Requiem for a wedding present

[moosmom]

Karen,

Now that's what I call a great family unit!!!

[Lady's Human]

With our assorted schedules growing up, learning to cook was in self defense. Ma cooked ONE dinner every night, if you were there, fine, if you weren't, the answer was "You know how to cook, do it!". Otherwise she would have been going crazy trying to accommodate Pa's somewhat insane work schedule (rotating shifts) and music lessons, art lessons, sports practice, etc.

The first thing we all learned to cook was gingerbread men, about the second thing was spaghetti sauce (from scratch, with very few exceptions I still can't deal with the commercial garbage called spaghetti sauce) and it went from there. As with most everything else in the house, it was a somewhat competitive sport.

The car repairs and maintenance (as well as learning to drive a standard) were somewhat more negotiable, but not a whole heck of a lot. Karen skated on some of that for reasons I'll leave out to protect the guilty.....but I was helping in the garage at about age 7, especially after Ma got her Pinto that Pa couldn't work on easily, big arms, small space) Sewing was mandatory, as that's what we did for Christmas presents some years.

[Karen]

Oh, and because of all our crazy schedules, if anyone said, "I'm hungry," aloud near dinnertime, you were told, "Well, cook!"