Hickory nuts for lunch!! That's a good one. I was born during the depression years. About 1937, my dad was building a courthouse in Manchester, KY. Although we seemed poor, we weren't. We were a large family and just didn't have any money. Mama could manage to create a meal from next to nothing. Daddy was fortunate in being able to find jobs when many men could not. Day after day, my mother would send my sisters to school with biscuits and ham, or sometimes biscuits with jam. They would swap lunches with their friends for a good ole' dry cheese sandwich!! They considered that a treat. My mother was one of the most frugal women ever, and probably one of the best cooks in the state of KY. Why not! She had cooked for two families, starting as a child cooking for her large family. Her father wouldn't let anyone else do the cooking for him. She later cooked for nine of her own children. During the war, Daddy supervised construction work in Oak Ridge, TN. Rations created a real hardship for large families. Every evening I would wait for Daddy to get home so I could see what was left in his lunchbox. Sometimes he would leave a boiled egg. Other times, half a cheese sandwich. No matter what it was, I thought it was the best tasting food in the world. Every few days he would sneak home a piece of cedarwood that fit perfect in his lunchbox. It was used for firewood. Pat -----Original Message----- From: G. Lee Hearl <glh@naxs.com> To: SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com <SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Sunday, March 21, 1999 12:55 AM Subject: Re: MEALS >Ed & All: >I came up during the Great Depression and I remember one year we had to >sell all our chickens to buy sugar and coffee. All we had left was a bunch >of guenias (I never could spell that word) and we had to eat guenia eggs >every day! Mama would boil three of those eggs and put them in a JFG coffee >"poke" with a little salt for me to take to school for lunch..I got so >tired eatin' them eggs..I almost started roostin' in the trees!! >I figured I was the poorest kid in the whole school...so..one day I decided >to "trade" lunch with somebody..At recess..I sneaked into the "cloak room" >and picked out the heaviest lunch in there and "Swapped" it for mine..I >didn't look in it..but I knew it was heavy..an I figured it had a big apple >or orange in it..Lunch time came and I ran in there and got that lunch and >sat down in my seat...The boy across the asile had my JFG coffee poke..when >he saw those guenia eggs he began to smile..I looked in the bag I had and >in it was three hickory nuts and a rock the size of my fist...That boy ate >those eggs and smiled while I tried to crack those hickory nuts with that >rock...I 'bout starved that day..and I never swapped lunches again!! >G. Lee Hearl Abingdon, Va..... > > >==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== >#7 "Roll Calls" or such by other names are to be called >by the SYSOP ONLY. NO WARNINGS!! Each member is free to post their >SURNAMES anytime they please. > >