Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

Cake Baking and other Chores
 
I think young people wouldn’t get into so much trouble today if they had to do the work that we did back in the day. And yes, I know every old person says that. : )
 
Some of Betty’s and my daily chores were to go to the garden and gather/pull whatever we were eating that day and wash them off at the well. Mama also asked me to set the table for meals and dust furniture, just to name a few. I hated dusting the furniture.
 
A lot of chores had to do with food preparation. My mother was a laid-back person and never complained about me being in our small kitchen. I made my first cake from cake mix at the age of eleven. They didn’t taste like cake mix cakes today. They had a strange texture and taste. My Dad’s favorite cake was spice cake, so he always seemed happy about me mucking around in the kitchen. A lot of the cakes that I made split in the middle and fell apart. I would be grieved about that but my Dad said it just meant they were fresh and they tasted better that way. I just thought he was desperate for cake. Recently, I made the Kentucky Apple Cake featured in this blog. It fell apart when I took it out of the pan. My Dad was right. It was the best cake I ever baked.
 
It is strange how our chores, eating habits and food preparation change over the years though I am still baking cakes….and I still hate to dust!

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck