Sometimes smells wafting from my kitchen can trigger amazing childhood memories. And tonight, this pot of my homemade soup reminded me of a wonderful day more than FIFTY years ago…
Longtime readers know as a child in rural Iowa, I attended a one room country school. Our school, West Lincoln #6, was about half a mile from our farm. (In fact, the school is still in operation today, but now functions as a privately run Conservative Mennonite school.)
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| My Old School…West Lincoln #6 |
There were eight grades in that one room school house. and I was the only girl in a class of FOUR. You may NOT be surprised to learn that one of my nicknames was “Chatty Patty”…and those three boys in my class could be merciless when it came to teasing. (But remember that old saying…what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.)
Many times I would walk that half mile to school with my older brother Tom. And sometimes we would leave home earlier than usual, just to allow time to stop and listen to the songs of the red-winged blackbirds…or to pick some wildflowers in the ditch…or to blow on milkweed pods to scatter them into the breeze.
And some days, our then-Amish neighbor would take us to school in his buggy! We would stow our lunch boxes in the “trunk” on the back of the buggy and climb in for the awesome ride behind his high-stepping horse. And on yet other days, I would saddle MY pinto horse, Patsy, and ride to school. On those days, I would tie her to the white wooden fence under a shade tree outside the school and fill a bucket with water for her, and she would wait patiently for me until school was over.
It was an amazing and magical childhood. It was an innocent time…and a different world. A REALLY GOOD World.
But today, I remembered the day our wonderful teacher, Mrs. Herner, told us we would soon have a HOT LUNCH DAY! She circled a day on the calendar and asked each student to bring one ingredient to add to her electric roaster to make VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP for our lunch on that special day.
I remember her handing a slip of paper to each of us with the meat/vegetable/spice ingredient we were to bring on that once in a lifetime day…for that once in a lifetime HOT lunch.
While this was a one room school, we DID have electricity and indoor plumbing by the time I attended, although there were still “his and hers working outhouses” on the grounds. And we all brought our cold lunches in our lunch boxes (or in sorghum buckets for the Amish kids) every day of every year…forever! So this was MONUMENTAL!
And on that amazing HOT lunch day, we all arrived with our assigned ingredients which were assembled, first thing in the morning, in that electric roaster in the basement. It appeared to me (a six year old) to be a magical concoction that soon sent forth aromas that made our mouths water and our stomachs growl…all morning.
And that morning at school seemed to last forever.
I will never forget that day. And the smells. And the shimmering steam that rose off of that cauldron of goodness when Mrs. Herner FINALLY removed the lid from that roaster and began to fill our bowls with that long-awaited soup.
Sometimes the most simple things in life will stay with you forever.
And that’s a good thing. A REALLY GOOD thing.
Looks yummy from emma
Looks yummy from emma
Thank you Miss Emma! It would taste even better if you and your sisters had helped to make it!
Luv u!
Meemaw
Thank you Miss Emma! It would taste even better if you and your sisters had helped to make it!
Luv u!
Meemaw
Patty, I doubt if you knew this but I went to that very same school when I was about 5. That would have been in 1943. My teacher's name was Edith Roth.
Patty, I doubt if you knew this but I went to that very same school when I was about 5. That would have been in 1943. My teacher's name was Edith Roth.
This brings back some memories for me as well. I never did get a hot lunch in my one room school house, but I do have many fond memories of my days there. The walk to and from school was always an adventure. Good times indeed.
Very nice memories!! really enjoyed the story. My Dad use to ride a pony to rural school, amazing all the changes there has been. My father would of been 100 years old in March. thanks so much for sharing such wonderful Iowa memories! ~ Iowa girl.
Very nice memories!! really enjoyed the story. My Dad use to ride a pony to rural school, amazing all the changes there has been. My father would of been 100 years old in March. thanks so much for sharing such wonderful Iowa memories! ~ Iowa girl.
This classroom activity would fit in perfectly with the children’s book of Stone Soup which also teaches a moral .
Thank you for your comment Nana! I agree…it would still be a great classroom activity today!
XOXO
Meemaw
I suggested this very thing for an office pot luck. Oh my, what a hornet’s nest! One person didn’t want any fat in the broth, one did not like any kind of shell vegetable, another wanted broccoli, another said she wouldn’t eat it if it had broccoli, another no salt….. it went on and on and I was sorry to ever make that suggestion.
That’s a shame. But MY soup meal was created way back in the 1950s…and times were different back then. It was a magical meal for me!Thanks for sharing!
XOXO
Meemaw