Pancakes and Cheese

Pancakes
One time, our neighbors who lived over at Indian John Hill walked all the way over to visit. Jim and Frances Graves. They came all that way and we didn't have enough food for lunch. But I decided I was going to figure something out to make, and decided on pancakes. I mixed them up and they tasted pretty damn good. We didn't have any syrup, but I had seen my mother boil water and add sugar and make a sort of syrup, which is what I did that day. If we had butter, it was likely rancid, as we didn't have refrigeration. But I kind of liked rancid butter! When it got old it tasted like cream cheese. Of course, we didn't have that then, but I liked the taste.

Ma's Cheese
Ma went to the store and got this pill called Rennet to put in a big pot of milk. It would separate into cheese and whey, and mother would put it in a dish rag and hang it on the cupboard and let the whey it drip into a bowl. That was the best, sweetest cheese! After hanging for a couple of days and drying out, it could be sliced and put between bread. Many a meal was like that.

Fast Forward
I was in high school, and this had to be during the summer - I was about 13 or 14. John and I were hired by my uncle Steve to cut wood and fill in stump holes, laboring in the field to clear land. My mother would send us down, walking through the back woods, crossing the neighbors fields, with a lunch pail that was a couple of slices of bread and that cheese. That was it. Come time to eat, I was so hungry I had stomach cramps. We worked all day, and probably made about a dollar a day. My Aunt Julia, Steve's wife, would bring him out a 5 pound pail of what she called "Fat Soup", as it was made from beef fat, and a quart of tea. He wouldn't offer any of his leftovers, although I could have ate the whole damn thing I was so hungry.

I missed a week or so of school while doing this work, but we desperately needed the money.

We chruned our own butter, which was really good unsalted butter. Put that on fresh bread.... Man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!