As told in 1982
Ralph worked and provided a good living for our family. I was a stay-at-home mom and a homemaker. When the children were growing up my life revolved around my home and family and church and I was quite organized. I did try to work outside the home a couple of times. When we lived in Astoria Ralph called me the “Donut Queen”. I worked in a grocery store that had a front window facing the sidewalk. They had a donut machine in the window. I made cake donuts in that window. The dough went into the machine, onto a conveyer belt and into the grease to cook. The machine turned them over to cook the other side, dropped the donuts out, the grease dripped off, and I iced them when they had cooled a little. It took a couple of hours to make the donuts. The job didn’t last long though because Ralph just came to the store and took me home. He thought I should be at home not at work. After we moved to Portland I worked in the toy department of Olds and Kings. That was a great job for me, but, the kids came in and if they were naughty it drove me crazy. That job didn’t last long either.
I just loved being a stay-at-home mom and that is what Ralph wanted me to be. On Monday I washed, Tuesday I ironed everything I could get my hands on including the sheets. In those days things were not wrinkle free and you had to iron everything or it was a bunch of wrinkles. Now days you can just shake them out and fold them. Wednesday I went to church for CWF or some other activity, Thursday I made bread, and Friday I cleaned house. If I do say so myself I kept a beautiful home. I loved being a homemaker and raising my children. Saturday and Sunday were free to spend with the family and go to church and we often took a long drive on Sunday afternoon.
After several years we were finally was able to buy a wringer washing machine clothes. One time I got my hand caught in the wringer, but was able to trip the wringer so that my hands and arms were not too badly damaged. When Dick and Dottie Lou were babies I always boiled the cloth diapers on the stove in the large copper boiler which I also used for canning. When Dick was in college he came home about once a month during his freshman year. The rest of the time he mailed his dirty clothes home once a week and I washed and iron them for him. He had two big mailing cases and lots of clothes.
No matter where we lived I grew pretty flowers. I love flowers, especially dahlias, sweet peas, and nasturtiums!
I loved to cook I baked bread every Thursday for the weekend. I loved to bake bread and have the smell go throughout the house. I made four loaves of bread and always made clover leaf rolls or some other type of rolls for Sunday dinner. My cinnamon rolls had so much sugar that they were like sticky buns with a lot of walnuts in them. It took all day to make the bread because I had to start mixing it in the morning, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, mold it into loaves or rolls, let it rise again, and then cook it slowly for almost an hour. I had it timed so it was coming out of the oven when Ralph got home. Ralph and Dick both liked the heels of the fresh loaf of bread. They would each cut off an end so they would both get a heel with butter or margarine and homemade berry jam. Then Ralph would say “I would like another heel.” And I would say “you already had both heels.” Ralph would say “no here is another heel along the side.” I had to start making more bread so it would last all week because they would eat a whole loaf of bread on baking day.
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