Kitchen Memories

          Sometimes childhood memories from many years ago suddenly come back to me.  Such was the case when we recently completed a jigsaw puzzle of an old kitchen.  While it wasn't really the same, it brought back many good memories of my Mammy Wise and her kitchen which seemed to be the center of all activity in their home. Mammy and Pappy Wise lived on Tenth Street in Sunbury for many years.  Pappy was an excellent carpenter and spent much of his life building caskets at a local company.  Everyday he walked to and from work, mostly along a railroad known as the Horn Railroad.  Today that railroad is gone - a victim of "modernization". He always had a large garden to help feed the family.  Mammy was a housewife and an amazing baker - more about that later.
          My grandparents had very little in the way of earthly items but they had a loving family and their house was always full of family and visitors.  We kids used to enjoy the front porch which had a swing.  We would swing for hours and watch the traffic and people go by.  Sometimes we would swing too wildly and hit the house and that usually brought us reprimands from the adults.
          On the main floor of their house there were two "living rooms", the kitchen and a pantry.  The middle room contained a large coal stove which was used to heat the entire house.  Floor registers allowed the heat to go to the upper floor and bathroom.  That always bothered me because the register in the bathroom was right next to the toilet and you could hear all the conversations going on in the kitchen.  And, most likely in the kitchen you could also hear many of the noises from the bathroom.
          Upstairs there were three bedrooms and my brother and I always had to share the back one which was also over the kitchen.  I never liked this because there wasn't a register opening in this room and it got very cold in the winter.  Also, the room had the door to the stairs which led to the attic.  And there were times that we could be in bed and hear the mice or rats running in the attic.  I didn't have many good nights of sleep in that bedroom.
          The basement also was known for having rats and mice.  The coal bin was there. with steep steps which must have been a challenge to climb when regularly bringing up the coal for the stoves.  I don't know if they had water problems down there, but there were wooden walkways over the dirt floor which led to shelves for canned goods and some of Pappy's equipment.  I didn't spend much time down there.
          On the small back porch they kept the wringer washer and there were many mornings when we stayed there that I would get up and the women were doing the wash.  Mammy also usually had sweet peas or morning glories growing on strings on the one side of the porch.
         But, as mentioned before, there was the kitchen.  The stove was also a coal stove on which she did all of her cooking and baking.  And it was always in use.  Mammy was an amazing baker and she always had loads of cookies and pies to offer all her visitors.  Maybe that is why so many came - all the time.  We would sit around the kitchen table and enjoy her large sugar and molasses cookies.  The adults usually had a cup of coffee to dip their cookies.  Then there were the pies - apple, cherry, peach, mince meat, montgomery and a favorite of mine - raspberry-peach.  And you had to visit at Easter when Mammy made her famous easter eggs.  They were huge - maybe even four inches long - coconut, peanut butter, cherry, cream.  Today they would cost a small fortune to make or to even buy.
          And while we would chow down - maybe for hours - the adults would sit and talk and share stories.  That is a tradition that we seem to have lost today.  Nobody seems to just drop in anymore to enjoy sharing stories, friendship, and even some food.  Our lives are now too structured, too full and too busy.  I think we have really lost something with our modern conveniences and busy schedules. Those times provided some of my best memories that came back to me while we completed the puzzle. I miss those special times and family members and wish that I could now hear more of the stories from those generations which are now gone forever.
          Maybe we need to bring back the kitchen coal stove.