RSS 2.0 NEWS FEEDSHome Front Letters: Shirley LaRosa
Posted 06.11.08 at 9:57 AMShirley writes, from Pahrump, Nev.:
Comments: 0 | Article Continues ... Continue Reading & Comment »It seems in the old days before the big grocery chains and supermarkets, a lot of food was sold individually. For example, there was a store that sold nothing but fresh fish. Outside this fish store, there was a man who, all day long, ground horseradish (on a grinder) to order. You bought the horseradish from him separately and got it fresh. I believe it was put in a paper container.
Then there was a shop that only sold chickens. The fowls were slaughtered and hung up on hooks until all of the blood drained out. What a sight to see when you walked into that shop. The smell was horrendous, too.
For fresh fruits and vegetables, a truck would come around the neighborhood, and the ladies of the houses would go down to meet him and buy off his truck.
The one store that always fascinated me was actually in a dark basement. The two men who owned this business were brothers, and they worked all day long “candling eggs.” They held up one egg at a time to a light bulb to see that there were no baby chicks inside to surprise the cook when she cracked it open. At least, that’s what I thought then, as a kid. I remember how excited the brothers got when they saw two yolks in an egg. Can you imagine testing eggs that way, one by one, for sale? They were also able to detect if an egg was rotten, and these were thrown out on the sidewalk for the cats.
Today, you can go into a Wal-Mart and buy a complete outfit from shoes and socks to a sweater and ski cap. Back then, they had specialty shops. One such store sold ladies’ undergarments. You were fitted for your bra and girdle, pinned to your measurements. The clerk would then go to the back of the store, and, on a sewing machine back there, she would stitch up the garment to fit you.
World War Two Archives Exhibit
Posted 06.10.08 at 11:02 AMWhen you’re in the Sudent Center at Paris Junior College, check out the Archives exhibit by the north doors into the ballroom. Derald Bulls, our new director of institutional advancement and alumnae affairs, has given the archives 48 World War II photos, which soldiers who had rented rooms from his mother and father, Jo and Derald Bulls, left behind during the war.
Bulls told the story of the photos:
Mom and Dad moved to Paris from Commerce in 1943,” Bulls said. “Dad went to work with Ayres Department Store (north plaza), and Mom secured employment at Camp Maxey working for one of the commanding officers.
During this time, Mom befriended many a soldier and his family. I say family because many sent their rations (flour, sugar, etc.) to their soldiers stationed here. Mom and Dad’s home on North Main Street became somewhat of a weekend headquarters for many soldiers and families who came to visit them. Mom would take their rations and make pies, cakes, etc. for the young men.
As a result of these friendships, some soldiers would leave personal items at their home for safe keeping. This is how the 40-50 World War II photographs came into our possession. The photos were in the top of my dad’s closet for years and years. During my Paris High School days, I carried them to history class, but back into the closet they went when I got home, and there they stayed until we broke up housekeeping on 19th Street SE in the late 80s. Because the photos were detailed with descriptions of where they were taken, i.e. Iwo Jima, Normandy, etc., I couldn’t let them go. For the past 20-plus years I’ve kept them and shared them with my children during school times, but WWII didn’t have the same attraction to them as it did to me!
I wish I knew the names of the soldiers, sailors, marines, etc. who came through our home and left the photos, but I don’t. Maybe this feature on the archives website will create a greater interest.
To this day, even though both parents are deceased, I still maintain communications with the daughters of the late Jim Peel, who referred to my parents as Uncle Derald and Aunt Jo, and a special soldier, Pat Carbone, still trades Christmas cards with me each year. In fact, my parents so liked Pat and his late wife, Jean, that after leaving the clothing field for a few years and beginning a 13-year career in a full-service Humble Oil station, Dad sponsored Pat through the Humble Oil training program. Pat ended up with one of the top producing full-service stations in Dallas for over 40 years! Mom and Dad cared for members of the military services from the four corners of the U.S.
The photographs are very moving. Studying them quietly, I begin feeling something of the significance and impact of these action scenes and of the fates of the men who were involved in them. In the middle of the case are pictures of Derald and Jo, depicting the Home Front, which was so meaningful to the young soldiers who resided for a time in their loving home in Paris, Texas. The photographs are all being mounted for display and will be rotated periodically.
Home Front Letters: Merrybell Seeber
Posted 06.05.08 at 2:10 PMMerrybell has taken a break from making 28 jars of corn cob jelly for church bake sales and gift baskets to write the following:
Comments: 0 | Article Continues ... Continue Reading & Comment »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.
Home Front Letters: Merrybell Seeber
Posted 06.02.08 at 11:36 AMThanks 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.
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Home Front Letters: Shirley La Rosa
Posted 05.30.08 at 8:25 AMMrs. 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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