Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Getting to Know Us
What fun reading the comments. Note that Shelina wrote about her chocolate goof on her blog. I'll eat your chocolate desert any time. :) This reminded me of the time I left the sugar out of the pumpkin pie filling. Not good. And one time I was in a nice restaurant and and my friend and I ordered a fancy desert. It looked delicious. I tried a bite, looked at my friend and she made a terrible face after her first bite. Would you believe the baker had used salt instead of sugar? Yup! And Finn, I had never cooked an easy-over egg when I married either. But I just gave my husband the hard cooked egg with the broken yolk. DH had to show me how to splash some of the oil over the top before turning the egg over. Sure worked.

Where is a place you lived or visited that you think was unusual?

The friend that I am helping write her life stories lived with her mother in a granary on their farm during the summer of 1934. It had no windows or ventilation but did have some bags of grain and lots rodents.

Another friend of mine was in a prisoner of war camp in Germany during WWII. She was 18 years old and a member of the Polish underground. When they saw the Russians on the other side of the river in Warsaw, they came out to fight openly. The Russians delayed coming to help and my friend was captured and taken to Germany. There she was given the choice of freedom and working in a factory making war parts for the Germans or going to a prisoner of war camp. Refusing to help the enemy, she went to the prisoner of war camp and nearly died there.

In 1937, my husband was born in a log cabin on the family farm in Arkansas. No electricity and his mother swept the dirt floor daily. The well water was carried to the house. When it went dry in the summer, they took water from the creek. No screens on the windows and only his parents had a mosquito net over their bed. He lived there until he was a teenager and moved to MI.

In 1953-4 when I was 11-12 years old, I lived in Baghdad, Iraq. My dad went there as part of the Point IV Program which was part of the Marshall Plan. The only Arabic I now remember is how to say Peace be with you. Now I only know English and I say Peace be with the world.

5 comments:

The Calico Cat said...

In the late 1980's we drove in a VW bug (2 adults, 4 Tweens - 11 to 15-ish) from Texas to Maine. The people we stayed with in Maine still had an out house and had to boil water on the stove for a luke warm bath, the sink drains went right out into the "lawn"... (They barely had running water)

Finn said...

It's a fun idea Katie..*VBS* Everyone, as do quilts, has a story. I've not had such unique experiences as a silo or grainery, nor a prison camp..*S* I'll think about it, but nothing much comes to mind.

Katie said...

Hey Finn, I know you lived in a thumb. Not too many people can say that.

Jeanne said...

I lived in a yellow van with lime green shag carpeting covering the whole interior ... aaaaah, those were the hippie days.
Jeanne :)

Shelina said...

Katie, I just found this blog. Bloglines isn't telling me about your posts! Thanks for your story. I feel much better knowing that. If a professional chef can make stupid mistakes, then it isn't so bad that an inexperienced cook did.