our necks. We usually wore long sleeve mens shirts. I hated it when the tobacco touched my body. I hated the smell and the bugs and how dirty your hands would get. I wish Mahlon would help us out here and also Lloyd.Where are they at?
Julie Baker says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv7Ive1Dmvg&feature=related
an ode to tobacco farming!
Guess what! From watching all these tobacco videos on you tube I have eyeballed some tobacco growing along the outer road!!! It is starting to flower. I know from watching the videos that I should go down there and snap off the flowers. I’ll just act like I am picking wild flowers!!! haha Then after they are ready I’ll cut down the whole stalk (there are about 10) and hang it in my basement!!! hehehe!!!
Aunt Lolly says
Be careful it’s not mellon weed Julie, It looks a lot like tobacco. We would have to go around the whole farm each summer and hoe out all the mellons and sticker weeds, and some other kind of weed from all the pastures. Thanks for the good videos. After Mahlon left home we started using Motz Goetz’s tobacco allotment, that was almost another acre of tobacco. It was such hard work for us girls, and Lloyd since he was still small. That was how we bought and paid for the tractor and all the machinery. WE would drive over to Goetz’s before the sun came up, I don’t remember if we milked first, or if someone was left at home to do it. Once I crawled under a tobacco plant and went to sleep, until someone found me! ha
Julie Baker says
Interesting video about foods of the depression. Evidently the government hired a people to write about food.
they interviewed people and got all kind of recipes and then when Pearl Harbor was attacked the project was cancelled. All the information gathered was never published and sat in the Library of Congress. Mark Kurlansky has taken those papers and written a book called “The food of a Younger Land”. For this radio interview they cooked up some of the recipes and are talking about them. It’s not very loud but hope you enjoy it! I thought it was interesting when the girl (chef) was telling why some of these recipes came about. Such as there was no refrigerators
etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYBKhOjim4g&feature=related
here is where it tells about his book
http://www.slate.com/id/2219170
Naomi Vetter says
When the “flowers” appeared at the top of the tobacco plant, we had to go to the field and “top” the tobacco. We cut those flowers off and it was for some good reason, but I don’t remember what. We also had to “sucker” the plants. At the base (topside) of each leaf a small leaf would start to grow called suckers. We had to get all of those off. If I remember correctly it was to allow the leaf it was growing on to become bigger and better quality.?.
Julie Baker says
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Julie Baker says
A Portrait of American food before the national highway system – before chain restaurants and before frozen food when the nations food was seasonal, regional and traditional.
http://www.slate.com/id/2219170
The author during a radio interview
Aunt Lolly says
I enjoyed reading and watching all the sites you gave us.! They were really interesting.