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The boxes are eating me.
Okay, not exactly, but the attack of the boxes continues as I try to, finally, get unpacked around here seven months after moving. What with goats and chickens and giant puppies, spring and summer zipped by without completing the “moving” part of moving into our new farmhouse. A lot of these boxes contain things I haven’t seen in nearly three years. The old farmhouse came furnished, in fact jam-packed, so I only brought necessities with me there, leaving the rest in storage.
It’s entertaining to open boxes that I packed so long ago, I don’t remember what’s in them, and discover things I had forgotten I had.
The cats enjoy the process, too.
Buttercup totally snarled at me when I made him get out of this box, which I hadn’t even finished unpacking before he took up residence.
Meanwhile, Spice nabbed another box.
There was a waiting list to get in there when she was done.
In case you’re new here, I have eight cats. I’m the crazy cat lady. Whew. Glad that’s out in the open.
A lot of the stuff in the boxes is semi-boring. Glasses, odds and ends, a cookie jar, teapots. (I like this cute Beatrix Potter one.)
It was fun to find a few remnants of my kids’ baby dishes and silverware. I can just see them eating their little spoonfuls of oatmeal out of that ABC bowl…..
Then I found some cookbooks I hadn’t seen in a while, and some well-worn recipe cards holding old favorites. Yay!
Then I hit the motherlode. The Butterick Book of Recipes and Household Helps.
It was published in 1927.
Inside, handwritten, is my great-grandmother’s name.
Jessie Woodall was my great-grandmother on my mother’s side, the flatlander side of my family. My father was, after he completed his bombing missions during World War II, stationed in Oklahoma. He made off with my mother and took her away to the holler, just as Jessie’s husband took her away when they married, hauling her off to Oklahoma before it was even a state. (Trivia: Oklahoma didn’t become a state until 1907.) My great-grandfather claimed land in part of the government’s effort to settle the area, making him one of the state’s early pioneers. My great-grandfather had to haul lumber back and forth across the prairie, by lantern-light when necessary, to build them a house.
Jessie was a good cook, by all accounts, and I like having her cookbook. I like to imagine her turning its pages, and I wonder which ones were her favorites. There’s an X by the recipe for Little Chocolate Cakes. I wonder if that means she didn’t like it?
There are plenty of tips included for the domestic goddesses of the time, such as this one for how to make it easier to see things inside your oven while you’re baking–paint the inside of the oven a light color with aluminum paint. Hmmm. I think I’ll stick with that lightbulb thing….
I bet Jessie always had her table set properly.
“The handles of all of the flat silver placed to the right and left of the plate must be in a perfect line with the edge of the table.” Or your table will explode!
I’m not sure about this whole personal hygiene section belonging in a cookbook.
But now that I know how to shampoo correctly, I can be clean as the prairie sky.
I’m excited about trying out the wonderful old-fashioned recipes in this cookbook, and you can bet I’ll be posting some of them soon!
And, I’ve got a lot more boxes to unpack. No telling what else I’ll find, but whatever it is, you can rest assured….
….the cats will be the first to know.
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I also have some old cookbooks and helpful hint books.
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What a neat way to spend time, shopping for memories! And that cookbook PRICELESS!!
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It is very nice of you to share your boxes with the cats as you unpack all your wonderful finds you had forgotten about. Very cute photos!
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I cant wait for suzanne to have some good recipes for us from the cookbook. A lady at church let me see her Iowa cookbook from the 20s. and get this it was put together by women doctors to raise money for a new hospital. i thought women docotrs in the 20s. they used a president’s wife’s recipe to head each section. it was fascinating. they also had household tips – like Monday is wash day and sunday you dont sweep the porch or hang anything – hmmm no telling what happened to you if you did!!!!
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not only for the recipes, but also as a file. She had every
thing from old letters, receipts and newspaper clippings!
Cats and boxes go together. I love watching cats playing in a box or curled up sleeping. They sure do like to help unpack!
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;o)
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As far as crazy cat lady – we have a lot in common lol. I had 7 and now only have 6 but those are just the inside cats. At the moment I have 4 (3 permanent) outside ferals but the males come usually for a year or two and then go on their way. I have a permanent supply of boxes throughout my house lol. :purr:
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Susan
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The cats are killin me…so funny. Why sure! They want to play too…get in there and investigate. LOL After all, there could be a mouse in there, for them!!! :mrgreen:
I went through my mother’s recipes and found old things too and it was so exciting – be it a card she wrote to a school for cake decorating, she attended..or a magazine clipping of an old advertisement of a food, or product…she had old cookbooks, but I think my brother got them. I have her old Betty Crocker cookbook and cookie book.
I have read some old books with hygiene tips, like how to look glam when “your man” comes home..meet him with a drink at the door…that type of stuff and it cracked me up. LOL Old finds are fun. Hey, that reminds me… need to find out WHO got my baby spoon!!! LOL
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Brenda
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I love the cats. What is it about boxes that they find so interesting?
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And I have 7 cats and feed several strays in our neighborhood, so you’re not the only crazy cat lady! I want a t-shirt that says “I AM the crazy cat lady”. *G*
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You posess a much older soul than body… as do I.
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i have it wrapped on a towel and put away. do you have any ideas how to care for it. i wrote to a book collector but got no answer. thank you
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My grandmother passed on almost 9 yrs. ago and I miss her terribly. The one thing I had in common with her was her love of recipes and cooking. I don’t cook much but love to bake and can’t wait to try some of these out. She also left some other recipe cards in the book that look interesting.
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Cats and boxes … they also love WalMart sacks, grocery sacks, cracker boxes. I have nearly 30 cats – my BillyCat (orange tabby – personal cat rescued as a tiny kitten when her Mama died), Susannah the cow patty kitty (found her as a kitten covered in dung), a litter of 6 that I saved from a bad mother that have grown up in the house, 4 kittens from one of that litter, 3 kittens and a teenage cat from a beautiful dark tabby that was passing through (that’s 17 inside, except 2 of them have now gone outside). Outside, there’s Gypsy’s line (she was a dark calico – some of her kittens were gray and peach calicos!) – now mixed with Lillith’s line (a gold-eyed black cat I rescued from a shelter with her 7 kittens – she has a gray and white blue-eyed Siamese granddaughter!) – all shapes, sizes, colors, markings – beautiful cats. Outside, counting the new kittens, totals about 16 (I still count Jasper the passing-through beauty in case she ever comes home).
That’s more information than you cared to know – LOL. Hey! At least I didn’t give you all of their names! ;>) I have a cat genealogy written out, too – talk about Crazy Cat Lady! I’m the Mama cat and they’re my babies. They know this and play along.