Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1909-04-01
JOY THAT IS GONE
5UckWHEAT CAKES AND PORK
CHOPS ARE NO MORE.
City Man Voices Regret for the
Breakfast OF His Youth-It
Comes to Him Now in
Memory Only.

Il have wondered sometimes" said
the amiable head of a voracious fam
lily, why we didn't have more griddle
cakes. wheat and buckwheat, and that
sort of thing in our house, because I
am very fond Of such cakes. and so are
all the children, and of buckwheat
cakes in particular l have a very pleas
ant recollection.
When | was a boy l used to have
always buckwheat cakes for break
fast in winter. with fried pork chops
or fried sausages. and l used to think
that that was a breakfast good
enough for anybody, and / am still of
the same opinion.
The cakes we used to mix in
batter pot that was different frsm
any piece of crockery I ever saw. and
that l can see now in my minds eve
as plainly as If il stood before me. a
deep, straight sided, earthenware pot
OF a very dark brown glaze and in
capacity about a gallon and a half
and having in one side Of its edge a
pouring lip and on the other side a
handle; the only pot of just that style
N-A0 0AAhChoAOno that 4 ever saw, ana
perhaps 1t was the only one ever
made.
And we valued it highly, 1 know
that II anything had happened to that
pot 1t would have been regarded as a
household calamity, familiar to us all
as II had become through year after
year OF use. and the mixing of the bat
ter in it was mighty familiar house
hold rite. the last thing done in the
house IN winter before we went to
bed
Every morning when the cakes
were cooked there was left in the Dot
Just enough of the material to serve
as yeast for the next days batch: and
every night the last thing we did was
to get out the buckwheat batter not
and mix up in 1t the batter for the
next mornings cakes; and then we
would put loose cover on the Dot
and then set 1t near the kitchen stove
where IT would get little warmth. but
not too much so that the batter would
rise Just right. And sometimes ii
would run over, but not often. for our
folks were high experts in making
buckwheat batter, and usually our bat.
ter rose just enough to fl the not
rising at the same time to the highest
attainable quality; and then in the
morning the batter was thinned down
little, so that 1t would spread Just
exactly right when poured on the grid.
die, and then the family was ready
to eat EN-.
1t seems to me that the pork chops
we had in those days were better than
any to be had now: they were from
locally raised and fattened pigs and
they were very tender and superior
and certainly It would be difficult to
md now such sausage1 as we had
then
And we used to eat those buck
wheat cakes red hot of the griddle
with those superior pork chops. or
those extra superlative sausages, and
with the pork or sausage grease on the
cakes-a morning meal of great de-
light and glory.
One calculated to tax the stoutest
constitution surely, but we all had
cast iron stomachs and II did us no
harm; and have wondered sometimes
why we couldn't have something of
that sort now; but she, meaning
thereby my better -alf, tells me that
cooking cakes means a headache and
a burned face and a tired back; that
cooking cakes for this family would be
an awful task and that it wouldn't do.
And so that grand breakfast of buck.
wheat and sausages comes to us now
in memory only"