Oleomargarine. My, that is a long word. We call it margarine, nowadays. Back before WW ll, we called it oleo. You will find that name in old cook books.

I think most everybody likes pineapple. There's Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Pineapple Casserole and last but not least, Pineapple Pie. I like pineapple any way you fix it. Of course, fresh pineapple is the best, but that is only available part of the year.

There are jigsaw puzzles that depict a general store with goods displayed on shelves as well as placed around the store. A few steps into the door and you were at the counter. That's the way it used to be. “Well, hello there, Mrs. Stimer. How are you today?” The grocer knew all his customers.

Mother only shopped once a month. That was the way Dad was paid by the farmer he worked for milking cows twice a day and doing field work. Forty dollars a month and a tenant house to live in. We had it better than most in those dreary days of the Great Depression.

Adapted by Shirley McMurtrie

I look back to the days what are gone
When living was simple and plain.
We rushed to the ole stove to be warmed
When chilled by the frost and the rain.

To the end of our days, we'll never forget
Our regular Saturday scrub.
Needed or not, the water not hot,
By the ole cook stove, in the tub.

We loved that ole stove for the things that it made:
The puddings, the pies and the cake,
The jelly and jam and savory ham,
Roast chicken and tasty Swiss steak.

Mother's favorite candy was a vanilla fondant cone dipped in chocolate, but making it was beyond her expertise. No matter, she could buy a small bag of it whenever she went to town. Other than the infamous Hersey Bar, it was the only candy I knew in those years. I can still see her at the counter in Woolworth's pointing to her favorite candy and saying, “I'll take ten cents worth of those, please.” The clerk would hand her five or six in a small brown paper sack. On the way home, one piece for each of us was a special treat.

We lived near a swamp. Not just any swamp. This one seemed to go on forever. The tenant house we lived in, next to an old cottonwood tree, was at the foot of a steep hill. If we stood in the driveway and looked across the road, the swamp ran to the horizon. On our side of the road, the same swamp continued on. It was our playground. In the spring the swamp would be flooded with the heavy spring rains. We didn't venture out there then, but when the swamp dried up, we would be off and running. It was our playground.

Do you need a dessert for supper? And you can't find a recipe that doesn't need a trip to the store? Custard pie would fit the bill. The ingredients are in every kitchen.

I have a story about one special custard pie. It happened long ago when I was still a teenager and living at home in the 1940s

The Union County Memoir Class will begin Thursday, February 8 at 9:30 A.M. at the Union County Senior Center, 298 Main Street, behind the Union County Library, in Maynardville. We will meet on the second and fourth Thursdays at 9:30 A.M. The first class will be concerned with how-to-do's and discussion of story topics. We will begin writing stories February 22. If you have questions, please contact me: Shirley McMurtrie, 865-992-1056 or email my at follow8me@aol.com

When I was growing up during the Great Depression years, there was no cake mix, no Bisquick and no pancake mix. It was like my dad with his cigarettes; he rolled his own. We made our own. I don't have Mother's pancake recipe. Like I said before, she seldom used a recipe. Anyway, I was too young to watch and write down the measurements.

Last week I put out a call for those interested in writing their memoirs. Beginning with “It was a dark and stormy night” as Snoopy did in the Peanuts cartoon series is NOT the way to go. It is too easy to get bogged down and lose interest in the project. Plus it might be repetitious and boring. Writing in episodes is the way. Each story of about five hundred words would be about one situation. In writing the story of your life, you are painting scenes, one story at a time. This is a proven method, tested with everyday adults writing about their lives.