The grandchildren liked sugar In their coffee, but were not allowed any. They did have a source of supply, however, as they would tease Tillman for some, which he gave with little urging. He was an excellent handy man around the house; running the hand-power washer and Nora never saw him come by the wood pile without carrying in an armload of wood. He loved to pick wild Gooseberries and to fill the berrry shelf in the cellar with Gooseberries and strawberries. The Gooseberries were as large as ones thumb and the strawberries were nearly as large as modern tame ones.
     Mother Ella Loughmiller was busy. She did all the sewing by hand and made all the family's clothes, men's trousers and shirts as well as the girl's dresses. She had seven children before she had a sewing machine or a hand-power washing machine. She canned shelves of fruits and vegetables, corn and apples by the barrel.
     Son George lived in Foss, Oklahoma, where fruit was not plenitiful, so Tillman sent barrels of fresh and dried apples to them. Apples grew in abundance in Jackson County, Kansas. Nora remembers filling her school bag full of Jonathan's on her way to school and never returned one left in her bag.
     The aged grandmother, Huffman lived in a little house which had been moved from the Peasley farm to the Loughmiller back yard. Motherer Ella spent much of her time caring for her and assigned son Walter (Bob) to do the cooking. His gravy sometimes came out thick or thin today. Bob took the teasing in stride, even though he disliked it end the whole chore of cooking. He worked at it for over a year but when he was released from "active duty" there, he has seldom touched a frying pan since.
     When Nora was eleven or twelve, she often substituted for her mother in the kitchen, as her mother was often gone to care for ailing sisters or new grandchildren. Before she would leave on her mission of mercy, she would see that the wash boiler was filled with ten or twelve loaves of bread. One morning Nora and Tillman were getting breakfast and on going to the boiler to get the bread, they found someone had stolen every loaf. 'Well, Norie, we'll either have potato soup or mush for break- fast, don't worry", was Tillman's decision. There were always crackers as they came in large double cases (much as thirty dozen egg cases are made in the 60's) . There was always an ample supply of brown sugar, chunks of which the youngsters would sneak out and nibble on, in a dark corner. Nora remembers her riding to school on a sled, equipped with a sturdy box attached to it. Nora rode in the box, and the sled was pushed by her six brothers. They covered the two miles in nothing flat.
     Placed in the box were also the dinner pails, formerly syrup buckets, but filled with a good supply of food. One day when Nora and a chum were coming home from school, Nora was eating a pickled pigs foot left from lunch. The friend made this request: "When you get through eating the foot, could T suck the bone?" Nora says, "I suppose I did, I don't remember."


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