My Mother’s life was one of hardship and deprivation.
Her family was so poor when she was young that they had to wear their coats in the house in the winter because they could not afford to buy enough coal to keep themselves warm.
My parents married in 1933 during the Great Depression and had very little to call their own. My sisters and I grew up in a three-room cabin with no electricity. We had cold running water until the creek dried up in the summer, then we had to haul water from my aunt’s house.
I was 8 years old in 1952 when our home became wired for electricity. Now my Mother could have an electric range; no more feeding the cooking stove with wood even on hot summer days. Now she could have a refrigerator; she didn’t have to buy ice for the icebox anymore and could keep frozen foods on hand. Now she could have a hot water heater and not have to heat water on the stove. But what she liked best was her Sunbeam electric mixer.
Mother was a wonderful cook but she had arthritis in her hands and it was hard for her to stir and beat the ingredients for her culinary creations. What a joy that mixer was to her. Many wonderful and delicious confections were produced by her with that machine, from creamy mashed potatoes to melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake.
