I think your teacher may have had a cousin. We didn't cook but we sewed. I have vague recollections of making an apron and what may have been hardanger placemats. I also have vague recollections of being chastised for leaving an iron mark on the apron and throwing everything away before it (they?) left the school building.
The boys took shop while we girls learned womanly 'arts.' I don't remember what they made but they seemed to have fun while we girls struggled with the projects and the teacher.
I'm starting to believe that our Home Ec Teacher must have traveled from school to school to torture girls all over the world. I can't remember her name but I remember that she was Miss Something or Other and an unmarried old maid.
Even though I already knew how to use a sewing machine and had done a little sewing under my mother's tutelage, I simply can't forget the very ugly, very poorly done pink gingham apron I got into trouble over because I wanted to put a pocket on mine and that wasn't in the game plan.
How many of you would have liked to take woodworking, or auto mechanics or something that might have actually been useful but was only available for the boys?
In a heart beat. In fact, I'm going to insist DD take the metal and wood shop options in middle school. I can teach her the "home ec" stuff, but much of the other....
We made an ugly bag, to put our sewing in and in the term in which we learned 'cookery' we started by solemnly boiling a large, white damask table napkin, rinsing it well, making starch and placing the dreaded napkin in the starch then folding it neatly rather like a crepe, putting it on an enamel plate and carrying it out and pegging it on the line.
The only use I had from that exercise was when I wanted to starch crocheted Xmas ornaments, so I suppose all was not lost.
Actually, one of my friends, who was being groomed to take over her father's business, did call in a lawyer (don't recall if they actually sued) to get permission to take shop classes with the boys, but IN ADDITION TO Home Ec with the girls. The school district absolutely would not waive the Home Ec classes for her.
I had a perfectly good recipe for cinnamon rolls that I already knew how to make (plus I know where to find them in the refrigerator case at the grocery). I was already cooking far ahead of anything I was taught in class.
I already knew I didn't much like sewing machines, and being scolded for getting blood on my project (as if I WANTED multiple punctures in my finger?) did not change my feelings toward them.
I could've taught her a few tricks about laundry and ironing, since I was already home-trained to do those, too.
Didn't learn a darn thing in Home Ec that I didn't already know, and (even in the sewing section, since I was my grandmother's chief pinner and hemmer, and therefore learned tricks that her friends were taught in the factory), I could have taught the class better than she did.
It was a complete waste of time. At least I would've enjoyed wood shop ... I had the basics down, but there was some equipment my grandfather wouldn't let me use.
Well, I thought they did and am glad other people are finding them pleasing, too. Thanks for the compliment!
Oooooo, are they edible by people? Send them to me....I *love* dates! My mom said when I was little I'd rather eat dates than candy.
My dog eats the plums on our tree...jumps up and picks them right off! Plum dog-breath is *not* pleasing, let me tell you! She's already looking for them. HAHAHAHA! She's gonna be surprised...it was cold and windy just when the trees started blooming, which got rid of all the blossoms, which means....no plums and therefore no plum dog- breath!
Ooo, sounds like fun! Show me what you've got (probably off-list!) and we can talk. I hadn't mentioned it here and don't know if you read it in my webshots album, but this iris has a lovely smell!
anne wrote: > The boys took shop while we girls learned womanly 'arts.' I don't
I must be the exception here, because we had excellent home ec. teachers, especially compared to what passes for the home ec. training my kids have had.
We had one year of sewing (7th grade) and one year of cooking (8th grade). In sewing, we first made an apron - our choice of fabric and trim; we had to cut it out, learn to use the machines, and make the apron. It was finished before Christmas, and most of us gave them to our moms for Christmas presents.
After the holiday break we started a dress. We could pick from several patterns pre-selected by the teacher. All were sleeveless, collarless dresses with a zipper down the back and buttons for trim. We learned to cut out patterns correctly, set in a zipper, sew buttons by two methods (depending on whether shank or flat), and understitch facings so they'd lie flat.
This course proved so popular that several girls continued with "sewing
2" as a high school elective, and did an annual fashion show to model what they'd made, including prom gowns for the more adventuresome.
In cooking, we learned the basics: proper measuring, the food groups, how to follow a recipe. And we made interesting things: starting with muffins from scratch, English-muffin pizzas, and moving to homemade pudding, brownies, and casseroles. It culminated in a luncheon in the spring to which each group of four people working together in their "kitchen" could invite a favorite teacher. I remember we had points off for pouring refills of juice directly from the can, and not first putting it in a pitcher! One of the recipes was "hamburger upside-down casserole," made with macaroni, ground beef, and cheese sauce, that was so successful I made it again for my family.
By the time my kids were in school, the "cooking" had devolved into 1/2 year of lecturing about the food pyramid, making "ritz pizzas" with crackers and cheese, and adapting highly-processed foods into microwave snacks. And in "sewing" they made a pillow and a drawstring laundry bag. And never even learned to sew on a button, which would at least have been useful!
Sue (who learned enough in these classes to be named "Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow" in my graduating year. Seriously - there was a test we sat for, and the home ec. girls were anxious to get the "title.")
I don't remember anything particularly unpleasant about mine, but I do believe she was a Miss, also. Wouldn't swear on it, though. Your teacher must have just hit the East Coast. :)
I still have my apron from Home Ec. We did get to put a pocket on ours! I had actually learned to sew the summer before when I stayed with my oldest sister when she was living in WA. She started me on something a bit harder: culottes! Remember those? For those too young, it's called a skort today, I believe.
Me! Along with the Home Ec. Sigh. I looked longingly at the shop room every day! Didn't realize that we could "fight the system" in those days. I *still* want to take a class on basic tool usage. I could have my dad (excellent woodworker...after all, he *did* make my stitching cabinet from my little attempt at plans!) teach me but, for some reason, I want a "real" teacher. Is that awful? I think I could really get into woodworking.
Oh, yeah! Isn't it *awful*??? Those Haan kits my kids used were
*horrible*. The kids picked something from a catalog and they came with the cutting lines printed on the fabric! There was nothing about different types of fabrics, different seams or anything. There was a dif. teacher by the time DD got to it, but it wasn't much better. They made huge pillows with a quilt block top and a "Quillow", a blanket with a self pocket so it can be a pillow when folded up & tucked in the pocket or a blanket. Still nothing even remotely close to concepts like "straight grain" or bias or zippers.
We had to make a little booklet which contained all our examples of different types of seams, which then got graded. I used pink gingham. :) I wonder if I still have that somewhere?
Yes, and the girls who took home ec every year in high school were quite peeved that I stole the title from them based entirely on what I had learned at home.
After 4 years of taking home ec electives, they STILL weren't cooking at the level I was.
Aw... I'm so sorry! My sewing machines (I have two - both very elderly, but *such* superb goers) are my most treasured possessions. I've tried so often to share my love of sewing things with others, but few people today are interested. Two notable exceptions are my two best friends, Muso and PDC. I taught both of them how to sew and now they're both seriously addicted and seriously churning out quilts like there's no tomorrow! Muso makes beautiful clothing for his wife and daughter as well. Snif! Makes me feel so proud!
I love hand sewing as well, though, and it has a charm all its own which is quite separate from chugging along on a machine. I hope your PTHES goes away one day, I really do! ;-D
I also have an elderly Singer (but not as elderly as Maureen's)! They're so great! They never wear out and just keep on keepin' on. Which is why there are still so very many of them out there with people using them usefully every day. I read somewhere that the original Singer company was sold out many years ago and so the machines haven't been of the usual Singer standard for a good while. That's such a shame! Once upon a time, if you had a Singer, you knew you had an item of great value and longevity. My Nanna's old Singer would be over a hundred years old and it still goes as it did when I was a child. AND all its fittings work on my 'modern' Singer from the seventies!
Nooooooo! They're little and hard and orange and disgusting (I've never tasted one, but Vicki-up-the-road did and said it made her gag). I love dates too - d'you make Sticky Date Pudding at all? It's a favourite of my lot and we have it quite often in winter. Might make one tonight...
ROTFLMAO!!!! I'm assuming it's Jaz who eats the plums? You should make her a superwoman cape and then take a photo of her jumping at plums. LOLOL! Alice doesn't eat plums (well... maybe she would if I gave her one, but they're far too dear for that), however she does eat tomatoes and capsicums (bell peppers). I have to be careful not to put the groceries down on the floor if there's tomatoes among them.
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