By Rita Redd
The word Legacies to me has many definitions. So After some research. These are some I found.
1.) Memories passed down by word of mouth.
2.) To be remembered.
3.) What one leaves behind.
Everyone leaves a legacy. Many are just never recorded. When someone enjoys a food you cooked, this is part of your Legacy. When we talk or write about our family, we are leaving their legacy.
People often don’t think they will be remembered. You don’t have to be famous. Many don’t think of the legacies, or impact they leave. We go about our everyday life, just as people from years ago did. In some aspects most of us follow patterns we learned, especially in cooking. Think for a minute: Remember who you observed cooking. Do you use many of the ways they used? The memories of their kitchens, the feel, the smell, the great food. In remembering you have much to be sent and recorded. What I remember most was the love, comfort, the security I felt as a child in the kitchen of my Mother, Grandmother’s and other women I knew.
The Volunteers at US Legacies are attempting to record as much information as possible. Visit our website uslegacies.com and our FaceBook Group facebook.com/groups/americanlegacies to submit your Memories.
We all dream to leave a Legacy,
Our name printed forever in time,
Proof of our days on earth,
Recipes, fond memories, a Grandma’s love,
Wartime, family, friends and events,
Reminisces of places, people and times,
Send us your memories,
US Legacies will print the Legacies forever in time.
Author and Contributor: Rita Redd
The Wood Cook Stove
Legacy of:
Ollie Hamby Fortner
August 5, 1896 to August 1971
Grannie (we called her) was my Grandmother. The spelling Grannie is always what she had me sign for her in later years.
In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s she continued to cook on a wood cook stove. The stove from my eyes as a child seemed to be a monster. It covered a wall.
Everyone we knew had gas or electric stoves. But to me the old wood cook stove seemed natural. It had always been there. Grannie shoved the pieces of wood in it. Making huge biscuits with her hands. I learned to make biscuits this way. I continue to roll the dough in my floured hands. Following tradition my grandchildren, run for the kitchen to help make biscuits with their hands.
Grannie cooked rabbit, squirrel, and turtle. She cooked other things but she liked what she was use to. I never remember a written recipe in her kitchen. Every thing she cooked was from memory. She always said her Mama did it that way. Times had been hard for her and my Grandfather, George C. Fortner (Paw). They had raised 7 out of 9 children mostly by farming. The children helped on the farm. Money was probably better for them in the 50’s and 60’s, but they continued to live as they always had.
George Fortner (Paw) set traps. He cleaned the rabbits, squirrel and sometimes a turtle. They had chickens for eggs and chickens to fry. Paw milked the cow twice a day. Grannie then strained the milk put it in the refrigerator. Once or twice a week she let milk sour overnight in the churn. The next day it seemed she churned for hours. The butter was skimmed off the top, pressed in a small wooden butter press.
In the 1960’s when Grannie finally quit arguing and let an electric stove be installed. She had a very difficult time with cooking. She could never get the heat right. I am not sure if it was due to age, or the loss of her wood stove. Her food never tasted the same. It seemed she cooked much less.
Note:
My grandmother, Ollie Hamby Fortner, born in Smyrna, Georgia August 5 1896. Died August 1971 in Smyrna, Ga. The longest distance that I know of she traveled from Smyrna was less than 75 miles.
Contributed by: Rita Redd
Published U.S. Legacies March 2003
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