Common Household Items - Welcome to Grandma's Kitchen

Grandma’s Kitchen (1950’s - 1960’s)

Somewhere along the road to Grandma’s house, we drove through a time warp, at least a decade behind everyone else in the country, or so it seemed. Grandma lived in a tenant farmhouse amid cotton and cornfields. Until I was fifteen years old, they had no indoor plumbing, which meant water had to be hauled in from the well. 

In the early years, they had a torpedo bucket (yes, it looked like a torpedo or a bullet) which we lowered into the well by turning a spindle by hand. When we raised the filled torpedo bucket, we slid a lever on the bottom to release the water into a regular water bucket. We repeated this until the buckets were full.

We carried the water buckets into the kitchen and set them on the water table in the corner. A dipper hung on the wall beside the table. Everyone drank water from the same dipper. Everyone--friend, foe or family. If you took more water than you could drink, you didn’t pour the “leavings” back in the bucket of clean water, you poured it into the washpan, also located on the water table. The washpan was for washing your hands. Everyone used the water in the washpan until it was dirty. Then it was thrown out. 

Grandma did have electricity in simple form. Light bulbs hung from the center of the ceiling in each room. You pulled on a string to turn on the light. She had a refrigerator in one corner of the kitchen. A gas stove occupied the opposite corner and a round wringer washer sat in between. These were her only appliances. 

Next to the stove, Grandma had a Hoosier cabinet (see inset picture above). It looked like a breakfront and had a built-in flour bin and sifter on one side. After sifting the flour, she pulled out the shelf to mix and roll out her biscuits. Grandma made fresh biscuits every morning. And one very important ingredient in those delectable biscuits sat next to the Hoosier cabinet in a five-gallon can--lard. 

Another, smaller breakfront held her dishes. These were of many and various designs she’d managed to keep in one piece over the years. And most of the glasses in the breakfront were former snuff glasses. This tells a lot about Grandma. She dipped snuff until her death in 1988. We learned not to look in the peanut can. Those of you with any knowledge of snuff or chewing tobacco will get that.

On the opposite side of the kitchen from the gas stove, a small pantry closet was always well-stocked with canned goods, mostly home-canned. Grandma loved her garden and put up hundreds of pints and quarts of vegetables every year. What she didn’t use, she gave away to family as long as they promised to return the jars. Her canner was a large blue enamel pan. She didn’t have a pressure cooker until much later. As a child, I loved to open the curtain that served as a door to the pantry to gaze at all the beautiful jars of food, especially the jams and preserves. 

There was no sink in Grandma’s kitchen. She washed dishes in a dish pan on the table after the meals had ended. She’d heat water in a kettle and fill the pan, add dish soap and enough cool water to keep from getting burned. Another dishpan was for rinsing. She set the rinsed dishes in the drainer and I would dry them with a flour sack towel. 

Besides her aqua-blue Formica table and plastic-backed chairs, the only other thing in the kitchen was the potbellied stove. This was only used on really cold mornings. Most days, the gas stove did a fine job of warming things up while baking tasty biscuits. Grandma didn't seem bothered by any lack in her life. For me, it was sometimes painful to work so hard when I knew an easier life, but it was a wonderful experience filled with memories as warm and tender as those biscuits.

I have listed a few of the common household items in Grandma’s kitchen. This is by no means an all-inclusive list. 

Common Household Items in Grandma’s Kitchen:

Major appliances                                 Dishes      

Gas Stove/Oven                                    Plates, bowls, cups, saucers, etc.

Refrigerator                                            Mixing Bowls

Wringer/Washer                                    Platters

                                                                 Pitchers

Gadgets                                                 Jugs

Eggbeater               

Whisk                                                     Substances

Spatula                                                  Baking Soda, Corn Starch, Baking Powder

Nutcracker                                            Apple Cider Vinegar

Manual Can Opener                           Lard

Bottle Opener                                       Soaps

Ladles                                                    Detergent

Butter Churn/Dasher                           Borax

Crock                                                     Starch

Canning Jars & Lids                           Peroxide

Cast Enamel Canner                          Rubbing Alcohol

Broom                                                    Coal Oil

Mop

Dust mop                                              Cast Iron Skillets, Dutch Oven

Whiskbroom                                         Cookie Sheets

Dust pan                                               Cake & Pie Tins

Scrub brush

Research:

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_06.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosier_cabinet

http://www.hoosiercabinet.com/

This week's prompt:  Grandma sent me to the Hoosier cabinet to sift out a cup of flour for the teacakes. As soon as I turned my back to do her bidding, my brother . . .

Upholstery

She plopped down on the horsehair sofa and buried her face into her hands. Captain Le Voi must think her a heathen. When would she ever learn to tame her tongue? She stretched out and laid her head against the bolster, her feet propped on the rolled arm. Mama would have a fit of vapors if  she were to walk into the library and take notice of her unladylike behavior, but what did it matter now. Jonathan Le Voi would be half way to New Orleans.

She hadn't meant to call his character into question . . .

Horsehair sofa? Have you ever heard of the term? I come across it all the time when reading, but what is meant by it? What do you see when given such a description?

This sofa came to us just like this. It was given to us by an elderly lady. I can't decide on fabric to have it redone in, and since I don't have a place for it yet I'm in no hurry.

The type of upholstery on this sofa is diamond tufted.

Here is another semi-diamond tufted with channels.

This was one of my favorites. There is enough detailed work to give it character yet there is also a simplicity to it with its clean lines.

In my opinion, the fabric on this piece is absolutely hideous. And although I don't have an after picture, you can trust me that the new fabric was just as bold and . . . awful. It definitely did not represent the era.

Now this one, I absolutely loved this one. And wouldn't you know it, I don't have any after pictures. It was redone in a white and blue floral fabric. A hundred and twenty dollar a yard fabric. I remember it distinctly because we had a difficult time telling the difference between the front and back of the fabric. The weave was that good.

If you look closely at the arms and legs you'll see a creature. Can you tell what it is?

Here is another beauty. I think the customer's choice of fabric worked with the dark wood. If you look at the feet you can see the tiny white wheels. They're clay and fragile. Sometimes we get pieces in with wooden wheels.

Okay, so what about the horsehair sofa? The truth is all of those sofas had been considered as horsehair sofas at one time or another. Why? Well, during the 19th century horsehair was a common stuffing for upholstery. Here is a picture of a piece that came to our shop.

And, yes, it came to us exactly like that. If you look closely you'll see a brown mess underneath some of the whit cotton. That was some of the guts of this sofa.

Here is the same piece after it was redone.

This isn't a DIY segment. I've watched plenty of those shows and of course the professionals make it look easy. I'm not saying that there aren't some easy projects, but I've seen chaos of wannabe DIYs. It's not pretty. It's kind of like asking a toddler to fold fitted sheets. Unless you're one of those people who has a knack for details  you get what you pay for.

I'm not a historian of upholstery so it's hard for me to tell you what kinds of tools the upholster used back in the day, but I can tell you that I have great admiration for their artistic skill, especially since I know how difficult it is with our many modern conveniences such as power tools.

We've taken apart furniture where the upholsterer not only used the old hammer and tack method, but also hand sewed the seams together.

Here, let me show you:

This has been partially stripped and the new deck has been put on. We now sew the corners with a sewing machine. The original fabric had been hand sewn. Each of those pleats had been tacked with tiny tacks. We used an air staple gun. Much quicker.

The insides are done.

Here my son is tacking the back. Even though we have modern tools, recovering furniture is still intricate and tedious.

Take a look at this chair. The new fabric is loosely laid up there so we can judge where we want the stripes to land (I will tell you right now plaids are the most difficult patterns to work with, silk makes it even more difficult) anyway, if you look closely you can see a bit of that plaid fabric attached to the outside wing. See it?

Ahhh, there it is. Hubs is lining up the stripes and pinning them to the chair, then he's chalking out his pattern. I can't tell you anything else about this process, not because it's some ancient Chinese secret but because all the snips and clips and holding your mouth just so to make it all fit together baffles me.

This picture was taken by my daughter. She sewed up the white chair, but as you can see the plaid chair is next to it.

I suppose you're wondering what other sorts of things we upholster at our shop.

Well, we've done dentist chairs and RV seats. These babies were one of the most difficult things I've worked on. They were almost grounds for severe discord in our household. I think I quit fifty times that week but hubs wouldn't hear it. *g*

Right now we're working on boat seats. Let me tell you something about vinyl, there aren't very many second chances. Once you sew vinyl it's pretty much a done deal or you have to start over. The sewing machine needle leaves holes and you can't move the threads with a pin to fix the hole.

Here is something hubs did that really impressed me--

He custom made these from a customer's drawn out plans.


Between my daughter, brother and I we have hundreds of pictures. Obviously you can tell my favorites are the antiques, of which I have a lot more pictures, but we do all sorts of stuff in our shop. We even fixed the bear head of a mascot costume. I'll try and add the picture later today.

Upholstery is one of those trades that you almost need to apprentice at in order to pick up all those tricks. My husband is often telling me I need to hold my mouth just right. I've tried, it doesn't always work. 

I have to work today, but if you have any questions, please ask, I'll try to answer.

Christina