Note from the author:

When you were going to school in the late 40’s and early 50’s the days ran by a different clock then they do today. Here is a small example.

Just for your information, the Crik’ is The Second Creek, Monroe Co. WV

If you were a resident of the Crik’, the odds were very good you lived on a farm of one size or another. Large gardens, even for folks with little more then a yard, were the norm in our area and these gardens set the stage for our dinner table. In order to maintain our way of life the entire family would be active from dawn to dark. Such day long activity needed to begin with fuel that would hold up.

Breakfast was always the meal designed to start the day and usually was the largest one. Hot cat head biscuits, eggs and tomatoes from the garden along with ham, sausage, bacon and gravy were always available in some combination or other.

At the noon meal we would come down a notch or two. First you’d have the left over biscuits from breakfast. With this you’d get new potatoes and peas or maybe an ear of sweet corn and some green beans. Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers would be added for a little crunch.

Supper time was more a time to relax together at the end of the day rather then a big meal event. Cornbread almost always was the featured headliner. My grandfather’s favorite supper was a big glass filled with crumbled cornbread then filled with fresh milk. This he would eat with a spoon like it was candy. My father’s was similar, however, he loved his cornbread stuffed glass filled with the juice from boiled cabbage. These snack type meals would be followed by the only dessert of the day. Desserts would be a slice of pie of some variety or just some berries or fruit that was in season sprinkled with a little sugar and some cream.

A neighbor lady, who was once a nurse, had a saying related to eating for health that went as follows; For breakfast eat like a king, for lunch like a prince and for supper like a pauper. It must work because that’s what we did on the Crik’ and it’s always kept us going strong.

Dennis E. White
Class of 1960
Reprinted with permission of the author.