[Magdalen] A la Reserche du Temps Perdu.

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

In search of lost time
 
While eating some cheese (aged cheddar from the monks at Gethsemane
Trappist Abbey, Kentucky) yesterday, I had one of those flashbacks to
childhood memories.  I specifically remember my mother (b. 1902)  recounting
that she was appointed the task of walking daily some twenty blocks  through
Superior, Wisconsin to the location of the pasture for her family cow  where
she picked up the fresh milk/cream and carried it back to the family  home.
 
The cow was tended and fed by a farmer, and she initially had trouble
communicating with him because she spoke only Norwegian.  The  family
used the milk for a variety of purposes which included making their  own
butter and a type of cheese.
 
It sounds odd in this day and age to have a child as young as 5 years
walking alone all this way, but it was a different era.  
 
Mother learned her English initially when she entered school.  This  
language
situation is common around here with nearly half the population  Hispanic.
Norwegian immigrants have long since moved into the mainstream, and
few would bother leaving Norway now with the highest average income
of any country in the world.
 
 
David Strang.