The DU Lounge

near by ranch, when she was 10 years old. She was a child cooking for a bunch of men who got up early and needed food before they went on to work. She cooked and fed them when they returned. I can only hope there were other girls and woman with her. I initially didn't believe the stories I heard growing up in the 1950s, but when I got my college degree, as an adult, I, in American history class learned, it was very common for poor families in the mid west to send to their daughters off to work, out of home, to supplement their income. Her experience was literally in my textbook.

She was a great cook, compared to my mother, made everything from scratch. She passed away in 1964.. She made the best cinnamon rolls, biscuits, etc and preferred to cook on her wood stove. Her children bought her a modern stove, she didn't like it and didn't use.

My grandma didn't have a childhood. Got married and had 7 children, 6 surviving to adulthood. I don't really know if she enjoyed cooking, but she was good at it.