Farm Life of the Past: Breakfast Time

...one more little story from my husband's memories of growing up in a big family in Alabama..


Breakfast Time



Breakfast, to feed a family of twelve people, had to be a big thing.


There was the platter of sausage patties, piled in a mountain, perhaps, ten deep at it’s highest point… the biscuits counted in dozens…rolled out and cut in perfect round circles…to rise and brown to perfection… the butter, hand churned and molded in neat blocks, lightly salted… Jams or jellies from the summer’s bounty and canned by Mother and the girls, to mix and melt with the butter inside those biscuits… the eggs, gathered daily, cooked, sunny side up, stacked, one atop the other… the browned, milk gravy – to top it all off!

There was always milk to drink - and buttermilk!

And coffee, hot and black for the adults. It was the custom in those days to pour coffee from the cup into the saucer for cooling- a curious thing to do and something that is seldom seen in today’s world!

Some child among the ten, at almost every meal, would manage to spill a glass of milk!
Being one of the youngest it was often Ed who would have this mishap, resulting in a stern look, at the least, from the head of the family, Daddy! Invariably, with eleven sets of eyes watching, tears would follow!

Sausage, when available, was a favorite of one and all in the family. The platter was passed around the table and everyone took what they wanted. It was considered poor manners to take the last of anything left on a serving dish…(if you were a kid, especially)
in case somebody else wanted it.

Once there was one lone sausage left on the serving plate. Several eyes were on this fine morsel but no one had yet worked up the courage to make the move on it. Finally, one of the older sisters went for it! Her fork was half way back to her mouth with the sausage when it was taken, in mid air, by the older brother; and was gone in a flash!!

So much for manners!! ☺

June Kellum
May, 2006