Grandma's Big Kitchen

No matter how many people were at Grandma's place, they all ended up sitting or standing in the kitchen. Grandma's kitchen was white, white cabinets, white icebox, white walls. But her stove was black and she always had a fire burning. She used wood in the stove. She did not have a hot water heater either so a kettle of water was always simmering on a back burner.

Cleanest Kid Bathed First
If one of us kids needed a bath she got out a big oval-shaped metal tub and put it on the floor right in the middle of the kitchen. She filled it half full with pump water and then added boiling water to it until it was luke warm. The cleanest person got to take the first bath in the tub, then the next cleanest one, and the dirtiest person went last.

I spent the night at Grandma's whenever I got the chance. Roosters crowing at dawn did not wake me up; I woke up smelling something baking in the oven, usually morning biscuits. Grandma was always in the kitchen. She was in the kitchen before I went to bed and she was there when I got up.

She was there when it was 90 degrees outside and she was there when it was snowing. When I remember Grandma I remember her kitchen and can almost smell the aroma of baking bread.