An Everyday Write - Mom's Iron Skillet

If you bring up my Mom to her grandkids or one of us girls the subject of her cooking always comes to mind.  The photo below shows her tiny kitchen.  No sign of the iron skillet.  The skillet was probably on the stove with strips of bacon or sausage patties cooking for breakfast.  The cereal might be eaten by a grandkid but the bacon, sausage, biscuits, and eggs with a dollop of gravy would be the adult's choice.   I cannot imagine how many gallons of gravy had been cooked in that skillet.

The chicken fried chicken was good.  Fried pork chops, fried potatoes, fried okra all reached peak taste at Mom's hands in the old iron skillet.  But the one dish that surpassed it all was chicken fried round steak with gravy made from the drippings.  My mouth waters just thinking about it.  

The old iron skillet was a wedding gift when my parents set up housekeeping.  I am not sure exactly when Mom and Dad moved to their own home.  As I remember the stories, they lived with Paw Paw Rogers and his wife, Miss Willie/Grandma Rogers, for a year or two.  Mom was just shy of 16 when she married my dad.  Dad was a mature 20.  Talk about young love.  But I digress.  Mom always credited Miss Willie with teaching her cooking skills.  

During the time Mom was living with the Rogers' at the Farnsworth place, Miss Willie furthered Mom's knowledge of garden, cooking, and canning.  All these skills were essential for farm wives.  Men usually worked the fields and livestock.  Women were responsible for growing and preserving vegetables and fruit along with cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing.  Cooking included knowing how to help butcher and preserve farm animals.  I remember rows of canned meats in the smokehouse storage shelves.

All the cooking required lots of pots, pans, canners, skillets, even iron wash kettles did double duty.  Iron kettles would be cleaned and used to render lard and cook large quantities of meat.  Cleaned and used for the washing.  Iron skillets were everyday kitchen equipment.  And Mom's iron skillet followed her on the move to California in 1942.  It came back about a year and a half later.  They moved into a home located near Buddy Wilmeth's homeplace. 

One day Mom walked into the kitchen to find a fire engulfing the curtains near the cookstove.  She grabbed her 3-year-old daughter (Sis #2) and a handful of important papers.  That is what Sister #1 remembers of the event as it was recalled to her.  Sis #1 was at school.  Mom had made a new sharkskin sailor dress for Sis # for a special function.  It was hanging to dry in the kitchen,  It burned.  Nothing was left of the house or its contents.  Except for the old iron skillet.  Mom later recounted it was the cleanest she ever saw the skillet.

When we sisters met to divide our parent's possessions there were a few premium items.  The Iron Skillet, the family clock, a dipper, and a few other items.  We sisters decided to go in turn to select one item.  On my first turn, I stated I would yield all my choices for the Iron Skillet.  And that is how the Iron Skillet ended up in my son's possession.  It is never to leave his family.  My family.

Peace and Love,

Janice