Still canning potatoes today. And likely canning turkey tonight and tomorrow. I see lots of soups and stews in our future.
It’s a lot of work, but purchasing in bulk (potatoes) or on sale (turkey) guarantees my family affordable variety through the winter. And while I no longer live up north with my parents where dad was laid off all winter (construction), and this was a necessity to survive, the lessons of youth remain.
What lessons did you learn growing up that have survived into your adult or senior years? I was blessed to grow up poor enough to learn frugality and stretching a dollar. But not poor enough to know we were poor.
Back to school clothes were always bought on lay-away (who remembers that) and paid for weekly until the week before school started. The only new clothes after that came at Christmas. There was one pair of shoes bought for the school year. The year I bought the black and orange heeled oxfords (from the specialty medical shoe shop as were trying to balance scoliosis unevenness), I regretted that impulse all year. Black and orange shoes (while cool) did not go with everything I wore! And there were lots of hand me downs from an older cousin that did help make the wardrobe “feel” knew. I learned to sew my own clothes at a very early age. I was 7 when I first used a sewing machine. (I remember the baby corduroy pants in teal and the same ones in purple…..baby corduroy was not flattering on me and they squeaked with every step!)
Christmas shopping was always done with mom’s Christmas Club. Every week when we went grocery shopping in the city, mom would take $2 out of the grocery money and put it into the Christmas Club at the bank. The first of October the bank would cash in the Christmas club and mom would go shopping “before the snow flies”. We knew NOT to look for our gifts ahead of Christmas morning. I don’t remember ever even thinking I needed to snoop, even though I knew mom shopped early. It just wasn’t done, that would break their trust in me.
Memories of youth and getting through on a limited budget. And for the record, I didn’t know we were poor until after I was an adult and learned how other people lived.
Anyways, that’s enough memory lane for now, there are potatoes to can!
Goneaway Quilting 
Wowza!!! We were of limited means also, but war time! I call our diet Peasant food, but always fresh veggies and a small amount of meat during the week and then Sunday dinner was a big treat! Both of my parents cooked and our food was awesome! I felt very blessed that we were so well taken care of! ❤️
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Wow! I wish we were closer – I’ve put my quest to make that Christmas Jam on the back burner. I’m still anxious about it. I’m going to see if there’s a class anywhere near me. I feel like I just need a physical teacher to be successful with water bath canning. It would never have occurred to me to can potatoes!