Issue 23.10
Gone are the days of the learning to cook, clean, mend and iron from your mother, to prepare you for marriage and homemaking. She is probably too busy working a full time job. In my youth, women were protesting for equal rights, pay and opportunities. Careers were the “in” thing. Most young women considered getting some specialized training usually secretarial or elementary teaching in case they didn’t get married or if something happened to their husband and they needed to work to support any dependent children.
During high school, I attended a homemaking class and learned a few basic skills, which proved helpful to me in future years. My mom as a widow was working fulltime to support our family. She had no extra time or energy to teach me what I would need for marriage. We ate many meals out and our little trailer didn’t take much effort to clean. Our wash was done at the laundromat, which was certainly a time saver. Mom did little cooking.
So, it wasn’t until college days that I learned the practical skills of how to scrub and wax floors, clean bathrooms, and cook meals. I took turns with my roommates with domestic chores. What an eye opener that was. Especially the budgeting part, we only had so much money that each roommate contributed for food for the week. Then we had to plan menus, purchase groceries and cook. I learned by doing and thankfully I had some roomies whose parents had taken the time to teach them the necessary skills while at home. All I remembered from high school cooking classes was how to make cocoa or hot chocolate and perhaps cinnamon toast; but my roomies knew how to make spaghetti, casseroles and other basic dishes. Dorm living brought me necessary training in homemaking skills that would be helpful in my marriage.
I asked my grandmothers for recipes of their favorite dishes. Unfortunately, they had nothing written down but just put in a dab or this or that until it felt right. I remember watching my grandma make homemade bread and became so frustrated because she didn’t measure anything. I was about to undertake a life long occupation of “homemaker” which would require new skills not taught in college: cooking, cleaning, ironing, budgeting, and more-not to mention parenting plus living with a spouse. Check out www.lettersfromlin.blogspot.com for more writings by Lin Floyd.