Some Things I Miss............

“If you’ll have John stop by after work, I have an apple pie for him. Seems like these apples weren’t as good as the last ones were so I hope he can eat it.”

It was my Mother’s sweet voice on the other end of the line letting me know that, once again, she had baked a pie especially for her son-in-law. And, to this day, I believe my Mother’s apple pies were what won my husband over.

I miss my Mother’s kitchen……………

I miss walking up to the back porch door and smelling whatever was baking even before I got to the kitchen door.  My Mother waited a long time for her four burner gas stove. It was the first or second gas stove in town when they became available. Oh, how she loved that white Tappen range!

I miss walking in and seeing her standing at her old cabinet with the big enamel top rolling out pie dough. I have that cabinet in my home now and occasionally, in my mind, I can still see her standing there; rolling pen in hand and flour on her face.

I miss seeing her old Searchlight Cookbook lying on the table open to the recipe she was currently making. I still use that old cookbook with the clipped recipes still falling out when it’s opened. I look at  her handwriting alongside some of the recipes and I remember…………

I miss standing at the stove when I was a teenager helping Mother make Bread and Butter pickles. We would visit about school and slice cucumbers; we would slice onions and cry. We’d mix the cider vinegar, white sugar, mustard and celery seed and bring it to a boil. We’d pour that mixture over the cucumbers and onions, bring it to a boil and pack them in  pint jars. The house would suddenly smell wonderful. And, I could envision setting down with Mother and Daddy at the table eating brown beans, mashed potatoes and those wonderful bread and butter pickles. I have my mother’s recipe but I have never been able to make them taste like the ones she and I made so many years ago.

I miss hearing mothers hand cranked beater as she beat her seven minute icing until it came to just the right peak. Usually, she had made a coconut cake to take to someone who had lost a loved one or for someone’s birthday. The icing with the Angel Flake coconut was the thing that made it so special. My mother never used mixes for anything she made even up until she passed at almost 95 years.

I miss in later years, opening the kitchen door and seeing my mother setting in the rocking chair we had moved into the kitchen for her because “I just feel so much better setting here in the kitchen” she had said. She was usually reading her bible or studying her Sunday school lesson. If she wasn’t in her rocking chair, she was setting at the kitchen table addressing a card or writing a letter to someone she loved.

 “Well, I’m sure glad to see you. Come sit down for a minute. I know you’re busy. Where are the kids?” She’d say.

“Yep, it’s been a busy day; kids are fine; they’re already home and I’m headed that way. I just thought I’d stop by and see if you needed anything.”

“No, I’m doin’ okay for an old lady”, she’d laughingly say.

I miss a lot of things about the home I lived in growing up but most of all, I miss the kitchen.

……….and, I miss my Mother.
 

^"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Exodus 20:12 KJV