What wonderful memories I have of my Grandma Smith, a no-nonsense kind of woman who wore a house dress with an apron to wipe her hands on and clunky ‘grandma shoes’. I remember her as incredibly patient and immeasurably kind.
She made oatmeal in a large cast iron skillet in the winter and set it outside the back door for the neighborhood cats so they would have a warm meal on a cold morning.
She baked awesome pies in an oven gadget that set on top of a stove burner (presumably the oven didn’t work), fried crisp golden chicken on Sunday, and made gravy that turned mashed potatoes into love/comfort/happiness on a fork.
Jennetta Balding was born on 16 March, 1887 in the Black Store area of Edwards County. She was one of 12 children and the twin sister of Annetta who married Sam Ahfield and had a large family of her own.
As my mom, Jennetta’s youngest daughter remembers the story, with so many kids at home they took advantage of any opportunity to get out of the house whenever they could. Jennetta stayed with people in their homes and “nursed” them when they were sick, which is just one of the many little connections I have found between Grandma and me.
She met Herman Smith at a community dance, and married on December 19th, 1908, when she was twenty one. Herman and Jennetta had three daughters, Frieda (Thread), Carrie (Markman) and later, when the older girls were in their teens, Irma (Cowling). They farmed most of their life together. She had huge gardens, and raised chickens and hogs. On Market Day, she took her eggs and cream into to town and “traded” at Stewarts Groceries. During the summer Grandma canned and preserved garden produce for winter use.
She liked to use lye soap and was still making it in a kettle in the back yard when I was a little girl.
Grandma taught me to sew a little by helping me cut some quilt squares and make a quilt for a doll be. When it was ready, she quilted it for me on a treadle sewing machine, and let me work the foot treadle.
How ever ‘rose colored’ my memory is, this is how I see Grandma Smith. I only knew her from a young child’s perspective; she died when I was 19, but had been in a nursing home with severe strokes for several years before that. I always picture her standing in the kitchen, sitting in front of her quilting frame or in the garden with Grandpa.
While helping my mother sort through her things in preparation for a move, we came across an old scrap book of Jennetta’s. It’s a narrow, brown “Standard bound Note Book” filled with clippings, handwritten recipes and copies of song lyrics and poetry.
The first few pages are records of sales and dated 1875 and 1876. Her name, in many cases written over the sales figures is her maiden name, Jennetta Balding. It looks like the book was only slightly used, and then handed over to Jennetta. After a few pages of sales figures a page is headed March 13, 1904, three days before her 17th birthday. It reads “My time for sweeping church
1. April 3-1904
2. April 24-1904
3. May 13-1904…”
Perhaps she was given the ledger to keep track of her time when she started sweeping at the church.
The next page is dated Feb 20, 1904 and is titled “Memory Gems”. From there every page is filled top to bottom and front to back with poetry, quotes, song lyrics, recipes and useful information. The last page is dated 1946 and has a recipe for “cold mixed relish” written on it. The pages are also tucked full of clipped recipes, pamphlets and circulars.
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