Oleo (Margerine) and Butter

Remembering that during the 2nd world War we couldn't get butter like before, so they came up with a product called Oleo and it was white in color with a orange colored ball in the center in a plastic bag that we had to break and knead it to make it look more like butter. It was not all that tasty either, as it was actually like lard that you colored. At first we had to punch, squeeze, stomp, or what ever to get the entire mess to turn yellow in the pkg. Then my mom came up with the idea to put it in the mixer so it wasn't as hard to get mixed up, but the only bad part of that was getting it off the blades after. At first we had to do it by hand, and that was a lot of work.
I remember mixing it a good deal of the time, so think mom got out of that slick.
Every so often my Grandfather would come to visit and bring us real butter that had been made on the farm that he worked on. Oh, what a treat we thought, but then the taste test and it was so strong tasting that I had a hard time eating it. Mom would say we should appreciate it as it was real butter, and not to turn our nose up at it. I don't know what they fed the cows to make it so strong. I guess you could get a taste for it but it would take a bit for that.

Mom and her crochet hook.

One of my favorite memories of our mom is when she would be sitting crocheting something. The 2nd photo is of motifs that she worked on during the war, and made a big table cloth eventually with them, and this piece was a scarf for the buffet to match. She used that table cloth for special occasions. I thought that is was really neat, and at that time I didn't know how to crochet but it fascinated me. The 1st. photo and 3rd have varigated flowers types that she made a lot of and never put them on anything so I used a few of them for neck pieces for some of my bears and also and making a scarf eventually with a few of them. She made a lot of doilies also. I wanted to learn how to do it later in my teens, so she taught me to make a chain and the rest I learned on my own.

Our Dad was very giving.

I should add to that last blog about our Dad. Where Mom was very thrifty Dad would go out and blow the whole thing and over spend when he could. I remember the year that I got a really pretty compact that Dad gave me. I still have it and its a nice memory of my Dad's love. He didn't ever say he loved us, but you knew wth the things he did for you. Another year when I was older he paid for a car that I had to have, and gave me the paid slip as a gift at xmas. He bought mom a lot of nice thing during the years also.