MAKING TAFFY

10-12-09...MAKING TAFFY

My cousin Brenda and I were always "DOING SOMETHING". Maybe we had too much time on our hands, especially in the summer when school was out. Brenda's Mama worked out of the home but my Mama was a housewife and took care of us. There were four of us, me, my Brother, Brenda and her Brother. The boys stayed inside with Mama but Brenda and I were back and forth between the houses. We lived only across the barbed wire fence and up the lane a short way. Mama could see in their kitchen window. We decided to help my Auntie out and wash her dishes which we started but that was too hard. We left some pans full of water on the wash board to "SOAK". Well "We'VE DONE OUR GOOD THING FOR TODAY" We said to each other, now lets cook something. Of course we wanted something sweet. We got out my Auntie's recipes (no book just a pile of recipes that she never used. She cooked out of her head she said. I didn't understand back then what she meant. I kept watchin' her head when she was cookin' but nothing ever came out) But I am ramblin' so back to our cookin'. We decided on making taffy because we had seen that done and the pullin' was fun. Since I've never wanted taffy since that day (YUKKY) I can't tell you what went in it but we cooked it up. What now I said. Well it has to cool before we pull it and the recipe says pour it out on a flat surface. There was a bunch of that stuff and the only flat surface we could see was the kitchen table. Sooooo! Guess What? Yep! That's just what we did and that stuff was still hot. There were cracks in that old wooden table but we couldn't help that, NOW COULD WE? OH MY GOODNESS WE SAID. We've gotta' clean this up before Auntie gets home or My Mama shows up checking on us. OH MY! OH MY! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Well DO you remember those pans sitting on the wash board soakin'? We'll just use that to clean up the floor, the chairs, and whatever else needed cleanin'. Auntie will be so happy and prowd of us when she sees how we have cleaned her kitchen , Don't you think she will, Brenda? Oh yeaw she will be so glad that she don't have to wash them dishes and mop them floors. Why no tellin what she may give us. Ok so we got all the pans down and set them on the floor under the table, got some towels and set to work!! Of course we weren't very strong so we spilled some of the pans before we got them there. Then we slipped in that soapy water(we used Oxydol detergent and boy was it slick) We wallered around down there and just cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. We thought the floor looked good when My Mama walked in with our Brothers, one on each hip, but she didn't agree with us, and there was taffy hardening on the table. OH MY OH MY OH MY!!!! You've got to understand that we were seven and eight at the time and knew better. You also need to understand that things were different back then. We were the only ones who lived down there. No one to hurt us and no one who would hurt us. Our doors were NEVER locked at our houses. NO NEED TO. Anyway back to the rest of the story. My Auntie came home about two hours later to find a spotless kitchen. Brenda and I cleaned that kitchen while My Mama watched. YES SIREE WE DID! We thought we were out of the woods now. We had baths and Mama sat us down to wait. We even saw her trying not to smile a couple of times so we just really felt good about it. "THEN MY AUNTIE GOT HOME" Mama told us to just sit right there and "DON'T YOU MOVE TILL I TELL YOU TO" We kinda thought she was gonna' brag on us to Auntie about what a good job we had done. Well we had cleaned that kitchen up real good all by ourselves, "HADN'T WE" I guess you know the rest of the story and I guess you know we didn't ever do that again. Auntie spanked us both, Then Mama spanked us both while our little snooty nosed Smart elec Brother's has cookies and milk. That is how we learned our lessons in life back then. We experienced things and we took the consquences. NO MORE NEXT TIMES. WE LEARNED GOOD. We had wonderful parents. We were spanked when we needed it and we were loved unconditionally all the time. Oh those were the best memories! THE VERY BEST THERE IS!! Kids now just have no idea what they are missing. DON'T YOU THINK?