Mother was a wonderful cook. She made everything from scratch: sausage gravy, vegetables in white sauce, and homemade bread.
She was an innovator and did many things because she had to, not because she wanted to.
She taught herself to type with one finger of her left hand after the stroke took her right side. That shows determinations.
She kept the house. She was a very good cook. A lot of the time she didn't have a large variety of food, but there was always enough.
She would buy 1 or 2 bananaa and slice them in a bowl of cream.
She made a dish she called Poor Man's Mush wich was nothing but a thick flour pudding served with cream and sugar. She didn't like to make it.
She would make a lot of candy, especially for holidays and birthdays. Unfortunately, she sent most of it to those who were away from home, so we at home got very little.
Another dish was sausage gravy over mashed potatoes.
Baking was done on Mondays, probably because the stove had to be heated all day to heat water for washing. She used to make the best bread that was ever made. One Monday we would get biscuits the next we would get scones. Also she would usually bake 10 to 12 loaves at a time.
She always planted a big garden. She would also put up several bushels of peaches and pears in the fall so we had lots of fruit all year.
In the winter the only room in the house with heat was the kitchen except on Sunday or holidays. the front room stove didn't work to well and took a lot of wood. It smoked up the walls of the front room. It looked like pink putty and she had a Mrs. Walker paper the walls two or three times in a few years.
They moved in 1930 from the house east of Afton which had heating and plumbing to the brick one which was always cold with no plubing and very high ceilings (12 to 14 feet).
She thought everyone should be busy wand since boys didn't have anything to do around the house except for carrying in the wood and cutting the kindling for the stove she didn't allow us to hang around the house. She would always say, "My mother didn't allow my brothers to be in the house and I won't either." So we were sent out to work or play. There was usually something to do, especially weeding the dreaded garden.
Mother was great in writing plays or skits, reading, etc. She belonged to every club in town and started a few on her own. A man JC Mallory used a written history of Wyoming by Martha for his masters thesis.
She was very close to her family of brothers and sisters. After her husband died she took a long trip with her brother Charles and Lena. They wen to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. While she was gone her children go the measles and it was the only vacation she went on.
Just before she had a stroke which paralyzed her on one side, we moved from east Afton to an apartment above Calls Hardware right downtown. She got a job working for Stayner Call who had a bookstore above Robers market. She only worked for a few days or weeks before her stroke. She really enjoyed it.
She did a lot of sewing. Almost all the girls dresses and most of the boys clothes were altered for our use or made from scratch.
While living in the apartment, she bought or was given an old overstuffed chair. She took it apart and recovered it in a blue velvet.
After her stroke she lived with her daughters, mostly with Clarissa.
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