Mom and Dad Visit

Well, C and I got bored on Sunday evening so we headed to Illinois for a little visit. We stopped at Mamma and Pamps's house first for supper since Mom and Dad were in Shelbyville for the day helping Craig with some remodeling. I totally left the camera in the car but it was adorable. Caroline became enthralled with the little porcupine next to the back door that is used to wipe mud off shoes. She would walk up to it and I would make animal sounds and she would turn around and run yelling "AHHHHHHHH" and she would laugh so loud. It was so cute. Mamma would try to give her kisses and she would run to Pamps as if to say "Save Me". She kept throwing her leg up in the air trying to climb into her highchair every once in a while.

We got to Mom and Dad's and she endured until about 9:00pm which is 2 hours past normal bedtime. We went to Gig and Pamps's in the morning. Again, I forgot my camera. She would chase Pampa Emmett and he would say chase me and she would. Sooooo cute. Then, all of us girls were looking through tubs of recipes. So Pamps took her for a wheelbarrow ride around the yard. They were sooooo cute together. I will hold those times in my memory forever.

So about my Recipe mission. Dad and Mom started telling stories from when they were little out on the porch and Dad loved the recipe of Great Aunt Sis's called Pear Honey. I decided that I wanted all of my grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and great aunts recipes in their original handwriting. It took a lot of searching to find a recipe of Great Grandma Gregory's, but I found 3 of them. I couldn't find one from Aunt Lib or Aunt Ethel. I would love to pass these to my daughters some day. I'm such a sentimental sap.

So, my dad is the ultimate story teller. He gets so tickled and I love that chuckle that he has that makes it difficult to continue with the story. I have to share a few stories so I don't forget them.

When my dad was a little guy like 6 or 7 my Grandpa Hendry's sister had moved to Attica, IN which is far away from Brocton IL, especially in 1956. Both my Great Grandpa Davis and My Grandpa Hendry and dad and Ron went all the way there in 2- 2 ton trucks to move her back when her husband died. She was going to rent an apartment above Gerri Fitzgerald's grocery store. When they got to Sis's house she insisted that Pamps take the water heater since it was new and useable. Pamps swears that thing weighs about 500 pounds. They lugged that all the way back and up 2 flights of stairs to the apartment. Guess what, it never worked and she never spent more than one night in that apartment before she moved in with my Great Gram Hendry. Dad says he can still hear him cussing to this day.

My Aunt Fifi (Freda), Mamma's sister, died when I was little of cancer so I don't remember too much. My Dad loved to go over when she was making noodles. She would have them on her counters, kitchen table, and freezer, and they would be the thinnest noodles you ever saw and she never used a noodle cutter always a butter knife.

Mamma, Great Gram Davis, and Aunt FiFi raised chickens to sell in town. They would have to raise them, the boys would have to clean the barns and chicken houses out every weekend, and then they would have to dip them, feather them, cut them up, put them in bags, and deliver them to the customers and put them in their freezers. All for 50 cents a chicken. Can you believe it???

My Great Grandma Dailey would do washing and ironing for people in town. Back then she had a separate room on the west side of her house where she would do the wash and canning so it wouldn't make the house hot inside in the summer. She would use this stuff called Blueing to whiten the shirts since they didn't have bleach back then. She used to make her own Sauer Kraut, too. I wish I had the recipe. She would put that cabbage along with lime and whatever in a big tub out in the barn where it was dark and everyday she would have to scrape the yucky stuff off the top until it was all ready and you would carefully have to get the kraut out of the bottom. My great gran's name was Willimina Weber Dailey aka Minnie so she made real German Kraut.

My Great Gram Gregory lived outside of Lawrenceburg, KY. She made jam and preserves out of everything. She had orchards, pear trees, cherry trees, everything. She made plum preserves, pear preserves, cherry preserves, you name it she canned it. The church where the Gregory family still goes to down there to this day called Penney's Chapel (southern pronunciation is Pennes Chapel) was established by J.C. Penney. Isn't that sooo cool. It is the tiniest little country church, too. You would never imagine. I have been there a few times and still remember most every detail. I hope I never forget these priceless family treasures my parents share with me.