- Memories of Greenwood County,
Dorothy Braucher Gowen was born in 1915 and was raised on a farm about four miles northwest of Madison. The farm was a mile west of Blakely Cemetery. The house she lived in was north across the road from #77 Columbia school house. The foundation of the school is still visible among the trees. She went to school there in the 1920s. In the 1980s, Dorothy wrote a number of articles on her memories of her school years and life on the farm.
The house she lived in was built in the shape of a “T” with high ceilings and three bedrooms upstairs. The house was cold in the winter with heat provided by the kitchen stove and a stove in the front room. They burned wood and some of the wood in Dorothy’s opinion was “not the best.” They also burned some corn cobs in the kitchen stove. The kitchen was dark and gloomy with years of smoke and dirt accumulated on the walls and wood work.
She remembers the winter nights being cold. Her parents slept on a feather tick (bed mattress made out of coarse cotton and filled with feathers), no springs and the kids slept on straw ticks.
They had a cistern close to the house and a well further away. Hot water came from a two-gallon kettle that was heated on the kitchen stove. Cistern water was for dish washing and washing clothes. Well water was for drinking. They used homemade soap, made from grease and lye. This soap was very simple to make, if you knew how to make it. Dorothy’s mother made the soap once or twice a year and cooked it in the big butcher kettle.
Due to the cold kitchen and the shortage of hot water, the family took baths once a week in the winter. They had a wash tub and put about two inches of hot water in it. They all dried with the same towel and used the same washcloth. They washed their clothes on a washboard, rinsed and hung them outside in winter or on a line in the kitchen. It would take a couple days for the clothes to dry in the winter. The outhouse was unheated and Dorothy said the seat was like an ice bag.
In the winter, the kids heated several bricks on top of the stove and when they got hot, they were wrapped in newspaper and taken to bed to warm their feet.
The family did not eat supper until 9 p.m. in the winter as milking and chores always came first. The milk was run through the cream separator on the back porch. Winter supper was usually a big skillet of fried potatoes. Once in a while, Dorothy’s mother made potato soup which was thick like gravy. She thickened it with eggs and flour. Sometimes rice with cream and sugar was served. They never had meat for supper except at butchering time and they never had meat for breakfast. In the winter they had oatmeal or cream of wheat for breakfast and in the summer, it was post toasties or fried eggs. Very few eggs were available in the winter as the chickens didn’t produce in winter months, so those that were available were used mostly for cakes.
Christmas at the Braucher’s Christmas was a special day for Dorothy and her two sisters and one brother. There were not too many other exciting days on the farm. A few weeks before Christmas, Dorothy’s dad butchered a beef so her mother would have suet (raw, hard fat) for her plum pudding which was a tradition at Christmas.
A week or so before Christmas, Dorothy’s parents went to town on Saturday to do “their Saturday trading,” (today we call it grocery shopping). Her mother bought Christmas candy, a big bag of peanut brittle, peanut clusters and chocolate. There would be 8-10 bags of candy and 4-5 bags of nuts and oranges. Her mom hid the box of candy and nuts to keep the kids out of it. Christmas dinner consisted of two roast chickens, dressing, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, celery and warm plum pudding with orange sauce.
Christmas presents were always practical, maybe a new pair of shoes. Toys and trinkets were “foolish and a waste of money.” Dorothy envied the kids who got toy trains, cars, dolls, doll buggies or tricycles. She remembers how she longed for a comb to wear in her hair, a belt for her dress or a real pocket book. Part of the candy and nuts were eaten on Christmas Day and the rest were saved for New Years Day, which was also celebrated with another big dinner. They always hung their socks over the door knob and the next morning there would be candy, nuts and an orange in them.
