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Show j I ale 1 I man's word used to be as J good as a legal contract. Be -I ing honest and being a good i neighbor were just part of ' life. Family ties were i stronger then. Most house- holds included a Grandma 1 or Grandpa, or both, and they i were respected and enjoyed an important part of the 1 family. No, I guess I wouldn't like to go back, but I do wish we could carry with us a few of their values and traditions to help strengthen character, build better family units, warmer relationships and a more peaceful, less hectic life style for us all. BOSTON BROWN BREAD 1 C raisins 2 C boiling water 2 C brown sugar 2 T oil 2 eggs 2 t. baking soda 12 t. salt 4 C flour 12 C nuts, if desired Pour boiling water over raisins, let cool. Cream sugar, sug-ar, eggs, oil, salt. Add soda to the raisin mixture. Pour raisin mixture into creamed batter . Add four and nuts. Can bake in greased loaf pans or empty bean or soup cans. Fill 23 full. Bake 350 about 1 hour. Makes 5 round loaves. J When the Founding Fath- ers finally got around to set - ting up an official day of i Thanksgiving, they had been !; through many trials. Being ! city folks, they just were ! not suited to the harsh, rug- j ged struggle their new home - !, land demanded from them. I The result was that many did I not survive. Those who did 'i were usually the young, strong, vigorous men and women wo-men on whose shoulders rested the great responsibility responsi-bility of opening and making I fit for settlement, a new I and sometimes inhospitable land. Their physical hardships hard-ships were so immense that I think if it had not been for j their great faith they most i certainly would have perish - j ed. ; Each succeeding genera- I tion met with a somewhat I easier life style. They drew ! on the knowledge and skills grandfather had discovered, added to it themselves, so that their children in turn had many new comforts and conveniences to make their lives more enjoyable. I I've often thought that I would have liked to have lived a hundred years ago. But now I've decided that I'm not tough enough to have endured that time of pioneering. I would have loved the family solidarity, and the idea of being entirely responsible for my family's well being. I have a mental picture of a family content around the fireplace , Dad planing away on an axhandle, Mother busily busi-ly clicking the knitting needles, nee-dles, children reading or playing nearby, Grandma rocking comfortably as she peices a quilt. It's apleasant ! picture, but it doesnt show the "behind the scenes" action ac-tion that went on during the day. I don't see the water frozen, solid in the wash basins ba-sins on a frosty winter morning, morn-ing, nor the dawn to dark labor of each family member mem-ber just to be able to sustain sus-tain themselves. I have to remember there was no electricity, no runningwater, no daily soaks in a steaming bubblebath, no washing machines ma-chines (I consider mine a blessing!). Often there were no stores. Everything was made at home now some of that I would have liked. Soap making, candle making, stitching up the clothes but not preparing the greasy, smelly wool carding, spinning, spin-ning, dyeing and knitting it up into scarves, mufflers, mittens and stockings - warm, but itchy items. I forget the long miles the children walked to school if they were lucky enough to have one to attend. Forgotten For-gotten too, the sufferings from diseases we have long since conquered. Dads were veterinarians, engineers, carpenters, blacksmiths, farmers and businessmen all rolled into one. Mothers preserved, pickled, scrubbed, chopped wood, spent all day at the washboard, endured the agony of childbirth often alone tended the children, cooked and baked. And how they did eat in those days! Laura Ingalls Wilders books tell about her life as she grew up In the 1860's. Here's a typical breakfast from her book, "Farmer Boy": Oatmeal Oat-meal with thick cream and maple sugar, fried potatoes, golden buckwheat cakes with sausages and gravy, or maple syrup, jams and jellies, jel-lies, doughnuts and two big wedges of thick, rich pumpkin pump-kin pie. Now that's a breakfast! break-fast! True, all families didn't fare so well, but they generally gen-erally had their meat -dried, cured, smoked or fresh; and plenty of squash, pumpkin and dried corn, their own wheat for flour and cereal, a cow or two for milk, chickens for eggs and meat. They did all right. They also possessed many values we seem to have lost in our rush to progress. A |