Roy & Mary (Key) Bingham |
| A trip to Bogard, Missouri always meant a short stay with my Mother's
sister, Mary, and her husband, Roy Bingham. They had a wonderful
house on the corner just as you entered the small town. Uncle Roy
ran a blacksmith shop, which was located across the street from their house.
In those days you could keep livestock within the city limits and Uncle
Roy always had a milk cow and usually a young calf. The young calf
would be hand raised and later butchered for the families beef. Sunday
dinner at Aunt Mary's almost always included a delicious roast from one
of the young calves, complete with mashed potatoes and homemade noodles.
There would always be vegetables canned from Aunt Mary's garden and of
course a Jello salad. To top off the meal she would usually bake
a pie or a cake. The roast would be placed in the oven before we
left for church and by the time we returned it would be ready to eat.
At the bottom of this page, I'll include a recipe for Aunt Mary's homemade
noodles.
The blacksmith shop was open six days a week, only closing on Sundays. Men from the local community would gather in the shop and seat themselves on benches that Uncle Roy had made from old car seats and settle the problems of the world. There were always little triangular blades from the mowers scattered about the floor, which had been discarded when Uncle Roy replaced them with new ones. Uncle Roy always seemed to have an extra dime in his pocket, and he would say to me: "Here, Candy Kid, go across to the station and get you a bottle of pop and a candy bar. The station across from the blacksmith shop was ran by a man by the last name of Jacobs, and you could get a bottle of pop for a nickel and a candy bar for a nickel. Uncle Roy always called me Candy Kid, a nickname I probably rightly deserved, as I could seldom be found without a candy bar in hand. Aunt Mary's house remained the same from the time I could remember until she moved to another small house in Bogard after the death of Uncle Roy. The living room contained a couch with a coffee table in front of it, a large old library table, two rocking chairs and a television, which sat in a corner between the dining room and the living room. They loved to watch Red Skelton and some of the other classic comedys of the era. There were a couple of small dividers on each side of the large entryway which led into the dining room. The dining room had a large dining table and chairs and a matching buffet. The telephone was on the wall at the end of the buffet, and it was the old crank style. I always loved using the phone there and turning the handle and hearing the familiar voice of "Central". I don't know who the local operator was, but she always asked how my grandpa was doing. My Grandpa Key lived with Aunt Mary and Uncle Roy from before I csn remember untl his death at almost 103 years of age. He had a couch in the dining room where he spent much of his day reading the chapter of Revelation from the Bible. When he wasn't sitting on the couch you would usually find him sitting in his rocking chair, which was located in the doorway between the living room and the dining room. The refrigerator was also in the dining room, as there wasn't room for it in the small kitchen. There was also a small side table in the dining room which was the resting place for framed family pictures. Aunt Mary and Uncle Roy's bedroom was on one side of the living room and had two doorways, one of which led into the living room and the other into the bathroom. The bathroom had been made from a corner of the bedroom and had a door into the bedroom and another into a small entryway which led into the kitchen. This entryway also had a doorway to the basement. The kitchen had a white cabinet with a sink with running water, and a small shelf that housed the washpan and water bucket. We always drank water from the water bucket, which was pumped from a well in the back yard instead of using the water from the sink. There was also a large cabinet along one wall and the stove on the wall adjoining the cabinet. The kitchen table sat just inside the back door from the porch. The back porch was a large screened room. As you entered the kitchen from the porch and turned left there would be a doorway to a back room, which was used for storage. My mother and my half-brother occupied this room when they lived with Aunt Mary after the death of Mom's first husband, Otey. At the opposite end of the dining room from the living room was the bedroom that Grandpa occupied. The guest bedroom was located just off the living room opposite the doorway that led to Aunt Mary and Uncle Roy's bedroom. It had two large french doors which connected it with the living room and probably had been a parlor in earlier times. It had two large beds and that is where my parents and me stayed when we visited. The house also sported a big front porch where we would sit on the porch swing in the evenings and watch the cars go by. It was fun waving at the local people who traveled by and always honked or waved. The porch had a door which led into the living room and also one which led into the guest bedroom. My Mother and I stayed in the guest bedroom for several months when I was a junior in high school and Mom helped to care for Grandpa. I would sit on the porch swing and wait for my friends to come by and we would drive about the countryside or go for a swim in a pond outside town. On Friday or Saturday night we would travel from Board to Carrollton and go to the drive in movie or to the skating rink. Uncle Roy and Aunt Mary attended the Church of Christ in Bogard and were avid Christians. I can never remember them missing a Sunday service. The church was also attendee by Mon's siter, Julia and her husband, Ray Hall. Two of Uncle Roy's brothers also attended there, Orby and Opal Bingham (Opal was also my Mom's cousin), and Clyde and Gladys Merle Bingham. Clyde and Gladys Merle had four children, two boys and two grils, that were near my age. During the time my Mother and I were living with Aunt Mary and Uncle Roy, Aunt Mary decided that she wanted to wear the shorter dresses, which were the fashion of the time. She didn't want her knees to show though, and I helped her hem up several of her print dresses. One in particular that I remember was a plaid one After we had shortened it, she modeled it in the living room and Grandpa remarked that it was awfully short, but she wore it anyway. That is the only time I can remember her going against her wishes. We were taught to respect the ways of our elders and I can remember going into the dining room to say goodby to Grandpa before leaving for school. I always had to wear a skirt that was below my knees, then I would sneak back into the bedroom and change to a shorter skirt and make by exit by the side door of the bedroom to leave for school. Concord grapes grow along the garden fence that separated Aunt Mary and Uncle Roy's place from the neighbors. Aunt Mary would harvest the grapes and make jelly and juice from them. She always left the whole grapes in the bottoms of the jars of grape juice, and the plump grapes, which had soaked in the juice were my favorite. Aunt Mary would always see to it that I had a small bowl of them every time we visited. She did the laundry in the basement on Mondays and hung the clothes out on the line in the back yard. Tuesdays were reserved for ironing the freshly washed clothes. Wednesday was the day we cleaned the refrigerator. One time I decided to help Aunt Mary and clean out the refrigerator while she was gone to a club meeting. I carefully removed everything and proceded to wash the shelves and wipe off all the containers and defrost the top before placing everything back inside. When Aunt Mary came home she was pleasantly surprised, but she asked if I had put baking soda in the water I used to wipe out the refrigerator. When I said that I had not, she proceded to re-clean the entire refrigerator. This dampened my spirits a little, but I knew that she had her own way of doing things and would remember the next time I attempted to help out. |
Pictures
Click on the small images to open in a new window. Close the
new window to return here.
|
2 eggs Appx. 2 tablespoons milk pinch of salt Mix the flour, salt, eggs and enough milk to make a real stiff dough. Roll out into two large oval shapes on waxed paper and let dry two or three hours. Roll the oval shapes up (jelly roll style) and slice into strips about a quarter of an inch wide. Separate and let dry overnight. Drop noodles into boiling beef or chicken stock and cook about twenty minutes, stirring often. Serve in a large bowl. |
