Ruby Robieson Bennett - Lowry Tales #8

Daughter's Note: This was one of the best things Mom ever learned – from a kid’s standpoint. We had  several apple and two apricot trees in Lowry and so appreciated the  apricot kolachie filling. They always disappeared before the apple or prune.

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Kate Teaches Me

One Saturday morning, my neighbor Kate Koudella was over at our house and we were busy figuring out some sewing problem as we had done many times before.  She was a grandmother and a seasoned seamstress. I’d taken several sewing lessons plus made many of my children’s everyday clothes and other things usable around the house.  So, we often had “consult sessions” to straighten out a problem for each other.

Having finished our business, she was about to leave when I came back to the kitchen to check on a huge bowl full of rising bread dough.  It seemed ready to roll out, so I was tumbling it out on the floured counter top, which caught Kate’s eye, and she came over to examine it.

Rolling up her coat sleeves a little, she announced, as she pressed her fingers into the soft, pliant dough,  “Ruby, now I’m going to show you how to make kolachies.” “Kolachies!”   I gasped!  Thinking of those fruit-filled wonderful delicacies her church people made.  “Me make those?  How?”

She reached in my cupboard to choose a small juice glass, which was just the right size, then pressed it down on some flattened dough to cut it out – presto a small round mound.  Picking this up in her hands she began a series of motions, thinning & teasing the round, turning constantly as it grew larger.  Making sure it kept a higher lip on the outside of the dough while the inner side was pressed thinner, deeper – like a large vacant area – this would be where the fruit would be placed.

She said I should continue this way, making cookie sheets full, spacing them well apart and letting them rise again after filling each one with fruit.  She said to always remember the important thing was brushing the outer area of each kolachie lightly with oil.  Then to again brush each with oil as they just came out of the oven to keep them nice and soft.

I was so thrilled getting this lesson and used it successfully many times with my daughters helping me.  It was fun knowing I’d learned a special craft from an expert – at an unexpected moment.  A great day for me!

Ruby Robieson Bennett

Getting in the Frozen Clothing

Remembering way back, Mom hung some portion of her laundry out on the clotheslines, even in very cold weather. Maybe she was younger and stronger then, but we were all happy when she stopped this procedure – which we as a family thought a torture for her.  At any rate, this is one of the days she had a line full of long legged underwear for husband and several children banging away in the frozen air.

She had waited until I returned from school, so I could help her. One’s fingers did not last long manipulating clothes pins and frozen clothes. No doubt, a strong north wind was blowing so you felt your coat not at all, and she’d want to get this done fast so we could get inside quick. So, we were both working as fast as we could.

Breathlessly, one on each end, we finally unfastened all those long legged underwear and made a run for our house.

Reaching indoors we both made the first four steps together – then came the landing and whoa! Something happened. The legs on the frozen long underwear relaxed and sort of gave way beneath us – we looked down at them. Yes, they were there all right – but the hallway was heated just enough to cause them to become a bit limp. We felt them slump under us. Then we began to laugh! As they relaxed more – we laughed more. We felt like we’d conquered something! It got funnier and funnier, and we laughed so hard because we’d been so pent up and so fortified against the cold. Now we were warming and becoming foolish.

We carried these limp underwear items to the clothes bars and placed them around a space heater in the dining room. It threw fresh air about the home as the clothing dried and eventually was folded and put away.  Sometimes washday lasted until long after supper – counting drying time.

Dad bought Mom a clothes dryer when the twins were born, which was many years after the incident like the above.

I remember that so often! How we laughed at those silly, thawing underwear legs. What a sight they must have been. No wonder we laughed. Bet today we’d have howled with laughter.

Ruby Robieson Bennett