Happy Labor Day weekend and back to school!
In recent decades, “back to school” is now mostly a window in the month of August.
But beyond the past half century, and especially in farming communities and rural landscapes, the traditional start to a school year used to be after the Labor Day holiday observance.
Among the reasons for a later school year start was that farm families needed the help of their youth in the fields for as long as possible.
Also, revisit the temperatures so much of the Midwest has sweltered in for the last week, with humidity and thermometer readings in the 90s, making the unairconditioned school classrooms of yesteryears (and even some school buildings still today!) unbearable with only fans and open windows in hopes of capturing an occasional cool breeze.
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I’ve devoted select published columns throughout this past year to recognizing and celebrating our country’s wonderful 250th birthday, including a July column that imparted recollections of our family’s 1976 summer vacation at Walt Disney World Resort during the heart of our country’s bicentennial.
Today’s column gives a similar nod to our mom’s tradition of snapping an annual “Back to School” commemorative photo on the morning of our first school day. This photo was always taken near the side patio steps and driveway of our parents’ home, with all of us positioned strategically near our flag, security light pole and very heavy metal cast “farm liberty bell,” which my parents erected for the 1976 bicentennial year. The bell was purchased from our neighbors Dick and Mary Roy at the flea market they owned in town.
My mom had my older brother David paint the pole-mounted bell “red, white and blue,” and in later years, our dad painted a similar color theme with a silver paint variation. An American eagle is proudly perched on the top of the bell, and on the frame is the engraving “1776-1976.”
Our mom always had my siblings and me hold some of our new school supplies for the year, such as folders, paper tablets and pencil boxes. My older siblings and I, just like Mom and Dad, all have late summer birthdays in July, August and the start of September, with my older sister Pam celebrating her 60th birthday Sept. 5 on the same date as what would have been Mom and Dad’s 73rd wedding anniversary.
Our “farm liberty bell” still stands today, firmly anchored in the same place it’s always been displayed, although some of the paint has chipped and some moss has formed on the bell dome.
Farm bells have always been a signature “calling card” and commonplace focal (and audible) point on farm landscapes and with a practical use. Long before the era of cellphones, our mom could use our bell to ring to alert us out in the fields and woods that dinner or a noon meal was ready to be served and it was time for the family to gather.
Our farm and church friends and neighbors, the Spenner family, the Scamerhorns, the Skudernas, the Paulsens and Wappels, all had similar farmyard bells.
Another still apparent tribute to our country’s 1976 bicentennial is eagle and flag rubber “welcome” mats (purchased from Kmart) which still adorn the entryway of both my parents’ house and the grandparents’ main house across the field.
For today’s recipe, my memory still harkens to a time when getting off the bus after school meant Mom had snacks waiting, when warm chocolate chip cookies and that incredible inviting aroma greeted us at the door as they cooled on wax paper on the kitchen table.
As mentioned in my previous columns and cookbooks, our neighbors just three fields away, the Paulsen family dairy farmers, were where my older brother Tom helped his Paulsen pals Chuck and Mack during the summer with hay harvest. Inside their family farmhouse, Chuck and Mac’s sisters Debby and Jody would be helping their mom Sue with preparing the most incredible hearty meals, including roast chicken, sliced pork or beef in gravy, dumplings, potatoes and bowls of noodles, all awaiting to satisfy hungry workday appetites.
Sue Paulsen also happened to be my second-grade teacher at the start of the August 1977 school year, which would be her final year teaching before retirement. My older brother David had Mrs. Paulsen during her first year of teaching at San Pierre Elementary, and my older sister Pam also had her four years before I did.
Sue died in June 2021 at age 90, and her late husband Harry “Heinee” Paulsen died too soon at age 59 in 1989; he was also one of my dad’s best friends. Sue attended Manchester College, where she earned dual degrees in art education and home economics, and she was a wonderful cook and baker.
Today’s recipe is one of Mrs. Paulsen’s easiest recipes, and it is perfect for an after-school snack perk-me-up for students exhausted from a day of classroom learning and wilting, humid early September temperatures. It’s also a “no bake” recipe, so it worked well as a “hands-on” student demonstration and “follow directions” assignment in Mrs. Paulsen’s classroom, ideal for learning measurements.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a weekly radio host at WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at [email protected] or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Peanut Butter Globes
Makes two dozen
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Ingredients
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
In a large bowl, measure and mix all ingredients.
Form into balls about the size of a small walnut and line them on a cookie sheet.
Chill for 30 minutes and serve.