RECIPE: COTTAGE CHEESE AND CHIVES

 ½ lb. cottage cheese                                        1 Tbsp. onions, chopped fine

1 Tbsp. sour cream                                          Salt to taste

1 Tbsp. chives, chopped fine

            Mix all ingredients and spread on rounds of bread. Garnish with thin slice of stuffed olive on top.

1947 - Ann Climbs the Powder Boxes

1947 – Ann Climbs the Powder Boxes

The mining camp town houses didn’t have kitchen shelves but Harold had taken powder boxes and nailed three of them together for shelves. We had some left over wall paper and I had used that on the powder boxes to make them pretty. When Harold and I had married we had a wedding shower and I got a bunch of Pyrex which I stored on those three shelves, along with some of my staples of flour, sugar and cocoa. Those shelves sure did look good to me.

I had put my little baby, Ann, down for a nap and was out hanging clothes on the line. My little baby Ann had crawled out of her baby bed. And then my sweet little baby crawled into the kitchen and used those powder boxes for a ladder. She emptied box three that was on the bottom; then climbed up to box two; when she had emptied box two she climbed up to the top and empted that box too. When she was finished each box was empty and all my pretty Pyrex was on the floor and broke into a million pieces. Miss Ann was sitting in the middle of all that glass covered in flour, sugar and cocoa. It was a wonder she hadn’t gotten cut on all that glass. I didn’t know if I should cry or yell. One thing for sure though Miss Ann was about to get her butt busted!

About then my mother, Mom Shoupe the kids all called her, came in, saw what Ann had done, grabbed her up and ran with her. I didn’t get to bust her butt, but I never have let Ann forget about that broken Pyrex and how funny she looked all covered in flour, sugar and cocoa, with her violet blue eyes wide open!

Mother told me once in later years that I had more than made up for all the broken Pyrex.

RECIPE: COTTAGE CHEESE MIX

 ½ lb. cottage cheese                                        salt to taste

1 small cucumber                                            pumpernickel bread

1 Tbsp. mayonnaise

            Peel cucumber, slice and chill in ice water until crisp. Drain; chop cucumber fine. Mix with cheese and mayonnaise. Serve on finger thin sliced bread.

1951 - 1952 Where I Got My Strong Faith in God

      I had four children, three girls and one boy. My youngest Sharon Gail died when she was barely three months old. I was so bitter about Sharon Gail that my heart was filled with hatred for the Lord. Harold decided we needed a change of where we lived so that I could start to heal from Sharon’s loss. We moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky and my brother in law helped him get a job at Ft. Knox, working as a mechanic. Money was tight and we never seemed to have enough to go around for everything that we needed; but we were grateful Harold was working and we at least had a roof over our heads.

      The house we were living in was located in Oaklawn, which was on the edge of Elizabethtown about where Goodwill is now. It was a two bedroom house with no bathroom. There were sixteen rentals there and we all shared one bathroom. We had a potty that we used at night then emptied it the next morning. I would go to the laundromat and bring the clothes home to dry them on a line that was strung in the kitchen; with three children it was hard to dry clothes that way. The rooms were so small that once we had let out the folding bed the door to the outside couldn’t be opened.

      Every morning after Harold went to work; I would sit and listen to the news on the radio. It seemed like every day there was news of a baby having died from parents neglect. But the one that threw me into real despair was the news that a new born baby, wrapped in a towel, was found at Vine Grove. The baby had been alive when it was left outside and had frozen to death.

I kept asking, “God why did You take my baby and then give a baby to someone who didn’t want a baby and then let them kill that baby by letting it freeze to death.” That was when I stopped going to church. I wanted no part of the lies the preachers were telling; I believed they were only preaching for the money they were paid. This parting from the church went on for a long time, with me getting more bitter and hate filled all the time.

I had a nephew by marriage that I really liked; despite the fact he was a preacher. His name was Roy and he lived in Rockhold where my mother in law, Rachel was from. Our church asked Roy to come from Rockhold to preach a revival. Our church couldn’t promise an amount they could pay him, but there would be a collection plate passed around for a love offering for Roy’s pay.

Since I liked Roy, I went to church for the revival. The collection plate was passed around and the money was heaped up and almost overflowing. The whole time Roy was preaching the devil was whispering in my ear, “God took your baby; the only reason this preacher is preaching is for that full collection plate that was passed around. Just look at all that money; and you don’t even have enough to buy what you want to buy for the three children God has left you.” Then Roy told how glad he was to see all that money in the offering plate. To myself I was saying, “That’s right. I knew that, Roy. You are just a money grabbing preacher too.” I was so happy that Roy had proved me right.

      Then Roy broke my heart by saying that he wasn’t going to take all that money because it was needed right here in our small community for God’s work. I was so upset by Roy’s words that I got up and tried to leave. But my mother-in-law, Rachel, got hold of my arm and held on to it. “Come back here Alberta;” she said “I know you are feeling a call to the altar.”

      I didn’t want to go to the front of that church; but I did. I told that congregation about how I felt about God taking my baby and how I had felt the only reason that Roy was there was for the money in the offering plate. I tell you there was lots of shouting and praising God for my salvation and I felt that burden of grief, despair, and hatred lift from my heart. That is when my faith in God became as strong as it is. As long as I hold onto God, He lifts me up and takes care of me. God always has a reason for the things He puts us through; just like Harold always said, “What doesn’t break me makes me strong; and if it does break me, when it heals then, just like a broken bone is stronger when it heals; I will be stronger for having been broken.”

RECIPE: COTTAGE CHEESE BOWL

½ lb. cottage cheese                                        ½ tsp. salt

1 (3 oz.) pkg. cream cheese                             1 tsp. lemon juice

½ cup sour cream whipped

            Blend all ingredients together until the mixture is smooth. Pile high in a pretty dish and dust lightly with paprika. Serve well chilled. Spread on potato chips or crackers.

1931 - Walking to School in the Snow

1931 - Walking to School in the Snow

It is almost hilarious to hear these kids talk about no school because of snow. There was no snow as deep as what I walked through to go to the school at Winfrey. I would walk down from the top of one mountain and to the top of the other mountain. I walked in the snow past the company store, past the tipple, past the bathhouse, past the church; and up the other mountain to the schoolhouse. When we got to school we had radiators that kept the school warm. Our shoes and socks were always wet by the time we got to school. The teacher would have us take our shoes and socks off. Our shoes were actually knee boots that laced up. At any rate our feet would be wet and our socks. So the teacher would hang our wet socks on the radiator, our wet coats up over the radiators, and shoes down below the radiators. I think the teachers back in those days had more work with a lot less pay than the teachers now do.

Back to elementary school. I want to say something about that church we would pass going to school each. We all thought that our church was the most beautiful church there ever was. The miners worked all of one day a year for the upkeep of that church and they had done the same thing to have the church built. It was Bedford stone, had stain glass windows, a great big basement with a kitchen, dining room, and a recreation room with ping pong and all kinds of games to play. We didn’t get into much trouble back in those days. We went there on weekends, we weren’t allowed during the week when school was going on. The local Homemakers Club, the Boy and Girl Scouts, just everybody all met there; because that Church was our community center.

RECIPE: DEVILED CHEESE

¼ lb. cheddar cheese                                       ¼ tsp. dry mustard

¼ tsp. curry powder                                        1 egg yolk

Beat all ingredients together until the mixture is smooth. Spread onto crisp crackers at last minute. Light broiler oven and brown under flame until the cheese melts. Serve at once.