TREATS
Living on a dairy farm 15 miles from town meant treats were few and far between. We got to go to town once a month when the milk check came in. If it was a good one, we got to go to the diner in town and get a burger and fries. Once a quarter if there was a bonus added to the check we got to go to the Saturday matinee; if it was a rated A movie that mom approved of. Those were times we looked forward to. We would pile in the pickup and go into town; first dad would go by the dairy and pick up the check. We would wait in the truck all excited to know if we would get a treat this time. Sometimes if the milk we sold was less than grade A or on the low end of our normal volume we didn’t get a treat. We knew better than to say anything if we didn’t, we were just supposed to accept what we got without question.
We didn’t get cookies or dessert very often either. We all worked hard on the farm and meals were whatever mom put on the table. Sometimes on Sunday evening, she would make us a pancake supper. She would make one stack plain and one stack with fruit backed in. That was the desert stack; we never knew what kind of fruit, and it could be bananas, peaches, berries of some kind; whatever she had on hand. After I got old enough to cook by myself I would make a dessert if we had the ingredients. My specialty was cherry cream pie. When the hay crew was at our farm and we were providing the dinner, one of the men would send word that I better make the biscuits and a cherry cream pie.
For school lunches, we got to put peanut butter on gram crackers or if mom had powdered sugar I would make icing and we put that on gram crackers. The kids really liked those. Holladay’s were usually times we got treats. Mom would get the stuff to make special cookies and she always made her dad an old fashion fruitcake soaked in brandy. We didn’t get any of that; she would make it a couple of months before Christmas and dribble the brandy over it each week. By Christmas grandpa would tease her and say throw the cake away just give him the chasse cloth it was wrapped in to suck on. Also, Christmas was the only time we got bought candy. We got hard ribbon candy and hard candy filled with fruit filling. I liked the strawberry ones the best, root beer barrels and horehound. We each got a few pieces in our stocking with a big navel orange and some nuts.
We didn’t get birthday parties, but mom always made each of us our favorite cake, whatever we wanted. Mine was a banana nut cake, it wasn’t like banana bread, it was light and fluffy and had cream cheese frosting. I have tried to make it myself but can’t get it to taste like hers.
The best treat I remember from my childhood was having the whole family together. We would gather around the big kitchen table after church on Sunday. We would all hold hands and pray over the meal. It didn’t matter what was on the table we were thankful just to be together. Did this bring back memories of treats from your childhood? In the hustle and bustle of our lives today it is good to slow down and remember when things were simpler.
I think that is what the psalmist meant when he wrote: When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you.
PSALMS 137:2
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