karenjonesgowen

(The following is an excerpt from Farm Girl, reflecting on Christmas during the Great Depression)

The Depression didn’t make any difference with birthdays, or with Christmas either, because children never expected much at those times. Back then children weren’t showered with gifts, not even at Christmas. I always got a book from Aunt Bernice and as long as there was Santa Claus, I’d get something from my parents.

One time around Christmas, we were in town and I saw this nice, big beautiful doll that had curly brown hair, a beautiful complexion, and eyes that blinked. She was about two feet tall, and you could move her arms and legs. Oh, how I wanted that doll!

Mother bit her lip and said, “Oh dear, Lucille, look how expensive it is. I don’t think you can have that.”

Dad laughed and said, “That’s not for you, Lucille. It’s not worth it.”

A few weeks later I was playing in the bedroom next to the kitchen and saw a box under the bed. There was that doll! I didn’t say anything, just pushed the box back under the bed.

I got that from Santa Claus on Christmas Day, and that was probably the biggest present I received from Santa or anyone.

One Christmas Eve, Dad came in from doing the chores kind of late.

He said, “Better get to bed, I hear some noises out there.”

I hung my stocking on the cupboard. Our tree was a few branches from a tree, stuck in a can of sand. You couldn’t go out and cut trees, this was Nebraska farm land, and trees were scarce. And you wouldn’t think of buying one.

We’d always celebrate Christmas with the Lutz’s, Aunt Dora, Uncle Jon and their kids. One Christmas Eve they arrived in their car, and it was kind of snowing. We could see Ford and Bernice coming over the hill in their horse-drawn wagon.

Aunt Dora teased them, “All you had was a mile to go, and you had to take the wagon!” Back then, people drove their cars in good weather, but in rain or snow they felt more secure with the horse and wagon.

I’d get a present from the Lutz’s, a present from Ford and Bernice, and one from Santa Claus. In my stocking, I’d get candy, an orange, pencils, a necklace or bracelet.  One year when Christmas was at the Lutz’s, my dad gave me a leather case with a manicure set containing a file, scissors, and a cuticle pusher. I used that for years and years; it was a very useful present.

I always looked forward to getting a book from Aunt Bernice, usually the Bobbsey Twins. I loved to read and always wanted more books to read. I couldn’t get books at the Red Cloud library because you could only keep them two weeks, and we weren’t sure of getting to town in two weeks. It was a nickel a day if you were overdue. We’d go to Inavale to trade eggs every week, but there was no library there. Just a post office, a bank, a lumberyard, a drug store and the Schneider and Waldo’s stores.

While Aunt Bernice was home from Lincoln for her Christmas vacation, Dad and I would go over there and visit in the evenings. Mother didn’t go, she preferred to stay home and work on one of her projects.

Dad, Bernice and Ford would talk for hours. Once I was telling Bernice about our school play, and I gave my part in the recitation as well as everyone else’s. I had them all memorized, and she was so tickled by that.

Ford’s house was heated by a round hard coal burner with lots of chrome that sat in the middle of the dining room. It had a point on top, glass doors where you could see the red fire, a chrome rack around it so you could sit close to it and put your feet on the rack. I’d sit on the little footstool next to the stove, listening to their conversation, enthralled by Aunt Bernice’s stories.

My son in law loves maple bars. Two years ago my daughter gave him maple bars for his birthday.

But not just any maple bars. Think made from scratch, dough rising, cut in shapes, then fried, iced while hot, made in my own kitchen by my daughter and me maple bars.  We doubled the recipe. I fried for an hour and a half, and we ended up with four cookie sheets of maple bars.

Birthday party with fifteen people.

Menu: Two huge homemade pizzas with pepperoni, sausage and 4 lbs. of cheese.  Four trays of maple bars.

Cost: Meh

Memories: Priceless

That was the day before Thanksgiving.  Each year at this time I think of the maple bars and an over the top birthday party and feel grateful for a wonderful, over the top family.

 MAPLE BARS

  1 1/2 c. milk

  1/2 c. shortening

  4 tbsp. sugar

  2 tsp. salt

  2 yeast cakes

  4 tbsp. warm water

  4 3/4 c. flour

  3 eggs, beaten well

  Frosting (recipe follows)

Bring milk to boiling point and pour over shortening, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to lukewarm mixture in bowl along with flour and eggs; mix well. Grease bowl and add dough, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled. Turn out onto a well-floured board and roll 1/2″ thick. Cut in 2″x4″ pieces. Let rise again in warm place until double. Deep fry in oil heated to 375 degrees in deep skillet or fryer until golden on all sides. Remove to paper towels to drain. Make frosting and frost bars while still warm.

FROSTING

  2 c. confectioners’ sugar

  3 tbsp. butter, softened

  1/4 c. milk

  1/4 c. maple syrup

  1/2 tsp. maple flavoring

 Blend butter into sugar, add milk a tablespoon at a time until right consistency. Should be smooth and spreadable. Add more powdered sugar if mixture is too runny, and more milk and/or syrup if it’s too stiff.

In my novel Uncut Diamonds, the main characters, Marcie and Shawn McGill, experience some rough times. It is the seventies, when the U.S. had one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. Marcie has to get resourceful to make ends meet, and she gets ideas and motivation from the writings of her grandmother who was a farm wife in Nebraska during the Great Depression.

Many people talk about the poor economy right now, but believe me, it isn’t anything like what we experienced in the 1970s. *I sound so old when I say that* 

Along with a need to spend less is the current recycle, reuse, going green-type mentality that brings back some of the frugal practices of days past.

Like this awesome dress my friend made out of two T-shirts:

She took a red and a blue T-shirt, cut and sewed and came up with a cute jersey dress. Snip snip voila!

Because the T-shirts had been given to her free through her job, her cost for this cute and casual summer dress: $00.00

Spending money can be fun, no doubt about it, but only if you can afford it. Exercising cleverness and creativity like my friend did is fun too. Being in debt is a form of bondage that is never fun. So choosing frugality over mindless consumption of goods is a wise move when one is trying to avoid indebtedness or get free of it.

There are two proven ways to get out of debt:

1. Live beneath your means: spending less than you take in

2. Letting your money earn interest instead of paying it

Money can disappear so fast at the grocery store. When things got tight for our family, I tried staying out of the stores, even grocery stores, and getting by on what was in our pantry and our garden. Like Marcie McGill, I cooked a lot with beans, used eggs instead of meat for protein and yes, I have even made my own crackers.  And I still make my own salsa, especially when tomatoes are ripe and delicious.

SALSA FRESCA

8 medium-sized ripe tomatoes, quartered

1 medium-sized onion

cilantro

8 cloves garlic

8 T. lime juice (1/2 cup)

4 fresh jalapenos

1 tsp. salt

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

Chop tomatoes and onion. Chop or press garlic.  Cut off cilantro leaves and add to mixture according to taste. Wear gloves to dice the jalapenos. Add the seeds according to taste: add a few seeds for mild, more for medium, even more for hot. I don’t recommend adding all the seeds unless you want super hot salsa. Add lime juice and salt and stir thoroughly. Add tomato sauce to thicken. Makes about one quart.