Memories from the Past by Jerry

I will write about some of the pets we had as a family.  It is my understanding that when the Mary Verna and John Leonard family lived in Blackfoot, Idaho, Dad had a beautiful hunting dog. (Paul will have to verify this story)  I don’t know what kind or if dad used the dog for hunting.  (We do have a picture of dad standing with a group of mothers’ brothers and sisters and he is holding a shot gun).  The story as told to me is that the dog bit someone and in those days they did not have an animal shelter to take the dog to.  You had to put down the dog yourself.  Dad took the dog out in the desert and had to shoot the dog and bury it.  Dad said that he never wanted to do that again and so we never had any pets.  One time a turkey wandered into our yard on 30^th street and we kind of made a pet of it, but we ate it for Thanksgiving.  When we moved up to Monroe, I built a pen that I kept pigeons in.  I would let them out in the daytime and they would come back at night.  They’d  get into the pen by themselves but could not get out. (A one way door)  I also had Guinea pigs in the bottom of the pen and they were fun to play with.  We would take them out on the grass and watch them run around.  (We use to tell the neighbor kids that if you held a Guinea Pig up by its’ tail, its’ eyes would fall out.  Guinea Pigs do not have tails) 

It seems like we always had rabbits.  It was part of my job to gather hay for the rabbits to eat.   I Would go to a vacant lot and there would be clumps of hay for me to cut.  But the rabbits were not so much a pet as they were our source of meat during   WW II (when meat was rationed) and after.  We would take the small bunnies, when they opened their eyes and had fur on them, out of the pens and play with them on the grass.  But dad taught us how to kill and skin the rabbits.  We also learned how to kill chickens so that their feathers would come loose without putting them in hot water.

I think that not having pet dogs around the family, we all grew up not having a real fondness for dogs.  I am not aware of any of my generation having had dogs as pets.  Mother had a few cats after father passed away but they were all outdoor cats.

It seems like on Margaret & mine two missions, a lot of people have house dogs and you have to put up with them when you go into their homes.  I have been bitten by two dogs in my life, one when I was young and staying with our Engh cousins and once when we lived in Castro Valley, on my way home from work.  I think dogs know that I’m scared of them.

Memories of the Past  by Sterling

Who inherited Verna’s Ateco Cookie Maker (see attachment) from her kitchen supplies when she moved in with Roger and her house was sold? Does it still exist somewhere? This was brought to my attention when I found the scrap of paper, shown in the attachment, among Verna’s letters to Leonard when he was on his mission that Carolyn allowed me to review.

This cookie maker was a big fascination in my youth and holds a special spot in my memory. There were many parts and pieces to attract a young child’s attention. It was an aluminum tube, finely threaded on each end, with screw on caps to close them off. One cap would hold one of many changeable disks with various patterns that the shortbread cookie dough would be pressed through to form the cookie. The other end cap was the crank and plunger to press the dough through the tube. I spent many happy hours examining this item, assembling it, turning the crank so the plunger would extend and retract, all the time imagining what form the cookies would be and so forth. What I remember and cherish most are the days when mother would actually make the cookie dough. Then it was a struggle among the children over who and how long each of us could turn the crank. It was a delight trying to keep the flow steady, and getting the output to the cookie sheet in the correct form. Allow your imagination to reenact that scene in her kitchen with two or three children involved. It was a fun time for us and now as I look back I marvel at mother’s patience. She made it fun. The cookies tasted so good fresh out of the oven. They didn’t take long to cool and they didn’t last any time at all. A choice and happy memory you created for us dear Mother.

Sterling

I enjoyed both making and eating the same cookies mentioned by Sterling.  I even purchased a similar device that was battery powered so I could replicate the childhood memory.  Didn't work!  My cookie dough never tasted like Mother's and the battery power didn't allow a smooth steady operation so the stream of cookie dough would break.  Sometimes low-tech is best.  Who does have the real thing??

Carolyn

Margaret thinks that we have the cookie maker. She has one like it & has used it every year to make Christmas cookies.  Jerry