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My mother used to bake cookies on Saturdays. We had one friend whose mother worked, and she used to come and sit in my mother’s kitchen and wait for the cookies to be done. I used to just sit and wish for Oreo cookies and Chips Ahoy because that’s what all the other kids were eating. I didn’t know what a good time I had with all the fresh baked cookies and everything.

We always had cows, and in my refrigerator were always pans to skim the cream. So my mother made pudding from scratch, and we had whip cream on it. She made ice cream but not with an ice cream maker. She used to put it in ice trays in the freezer and take it out and then whip it by hand, because she didn’t have an ice cream maker. We were poor monetarily, but I think we were really rich as far as experience and family life went. Dinner was kind of plain. I always say Swamp Yankees don’t have much taste buds. It’s all plain food. I don’t think I had a pizza until I was a teenager. I guess when you had six kids you didn’t go out to dinner.

Based on an oral history interview with Alice Wordell Beattie.

First published in “Remembering Adamsville” by the Little Compton Historical Society, 2013.

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