Home Front Letters: Merrybell Seeber

Posted 06.05.08 at 2:10 PM

Merrybell has taken a break from making 28 jars of corn cob jelly for church bake sales and gift baskets to write the following:

I grew up on a small farm, and our school and church was two miles from home. The church would hold box socials and bake sales; also, they were noted for their Roast Duck Suppers. This church had no indoor plumbing or water. The ladies had to carry all the water from across the road for everything; also, the people had to use the outdoor 2 holer, also across the road. When my mother passed away in November of ‘91, we had the funeral luncheon there, and there still was no indoor plumbing or water. I returned there 3 years ago for a chili supper — what surprises. They had 2 bathrooms, and the kitchen had steam tables. I was so thrilled to see my little church still going strong, where I walked to Sunday school with a penny tied in my handkerchief. Daisy, it is all precious memories.

Before the war, I can remember my grandmother would send my folks a dollar so Dad could get gas to come visit them. It was like 5 gal. for a dollar, sometimes even cheaper. During the war, the speed limit was 35 miles per hour, nothing over.

The holidays during the war — we had to have parcels in the mail by the 15th of October to be sure the boys would have them for Christmas. One year my boy friend, later my husband, received his in June. It took that long to catch up to him. He said he was in a foxhole, mud up to his knees, but the cookies were still good.

It was during the war time when the stores started putting holiday things out so very early so they could be shipped to the boys overseas. Before that, when I was younger, you didn’t see Christmas things until after Thanksgiving, about 2 weeks before Christmas.

I also recall my dad cutting the back out of a coupe to make a truck out of it because the licenses were cheaper for farm trucks than they were for cars. My brother and I would have to ride in the back end. How I hated that. My 2 younger sisters could sit up front with Mom and Dad. The licenses were like $5 each, and you never saw a woman drive a truck of any kind back then. Also, during the war years, in some places, such as hotels, women were not allowed to sit at the bar. Ladies had to sit at tables, sometimes even in another room What changes!

Have I told you about going to the dentist on January 4, 1944. I had 3 teeth filled and my teeth cleaned, and it cost me $9.00, but I had to work over 30 hours for that $9.00 and go to school.

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Home Front Letters: Merrybell Seeber

Posted 06.02.08 at 11:36 AM

Thanks to Merrybell Seeber, from Delavan Wis., for this little solution to the high-priced ingredients of desserts today.

War-Time Cake (Eggless, Milkless, Butterless)

Mix in a saucepan:

1 cup of brown sugar
1 3/4 cups of water
1/3 cup of lard or other shortening
2 cups of seeded raisins
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of cloves

Boil for 8 minutes and cool. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of soda, dissolved in 2 teaspoons of water. Blend in 2 cups of sifted flour, mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Pour into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan. Bake about 50 minutes in a slow oven (325 deg.) Delicious served plain.

Thanks to Mrs. Ethel Yant of Delavan for this recipe from the Delavan Community Cookbook.

We may have to revise similar recipes to eat well in this era of high-priced gasoline and groceries. Instead of ration coupons, which had to last a full month, we’ll have a grocery “budget” that will have to last a full month.

If you remember any “war-time recipes,” let us know.

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Home Front Letters: Shirley La Rosa

Posted 05.30.08 at 8:25 AM

Mrs. Shirley La Rosa, of Pahrump, Nev., writes of church life on the home front during World War II. She says the first thing that came to mind about church activities was bingo.

“They had picnic tables set up outside on warm summer nights for the adults to sit around and play. We used to say bingo, the old corn game, because unlike today, where ink daubers are used to cover your numbers when called, in those days they used hard kernels of corn.”

(I’ve played bingo with kernels of corn before. I guess bingo popularity never fails. Fans play multiple games with computers nowadays, while poor folks like me — who never win — still play one set of cards on the rare occasion when I go with my brother and his wife, visiting from out-of-town.)

Shirley continues: “The biggest excitement a kid could have was going to the grocery store, putting a penny in the gumball machine and being the lucky winner of a striped gumball. That meant you won a free candy bar. Another freebie was if your five cent ice cream cone had a piece of paper in it that said ‘free’: then, next time, you got a free cone on the house.”

Thanks to Shirley for these glimpses of a simpler day and, also, for two post cards concerning Pearl Harbor.

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Preservation

Posted 05.01.08 at 2:06 PM

I found an interesting chart in the June 2008 issue of Family Chronicle about the life expectancies of paper, which is a question I’m often asked by people interested in preservation. According to the author, Gregory Peduto, newsprint/ground wood will last 20-30 years, but has a potential of lasting 50-100 years with proper care.

In contrast, rag paper can last 500 years with a potential of lasting over 1,000 years Archival paper (ISO 11108) will last 100 years with a potential of 500 to over 1,000 years, which is awesome, isn’t it?

Interested in collecting photographs? Color prints will last 5-30 years with a potential of 60-80 years. Black-and-white prints, he says, are paper dependent. Color negatives: 20 years with a potential to last 100 years, and black-and-white negatives, 100 years, with a potential of 500 to 1,000 years.

Photographs are more delicate than papers because of their chemical composition. Like papers, prints need to be stored in mild temperatures and humidity which remains constant. Most of us like to display our pictures in albums, which often causes serious problems for prints. The common album with PVC plastic-covered pages can, he says, strip the emulsion right off the prints, and I imagine a lot of us have had that experience.

Use photo sleeves of PAT (Photographic Activity Tested) plastics, such as Mylar. Protect your negatives, also, with PAT Mylar covers, and they will last hundreds of years.

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Armistice

Posted 04.21.08 at 1:10 PM

I read an interesting article by Maude Neville — daughter of A.W. Neville, Lamar County’s late distinguished historian, both of whom worked for The Paris News — dated Jan. 28, 1973. The series of articles by various journalists recounted the end of wars which they recalled, and Maude wrote about what happened in Paris, Texas, when World War I finally ended. I was struck by the finality of it. Will we live to see the “end” of any other war in our lifetime? Sometimes, I wonder.

She said the telephone call came at 1 o’clock on Monday morning, Nov. 11, 1918, and it was not unexpected. There had been a previous report that was in error when firing had ceased to allow negotiators to pass through battle lines, and it had set off a wave of celebrations across the U.S. However, this time, it was the real thing, and A.W. dressed and set off for the newspaper office, then on North Main Street. He was sitting by his typewriter, ready to go, when the AP message from Dallas came through, and carriers were waiting to rush out with the free “extra.”

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