Spaghetti Sauce & Cleaning Toilets

Now I bet you're thinking you are going to read about me boiling down 87 tomatoes & making 35 pints of homemade spaghetti saice, aren't you? Well for once the "Martha tendencies" are not about me but my great Granmother.

So I grew up in Vermont, and in fact most of my family still lives there. It's only a few errant cousins (and myself) who have spread themselves around the country. However, most of the family lives in Vermont, and the extended family (meaning my Maternal Great Grandmother's children) all still live solidly in New England- most in Vermont & Massachusettes. About 4 years ago now I was visiting my grandparents while in Vermont over the holidays, and my grandmother happened to mention her mother's journals. This was quite interesting to me, because I knew my great grandmother...she lived to be 100, and I was 17 when she died. Another great grandmother lived to be 97 or 98. There is this theory that the cold slows the blood down. I have no idea if it's true (in fact I'm certain it's not)- but take a look...98 and 100. and the 100 year old was going strong until 99, living by herself. Ah but I get ahead of myself.

So I am having this conversation with my grandmother that she has her mother's journals...and my grandfather pipes up & says he has HIS mother's journals. Well I never met her, as she died of food poisoning when he was 6, it was around 1934. So I asked if I could see her journals- he brought one 5 year journal up from the basement and I was in shock! So I asked if I could borrow it overnight to read it, and he said "sure!" (my grandfather is very relaxed....). So I took it back to my sister's house, and she and I spent the rest of the evening transcribing 1 whole year worth of writing. I took it and the journal back the next day and showed my grandfather- I said, "this is what I'd like to do, now can I borrow them and take them to Oregon with me?" He said "sure!" My grandmother raised her eyeborows and clearly thought it was not smart. Well, fast forward about a year and a half, and I finish that big project. Her name was Jenny. I came out of that project with such an excitement, and a book I had bound simply (need to get it done nicer!) which was called "Jennies Journals." I brought this to my grandfather along with all the journals I was returning. As my Grandmother and Grandfather looked over this, my Grandmother gets up, goes downstairs, and gets a box of HER mother's journals! It became this little competition between my grandfather finding things in the book I had typed up, then my grandmother showing me her mothers journals, then my grandfather going to the basement and bringing up an old photo album of very old photos and trying to show those, then my grandmother showing me things from her mother's journal again...it was all I could do not to laugh!! So finally I said to my grandmother "can I borrow some of these?" and she says "well SURE!" So...I started on HAZEL's book. This one has had a few working names...it started as "2nd bowl of ice cream". There's a bit of a story there. She did not have a wonderful marriage. There was abuse, there was pain, there were bruises and there were sad days. But her husband died in the 60's, and she lived another 30 years among a loving family. She LOVED ice cream- and in her youth she often wrote how she had ice cream and OFTEN had two bowls! (this was a skinny woman! In 1971 she wrote she weighed 110 lbs!) So I saw the aspect of her husband dying and her having a second "round" of life, living for so much longer- as a bit of another opportunity for her life to be happier. I hate to say that because I don't want to say that she was unhappy- but there were certainly moments that were not happy, and I felt this was her opportunity to not have so many of those. Second round of life...second bowl of ice cream...you get it. The other working title was "Hazel's Chickens". Besides the alcoholism and abuse, her husband did not seem to be a very nice or fiscally responsible person. SHE on the other hand, was quite saavvy. She had chickens & eggs & kept a keen eye on all incoming & outgoing funds, including those leant to her husband! This is a woman who bought eggs for the first time ever when she was more than 60 years old! She had raised chickens all of her life, and never had the need! So- the chickens were her thing- they were what kept her financially stable, they were HER thing. That's the current title. She was absolutely a farm wife, living on a farm in Vermont, canning (maybe that's where I get it from...), freezing, butchering, etc.

So tonight I came out to a coffee shop to work on the journals (I am only up to 1971, need to get to 1985 or 86...)- and it's been quite some time since I've done this! I need to get back on it, because remember, she lived to be 100. this means I've had approximately 75 years of journals that I am transcribing. it takes a bit of time. I would love to get it done by Christmas this year, but we'll see!! so this is the thing that made me laugh tonight....
it's September, 1971. My grandparents had just had their 25th wedding anniversary, but she was shocked it wasn't in the paper. She sent $1.00 to my aunt for a baby shower gift. She was shocked to wake up on her birthday to 22 people in her kitchen surprising her, and wrote how she received 25 birthday cards, and finally, my favorite:

Cleaned toilet. Warm day and wanting to rain. 57 degrees outside. Sent card to Wayne. Ripped up five coats Millie Lyn gave me. Repotted Plants. Bath & Wash.

I know, you're all saying, why is this so funny??? This is pretty normal...yeah, did laundry, cleaned the toilet...what's the deal? Okay- the 5 coats were for a rug. (in case you're curious). Remember that part about her being a farm wife? Remember that part about her turning 100 in 1988 when I was 17? Okay, perhaps I failed to mention she lived in the same house. There had been a furnace installed, but no water. That means, hand pump in the kitchen over a dry sink. hand pump in the kitchen floor for big amounts of water. and, outhouse at the back side of the garage. Two hole outhouse to be exact, so you can pee with your best bud if that strikes your fancy. Now read that again. Cleaned toilet. Cleaned that wooden seat or perhaps the wooden floor while holding your breath and thank goodness it was only 57 degrees in there.... washed laundry or bath- probably that was a bath- MUST BOIL WATER in order to take a bath. Amazing how the simplest things suddenly become so much more complex when you take a little fact into consideration.

Oh yes, and My Great Grandmother Martha (ha ha!) - HAZEL- was an avid canner. tonight I typed up around 4 months worth of pages, & I think she must have canned around 50 jars of spaghetti sauce, 20 jars of rhubarb and currant jelly, made at least 5 or 6 dozen rolls, and 12-15 pies. This was one busy woman!!!