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The kitchen has always been the heart of the home. Families joined together there not just at meals but other times as well - the kitchen was where there was space for everyone to sit down together and catch up on the day's events.

Visitors were always asked to sit at the table for a cup of coffee and perhaps a biscuit or a muffin. There were no restaurants for travelers, and it would have been seen as rude not feed guests in your home. Baked goods were often provided for their trip home as well.

Holidays, both then and now, center around a family meal. Many memories of past days include the smell of Grandma's bread baking, or the taste of Aunt Gertie's pumpkin pie. Women in our family usually had a particular dish that they brought to our family dinners - it was their "specialty". Aunt Erma was know for her lemon meringue pie, Aunt Sally for her dinner rolls, and Aunt Velma for her banana salad. Those women were very proud of their accomplishments in the kitchen and eager to share their special dish with their family - they weren't, however, eager to share their secret recipes with the other women!

Kitchen activities in our family didn't just center around eating, but also the preparation and preservation of garden vegetables. As my cousin and I were the younger of the family and frequently underfoot, one of my aunts devised a plan to both make us useful and keep us out of the way. We were placed under the kitchen table with a basket of peas from the garden and a bowl in which to shell them!

Other memories recall various members of the family learning to cook. My cousin and I discovered - the hard way - that if you leave the baking powder out of biscuits - well, you get home baked "rocks"! An attempt by my sister to drain the water off a pan of peas ended with the peas being dumped in the dishwater - we did, however, retrieve them, wash them off and carefully cover the soap taste with a delicious cheese sauce!

There is no better place than the kitchen to make memories, and involving friends and relatives in kitchen activities is bound to create many that are humorous and long lasting!

Learn more about this author, Debra Herring.
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