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The Kitchen Sink By Kay McBrayer April 17, 2008 When I was growing up in my Coastal Bend town of Beeville, Texas, in the 1940s we lived sort of out in the country. "Sort of" because we were only one-quarter of a mile outside the city limits but just far enough that I was referred to as a "country girl". I think having a windmill to pump in our water and a crank telephone with an operator who answered "number please" may have had something to do with the country girl picture. We had a small wood frame Texas house on 2 1/2 acres sitting right off the highway surrounded by what Mama called cemetery cedars, citrus trees and castor bean bushes--no real climbing trees so I guess I was arboreally challenged. But on to the kitchen sink. We had an indoor bathroom, thank goodness, but it had only a tub, no shower, so washing hair was difficult. (Well, of course we had a toilet inside) I had very long hair so Mama always washed my hair in the kitchen sink. It was difficult because we had a single faucet for cold water and a single faucet for hot so she had to fill a pitcher with water of the right temperature and pour it over my head. This was a slow process and rather hard on my neck. Lots of things went on in that sink. We had a Victory garden so the vegetables were washed in the sink. We raised our own chickens so after my grandmother wrung their necks they had their feathers plucked and singed, and their gizzards cleaned, they were cut up there.(you probably wouldn't eat gizzards if you ever had to clean one)Sometimes Daddy would go to a cattle roundup where they castrated the young calves and come back with the makins' of mountain oysters. For those of you who don't know what kind of seafood that is, it isn't. They're quite tasty when deep fried if you don't have the experience of watching your father clean them in the kitchen sink. He also liked to make cowboy stew, (same as menudo), so he cleaned the cow intestines and stomach in the same sink. I'm not too fond of that stuff either. We always had a dog or two around the place and I remember washing the puppies in sink if that got into something disgusting when the weather was cold. Otherwise they got an outdoor bath in a #2 washtub. Sometimes I did too when it was real hot, but that's another story. I didn't have any little brothers or sisters or even any baby cousins, but I'm sure that if there had been any, they would have had a bath in that sink too. Since we had a well and a cistern we had a septic tank right outside the kitchen window. A septic tank is an apparatus that sort of cleans the stuff that's flushed down the toilet or through the sink. It directed the used water from the house into the clay sewer pipes and way out into the yard. Erma Bombeck was right: the grass IS always greener over the septic tank. I wrote this because I felt like someone should know about the sink activities at our little house. Daddy finally had a shower put in the bathroom but he still cleaned the guts in the kitchen. About the author: I returned to live in my home town of Beeville, Texas, after my husband of 42 years died of cancer. I felt my future was in my past and that past in Beeville was really great. I had no intention of remarrying but love got in the way and I did. I don't know if it is appropriate to add that I have a B.A. in Spanish, worked with migrants, sold real estate in New Orleans, owned and operated a restaurant in Fredericksburg, Texas, for 11 years, and was the first female Deputy Sheriff of Gillespie County, Texas. I have five great children and now, combined with my husband's family, we have 16 grandchildren. My motto: Eat, drink and remarry! | | | |
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