Page 54 - REALLY What A time Book IX

REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time

HOME

She spent a lot of time in the galley kitchen. So many doors
led to the kitchen. One to the outside stoop in back, one into
the basement, and one to the dining room. On top of the
refrigerator was our bright red cookie jar, and on the counter a
white tin bread box, filled with squishy Wonder Bread. I used
to roll it into balls of dough before eating it.

The house had the scent of today’s meal. Kind of like a farm
house. She wouldn’t stop using spices, salt and pepper, for
another 15 years. Not until after Pop’s first heart attack. Meals
were often homey with a touch of depression economy in
them. Comfort food; meat or stew, with a couple of
vegetables, never canned peas, and often a potato. Deserts
were fruits, Oranges if you could get them, but mostly apples,
cakes, cookies, nothing beat her cherry pies, home made ice
cream, and Jello molds with carrots or other things in them. I
liked the Jello with mayonnaise.

Down in the cellar was my father’s work area. He had a large
work bench he’d made of 2 by 4’s. It held most of his tools,
and a large vice. Scraps of wood were kept under the bench.
He and Joe would work on different things there, but the best
was their soap box derby.

Near the end of the ‘40’s my grandmother Zimmerman moved
in to live with us. She took the smaller bedroom upstairs. Joe
and I moved to the basement. Beside being a long way to the
bathroom it was pretty nice, and private. It was the biggest
room in the apartment. We painted the concrete walls and
floor.

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