Grinding coffee, churning ice cream and baking were common activities in my home when I was a youngster.
My family members enjoyed ground coffee. Therefore, we had a coffee mill, and my grandmother would buy coffee beans and grind fresh coffee every morning. After a few years, she decided that grinding was too much work, so she bought Chase & Sanborn coffee and a percolator. The coffee was not as fresh as the ground kind, but no one complained.
The churned ice cream tasted better than did the ice cream bought in cartons at the store. The reason for this was because we used good ingredients like fresh cream and fresh peaches and strawberries. We made it once or twice a month for about five years, and it was a real taste treat.
When we made ice cream, my job was to churn the ingredients, and turning the crank on the tub was a chore. The ice cream freezer was a metal tub that contained a paddle and a crank. The ice cream was frozen by means of crushed ice and rock salt, and, of course, the use of my arm muscles. The number of flavors was limited to vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but when the ice cream was ready, I got the first dish.
In my youth, certain days were designated for certain chores, and Saturday was baking day.
My family really enjoyed baked items. On Saturdays, grandma started by baking bread for the entire week. We ate bread at all three meals each day so it stayed reasonably fresh, but that wasn’t a problem for seven people. My grandmother experimented making rye and whole wheat bread, but the bread we ate for the most part was non-enriched white. It’s a wonder we didn’t get sick because our bread didn’t include vitamins.
My grandmother didn’t stop with the bread, however, because once she got rolling there was no end to what would come out of the oven. It was not unusual for her to bake a pie made from cherries or strawberries and also two dozen vanilla cookies, and when a family member had a birthday, she would bake his/her favorite cake.
I really liked it when she baked a cake because if I were a “good boy” [in my early school years], I could lick the bowl in which the frosting was made, using the spoon that stirred the frosting. I did not assist with the baking process, however.
By the time I got to eighth grade, grandma was tired of the weekly baking routine, and I was ready to give up on churning. So from 1953 on, our ice cream, bread and pies were purchased at the grocery shop, but grandma just couldn’t stop baking birthday cakes.
Although pastries were always present, no family members developed a craving for sweets, and even to this day I limit my intake of sugary items to special occasions.
John Stanger is a lifelong resident of Oak Park, a 1957 graduate of OPRF High School, married with three grown children and five grandchildren, and a retired English professor (Elmhurst College). Living two miles from where he grew up, he hasn’t gotten far in 73 years.