Having waltzed all over Texas with my husband for the last thirty-five years, I suppose that it didn’t really matter that we lived in so many places because I always seemed to find a sense of place in my kitchens. In fact, I could probably win a prize for having lived in the most kitchens in the state. My very first kitchen was about six feet square because it was in a trailer I lived in while living in Campbell, Texas when I first got married. The whole trailer measured six foot by thirty- six foot. The view outside this tiny window was of the large oak trees of rural East Texas. It was in that tiny little kitchen I first began to learn to cook—chocolate pudding and spaghetti from a box.
My next kitchen was in a rental house in Commerce, Texas, also surrounded by beautiful oak trees, lovely with the change of seasons. The kitchen was an avocado green with a nice window view, and my culinary skills developed a little more to include hot dogs and heated up chicken fried steak out of a package. I didn’t even have very many pots and pans and the ones I had were of very poor quality. Charley’s parents came from Mexico to visit along with Charley’s sister Gwen and her husband Jim and little girl Heather. We tried to cook spaghetti and meatballs but because my pans were of such poor quality, we burned it. I should have had more luck at cooking in that house because it was a hamburger restaurant at one time. Every once in a while we would have a car drive up and try to get in the restaurant which was now our house!
My next kitchen was in McAllen, Texas. McAllen was a beautiful tropical city with a very slow pace of life. My kitchen was large and white and had three windows. I remember an egg incident when I was boiling some eggs and forgot about them until I heard a noise and ran to the kitchen just in time to see the eggs blow open the swinging door from the kitchen into the dining room! It was in this kitchen that I learned a lesson about cats and rats. There was a little half bath in this kitchen and as I had a cat, I decided I could open the window just high enough to make a small hole in the screen where the cat could come in and out. However, I heard a noise one evening and went in the bathroom to greet the cat, but instead there was a big rat about to come into my house. I screamed for my husband, Charley, who grabbed the mop and stuck the cloth end at the rat and the rat started running toward him on the mop handle. I quickly opened another window as Charley was swinging the mop around and around the room so the rat would not get him. I quickly opened another window as Charley was swinging the mop. Charley flung the mop, rat and all, out the window. I haven’t had a cat opening since! I must add that it was in this kitchen that I began to learn to make desserts because we served them in our prayer meetings that we had weekly. We made many life long friends because of those prayer meetings.
A few years later brought a new kitchen in San Antonio, Texas. The city had such historic beauty with the Alamo and the missions. I had a small kitchen with a nice view of the neighborhood through a small window. I was a stay at home mom with a small daughter, Vanessa at this time and I expanded my kitchen skills with the making of my own yogurt and baby foods.
There were a few more years to pass, then a couple of kitchens in Lake Dallas for the next eleven years. Lake Dallas is located near Denton in northern Texas and once again there were beautiful seasons and trees. Both of these kitchens were small but it was during this time I always seemed to be in the kitchen—holiday cooking, endless holiday cookies, and daily meals that were enjoyed by all. I remember my middle daughter Amber getting in the refrigerator when she was very small and getting a stick of butter and coming into the next room eating it! I also remember my youngest daughter Robin getting in the pantry and pouring vegetable oil all over the floor. When I finally discovered her she was having the best time rolling around in the oil with only her diaper on! These kitchens always had families visiting too, holiday meals for both sides of the family as well as many church gatherings. I even had a surprise birthday breakfast for my husband’s fortieth birthday.
The next kitchen was in West Texas in a little dusty town called Dickens right beneath the Caprock. We loved the vastness of the land and you could literally see for miles and miles. Our first house there was a house provided by one of the school board members wives. Her father had died and the house was furnished. We called it the “hee-haw” house because it looked just like the one on the TV show. We were waiting for a new house to be built and all of our belongings were spread out in the gym—and as a result the high school kids knew a lot about us before we ever showed up because they had pilfered through all of our belongings! There was another rat story involved in this kitchen. I was cooking something in the old stove one day when we all began to smell something burning. After investigating, we discovered a dead mouse behind the stove that was beginning to cook! When our new house was finished a few miles away in Afton, Texas we moved into a light turquoise kitchen with a beautiful view of the West Texas plains. I saw a lot from that kitchen window. One special thing I remember was when I looked out and saw my daughter, Amber on a motor scooter with her younger sister Robin on the back and her best friend Becca on the handlebars roaring down the highway!
Rosebud, Texas was the site of the next kitchen. Rosebud is a small central Texas town close to Temple and Waco. We lived in an apartment while our house was being worked on—we literally had just mattresses on the floor. We had visitors at that time and I remember one of their children asking if we were poor. Finally the newer house was remodeled and we had a nice cozy kitchen with a back door with teenagers always coming in and out. I still made holiday cookies of all kinds and hid them in the freezer but teenagers always came and found them and ate them. They did like to decorate cookies and spent many evenings squirting and decorating gingerbread men.
Corpus Christi, Texas was the scene of the next two kitchens. Corpus Christi is by far the most attractive city we have lived in with its lovely bay and beautiful tropical atmosphere. The first kitchen was a rental house with a large kitchen. I had lost the oldest daughter Vanessa to college but had gained another teenager in the move, Amber’s friend Allison from Rosebud. It was a lively kitchen with a kitchen table where people came and went at all hours. Then on to a new house with a lovely new kitchen, dark green marble floors and beautiful cabinets and counter tops. Amber had gone off to college and then to marriage. Robin has gone off to make her fortune in Houston. But the kitchen is still the site of many holiday meals and gatherings. For the most part, the kitchen is once again just Charley and I. Adjustments to life are being made in that kitchen again. Many more adjustments than meals, as we eat out much of the time now. As you can see, I have had many kitchens, some I’m sure I’ve forgotten, but I haven’t forgotten the love that has flowed through them all.
Update: I wrote this story originally after we had moved into the house I am still living in since we moved to Corpus. Many things have changed since I have lived in here, but not the kitchen. I have lost my daughter, Vanessa, to a car accident and my husband, Charley to cancer. But, oh, I have gained so much more also. I have three beautiful grandchildren, Charlie, eight, Thomas, four, and Elizabeth, ten months. I have a new son-in-law Augustine Garcia, and Robin will be having her first son, Jackson, the end of this month. Both of my children live within a mile of me. The kitchen is jumping again, with many little feet.