I saw this in the Livery Stable Antique Barn I posted on Time Stand Still...*****************
When I was growing up, we had one similar to this in our kitchen. The one we had had the place for the flour on the left side....like the one shown here. Mom kept her flour in it, and her pan she made biscuits in sat under it. dishes and serving bowls were kept on the shelves in the upper right side, I think....glasses sat below behind the roll-up door. Some, if not all the pots and pans sat behind the big door on the bottom
I don't remember what were in the drawers when it was actually in use...
Besides it, we had a big, metal kitchen sink...similar to this one. Maybe some of you remember them...maybe not. The whole thing is made of metal, there is only one basin. We always used a metal dishpan to run water to wash dishes in, and just ran water a bit at a time to rinse with.
Oh, being in the country, we had well water. Which means we had an electric pump. After so much water is ran, the pump kicks on. Well, our pump was in the basement and we could hear it kick on. I don't know what happened and don't remember if or how it was fixed, but there was a short in the wiring somehow. And if we were running water, and the pump came on, when we touched the faucet to turn it off, we got shocked! I can remember that as if it happened yesterday.
Beside that sink, a homemade table sat that had the same height as the sink. It fit between the sink and the wall. Mom hung a curtain across the front of it, and behind it sat a big lard can...that is where she put her cornmeal. What else was there, I don't remember, but it did have more room. The top had linoleum on it to make washing it easy.
For a long long time our kitchen table was a home made one...again the top had linoleum on it--and it had this metal trim that went all the way around the edge...it capped down over the linoleum and kept it from curling up or getting torn I suppose. And we had a bench that two of us sat on...again, I am sure it was homemade, but I don't remember any details of how it was made.
Mom saved and had kitchen cabinets made...this was probably before I was in high school. She first got just the base...they were custom made by a cabinet maker. They were simple made, but they were made well. They filled the wall that the sink and other table were on and extended half way down another wall. A while later, not sure how long, she was able to have upper cabinets made.
Either when she had the base made or when she had the upper cabinets made, she also had a base made with two bins that tipped out...one for flour and one for cornmeal...I think I have talked before about how everyone down there used to always buy their flour and meal in 25lb sacks...so the bins were really used.
It was just so exciting to have all that room....it probably more than doubled her storage room. I really don't know how she made it before as far as space. And all that counter space to work on. Though we still used the table a lot...by then one of my sisters had given her a nice table with matching chairs.
I have a story about getting shocked in the kitchen, but not near as good as yours. I have always wanted one of these cabinets!! The linoleum table with metal edging, the metal usually had grooves in it, these were so popular for so very long.
ReplyDeleteWe had a well on the farm where I grew up, and I remember the same thing happening when there was a short in the motor.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness how times have moved on. Danny redid my kitchen about 5 years ago and I love it. When I think back to when I was growing up we just had
ReplyDeletebasic units and only a few of them. I don't know how I would manage now If that was all I had.
you have described our kitchen like it was the same one. our kitchen sink was exactly like this one and all the counter tops had linoleum on the top and on the floors. all the cabinets were home made and just painted wood. that sink was put in the house in 1952 and was still there when the govt took the house to build a road and bulldozed the house in 1986. the kitchen looked the same in 86 as it did in 42. daddy built a table for the middle of the kitchen, just like yours. and we had old beat up chairs to sit around it. i think we lived in the same kitchen..
ReplyDeleteI still have an old Hoosier style cabinet I bought at an antique shop about 20 years ago. It holds a lot of stuff and I love it. It's wider than the one in this photo, it has 2 doors below and a wide drawer above them as well as the 3 on the side like this one.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend!
This is homey!
ReplyDeleteMy grandma had one but like yours it had a flour bin. Hers was white with red trim too. The white salt and pepper shakers with red writing stood on the shelve.
We had well water too. I remember having to pump it and then put it on the stove to boil to have hot water. That was the first house my Dad bought. He had to build a cistern and have the water pumped to the house.
So many memories. Young people today have no idea what it used to be like and it really wasn't all that long ago - this old lady says. :)
Ouch! I'd be afraid to turn the water off if I heard the motor running!
ReplyDeleteLife sure was different way back when. We had different expectations of what should or should not be from what kids expect today. I wonder what Lorelei will remember from her childhood.
I loved this post! So many wonderful memories! My great aunt had a cabinet just like the one with the flour bin, and I have always wanted one. I remember all these great older kitchen pieces and think having them would be the BEST even now. I'd love it!
ReplyDelete