Bread and milk home delivery

When I was growing up in Topeka we had our milk delivered. It was delivered by a man driving a wagon. We had a carrier and it held, I think, 6 quart bottles. They were funny shaped bottles and had a small rounded top. They gave you a spoon and the top had cream. When we moved to Kansas City they still delivered milk and we had it for awhile. We also had bread delivery three times a week by Manor Bread. I liked that as our closest grocery store was a mile away and we only had one car. I liked the delivery men but the Manor Bread stropped after the delivery man fell in love with one of the customers and murdered her husband.

We have only had two murders in my neighborhood. The Manor Bread man and a nephew who was tired of waiting for his aunt to die so he could inherit her money so he sped things up a little. Both easily solved. Of course we also had the Fuller Brush Man and the man who sold flavorings and extracts like vanilla. I'm not sure of his company's name.

The joy of oatmeal

I grew up eating oatmeal and loved it. I have not changed. Ray and I traveled around the world and we always tried to stay at Statler Hilton Hotels as they always served oatmeal. Mr. Statler liked oatmeal also and insisted they serve it at his hotels. We stayed in a Statler Hilton hotel in Wichita and they did not have it. I wrote a letter to the company and the next time we stayed there they had it. I remember in Peru at the Statler they wanted to pour hot milk on mine in the kitchen and I told them I wanted to put my own milk on and we had a great discussion, which was not easy as my Spanish was not good nor was their English. Every morning I still have oatmeal. I make it in my micro wave now and not in a double boiler like when I was growing up. Ray went in for various cereal so I did not corrupt him.

Chilhood Christmases

When I was growing up we were in a depression like now so you mostly got gifts that were essential. My mother stored the gifts in the attic which the entrance was a ladder on the wall in her bedroom. We never tried to find out. Around the tree we each had a chair. Mine was the chair to my desk. Things were generally wapped in brown sacks. We did not get fancy wrapping paper until my brother Allan's girl friend came into our life. The sacks generally had our name written on them. I checked to see if mine was as big as Helen's. They generally were. I had been riding my sister Ethel's bike and when I was 12 I got a new one. I think I had a note to go look somewhere. My father was very talented and he used to see thing and then duplicate them. I don't think he ever had a patent. He put motors on everything in the house and could build anything. I know when I went to school at that time you had sewing in the 5th grade and cooking in the sixth. Boys had manual training for both fifth and sixth grade. I was the only one in the class who had to learn how to pedal the sewing machine. The teacher thought I was stupid. We made aprons in the fifth grade to wear in the sixth grade for cooking. My dad continued to make things and my daughters Sally and Sue share a sled and a Santa that when they were little he made for them. They pass it back and forth. He would come to visit me and look around to see what I needed so I have many bookcases he made, a magazine rack and the original picnic table for the kids. Things were always made out of boxes he got parts and batteries in at his garage and he had a tendency to use yellow paint. He made toy boxes for Susan and Steve. Steve's was a train and Susan's a wagon. I have great spice racks. He made the original marble game that the kids wore out and the principal at Hocker Grove where the three oldest kids went to junior high made us a new one. It has never worked as well as the one my father made. I thought my childhood Christmases were great. We also always got a book. What more can you need for Christmas--new underwear, a book, new socks and candy.

Decorating the tree

We always had such a good time decorating the tree. We use to spray snow on the tree and someone always got in their face. One year when all five were helping. I remember that Sally was using the kithen ladder to reach things and forgot she was on the ladder and stepped back to admore the tree and fell off. She was not hurt but never did that again. The trinsel was generally in little masses as they did not single out much and is was generally a gob. The tree was in the middle of the room at first and then as we got grandchilsdren was put in the front window. We had a large dog a Golden reteriver and he almost knocked it down so we tied it to the windows on each side, It was a fun time for everyone. Today two daughter and four granddaughter decorated my tree and already Buster has tried to eat one of the decorations that was a stuffed animal with M and M on it's stomach. They may have to take my tree down early or I will remove all the stuffed animals. The dog is in the front room by himself a lot and I woukld rather he not injure things. I have them on a chair with something in front of them but it is not enough.

One Christmas Eve

When our oldest son Steve went to Sunday School in Topeka one year they sent him home with something to read on Christmas Eve. The K C Times let their reporters pick four days they wanted to be off each year and Ray took Fourth of July, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Thanksgiving. We used the ceremony Steve brought home each Christmas Eve. We found all the candles in the house and put them on a card table, put on Christmas music and read the ceremony. We did that every year until our granddaughter, Hayden, was the baby in the church pageant. After that we went to the church and watched different granddaughters be angels, Mary and shepherds and we had one more baby Jesus. I never got past being an angel myself. We would drink eggnog and smile a lot. I love the picture I have on my refrigerator of the occasion. The only one not in it is Steve and I think he took the picture. Sally put it on a Mother's Day card.

An extra kid for Christmas

One Christmas we had a temporary exchange student. He had been at the Lee Summit school and had gotten into an argument with the prinicpal. The school told AFS they wanted him out of the school. AfS removed him at once. We had sometimes been a temporary home for a couple of days, This was the first of December. We found him a nice young man from Germany. As the days went along they still had not placed him. They had a family interested that were Jewish. They wanted the family to check with all the family members as to if they minded a Germany boy since they were Jewish and the country of Germany had been hard on the Jews during the war. Time went by and I realized we were going to have Walter for Christmas. I went to K Mart and brought new underwear==an exciting Christmas gift but I knew his size since I did the laundry. I did not want him to watch us opening gifts and he not have any. Come Christmas morning we all opened our gifts and Walter his and he was very happy and told me he liked it. During lunch that day we got a phone call that the family was taking Walter as they had cleared it with all their relatives. He got along with his new family very well and in the High School he went to. He told me when he left it was the Best Christmas he ever had. In later years I had a visit from his sister who had come as an exchange student and she stopped by to tell us how much Walter had liked his stay.

When we had the Fairy Princess at Nieman School

When we were first involved with Nieman at Christmas time, Santa came around to the classrooms and gave out treats. One year the School Board said "No Santa". I know Ray was not on the board then for he would never have voted against Santa. We had a lot of pretty mothers and we convinced one to be a Fairy Princess. She was lovely and went around the rooms giving out candy or cookies, whatever the room mothers had for their classroom. It was very successful but I think after that year we just let the room mothers give out candy. She had warned her own children not to recognize her and they liked being in on the plan.