Goldfoot Farm
Thurs., Aug. 6, 1925
Bill and I often have a hard time keeping our faces straight, the male boss being such a scream. Talking incessantly, everything he says is by way of, or in parenthesis to something else, which he seldom reaches. He changes his mind a dozen times whether to water the horses before or after supper and then ends up by asking "Ella." Tonight there was an unexpected letter for them. Pa, striding to the door for light, read out loud an invitation to a Variety Shower. Coming back to the supper table he sat quietly while I explained a Variety Shower to them. Then, thinking of some point he wanted to verify, he went to the door again to reread the note out loud. Discussing the matter and starting to sit down, he didn't quite make it before, wanting to satisfy himself about another point, to the door he went again. He must have done this at least five times. We stuffed potatoes in our mouths to keep from howling with laughter.
As is to be expected, Ella and her mother-in-law do not see eye to eye. The last time the old lady was here George had a lot of green apples on the cellar floor, to make cider. Ella, noticing they were rotting and breeding a thousand little flies, said to George, "Get this dumb mess out of here." The old lady, hearing the remark, said Ella wanted the applies out because she was "too darned lazy" to make cider. So Georgia's mother, laboriously grinding up a few apples with a cheese grater, squeezed the mush through a rag, so her George could have his glass of cider. This, of course, via Ella.
The missus has showed me how to stew up elderberries so they are delicious, with lemons, vinegar, raisins and lots of spices. I serve them nearly every day either in a pie or as sauce.