THE HOOSIER CABINET 

This post came about from a listing on the FB Group I belong to.  Someone posted a question on the Hoosier Cabinet.

The above photo is of my oak Hoosier Cabinet in my kitchen. It is my bakers' corner. There have been other versions but the oak cabinet is my favorite.

This time of year brings back many delightful memories that spring forth. Memories of the delicious smells emanating from my grandmother's kitchen. 

The kitchen was, and in some homes today, still the hub of the home where just about any reason to congregate there is acceptable. Especially a delightful conversation over a cup of coffee or tea.

The history of the Hoosier Cabinet is interesting. The name came about because the companies manufacturing it were from Indiana during the 1890-the 1940s. 

Kitchens during this time period were built without kitchen cabinets as we know them today. The need for free-standing cabinets was a necessity, thus the free-standing workstation, Hoosier Cabinet came about. Two main companies produced the cabinet, Sellers and Hoosier Manufacturing. A few other companies also produced this cabinet, but Sellers was the most prominent.

Today, they can be found at estate sales and auctions. They are well worth purchasing. My cabinet holds all my baking needs, pans, and ingredients. My cabinet also has the flour bin and as you can see on the far right the glass sugar container. The center kneading board slides out easily. The only thing I don't like about this is that it is so short for my tall stature. Of course, ladies were much smaller back in those days. 

So, during this hibernating season, I love to think about the special times in grandma's kitchen, learning to cook and bake and doing my homework at the kitchen table. After all, the kitchen was the warmest room in the house.

Today I burn a candle on my Hoosier Cabinet shelf and sigh deeply as I walk past it and encounter the beautiful memories it all brings about. 

          

          HAPPY THANKSGIVING 

Thinking about Thanksgiving, my eyes went to the "Thank-Fuls" antique canning jar sitting on a table in my office.

As you can see, I began this in 2017, filling with slips of papers stating my thankfuls as they came to my mind.

Giving thanks for so many "things" that it makes a soul so very "full."

My memory coughs up a repressed sight sits at a time when I was circling the outer part of Ammon, Jordan and all at once witnessed a refugee camp.  It is an image that I pray I will never forget. It made me realize how much us Americans have compared to a majority of the world. Yes, even the poor Americans, for the most part, have more than some in other parts of the world. 

How easy it is for us to think of all the things we don't have, especially the things we think we need or just want that are not really necessary. We quickly lose sight of what we do have.

All we possess belongs to God, whether we realize it or not. All we have is from His creation.

So, this Thanksgiving remember to be -

"always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:20

And don't forget to count your "Thank-fuls

                        GOODBYE FLORA 

               So here we are at the last hurrah of Spring, Summer, and Falls foliage.

               As stated in Ecclesiastes 3 "there is a time for everything."  

               And that time includes the fading death of foliage that we have enjoyed these past many months.

               It is time now for us to enjoy the indoors curled up in our homes, perhaps with a book in our hands, sipping a tea, coffee, or hot cocoa. A rejuvenating to quiet our souls of business.

               As in my prose below:

  And now creation takes its last hurrah for the year.

               Sleep snug and peacefully, dear God's creation until your next reveal of beauty floods our souls in the Springtime with rebirth.

            

The pictures are from my backyard after our first snowfall here in the Central North of Indiana.

               Blessings  Susan

               

     PARTY LINES, PUMPS, AND PRIVIES                           FEEDING OUR FAMILIES

                                                Memories of Hoosier Homemakers

   

     I inherited these two books from a special aunt, Eleanor Wolf.  Lately, perusing them has been a delight in Hoosier antics of bygone years.

Eleanor Arnold was the author, from Hoosier Homemakers through the years. My things have certainly changed for the woman of the house. 

The interviewees tell of their life as children and women in the time from 1890 to 1930, a time of busy, industrious small communities and rural areas. The interviewees are from many Indiana Counties with their own tales.

Some of the chapters in both books are;

Milking and churning

Feeding the workers

Butchering and Curing Meat

Cobs, Coal Oil, and Kindling

Pumps, Baths, and the Path

Rag Rugs, Brooms, and Straw Ticks

What a delight to re-read these books.

Opal: We had a washtub and you put water in it out in the sun to heat, and then you heated a teakettle of water to put in that, and that is how you'd take your bath. Usually out behind the house, in the Summertime.

Juanita: In the wintertime, everybody cleared out of the kitchen, and you took it in the kitchen.

Opal: Right by the cookstove with the oven door open!

Opal: I think we took a bath once a week; that was to get cleaned up to go to church.

If you ever want to spend a quiet winter evening, reveling in stories from the past that make you appreciate the amenities we have today, go to your library and look for books such as these. It will certainly make you thank God for those that have paved the way with modern appliances and conveniences that we often take for granted today.