Fried Chicken Dinner - August 1959
Guest Blog Post By: Steve Welker
Fried Chicken Dinner photo taken in August of 1959 in Friedheim, Missouri.
It was a hot summer night in August 1959. The summer doldrums brought on by the hot and humid days and nights of southeast MO had set in. Like every night, the family gathered around the kitchen table for dinner. Dinner was about six PM, always after a full day of hard work on the farm. Fried chicken was the main course that night. The accompanying bowls were filled with the usual fried potatoes, slaw and fresh vegetables from the garden, beets or tomatoes or maybe kohlrabi. The chickens on the table, neatly cut up in perfect pieces and pan fried, were running around the chicken yard that morning. Grandma worked her magic again that day, starting with gathering eggs from the chicken house, butchering a couple of chickens for dinner, collecting the day’s output from the garden, and preparing three full meals. Always eggs and meat for breakfast; prepared meat and one or two side dishes for lunch; and meat with three side dishes for dinner. Homemade bread was always available, and fresh milk from the family cow accompanied all meals, served in metal cups for the boys.
The seven room, two story farmhouse provided ample living space; no separate dining room, but the kitchen was plenty big to include the table for nine. For the boys, the house had recently expanded in a big way – not physically, but their older and only sister, my mom, who commanded her own bedroom upstairs, had recently moved away following her graduation from high school, to create a very different life, far away from the farm, in St. Louis. Her departure expanded room assignments, allowing them to split up among three rooms. Six divided by three is very different than six divided by two, especially when one is still a baby. Mom was conspicuous in her absence, and grandma missed her contributions to the family – in the kitchen, helping with the baby, and taking care of the boys, as well as her companionship.
Aerial view of the farm: machine shed, chicken house, hog house, barn, farm house and large vegetable garden pictured.
Life on the farm in Friedheim, MO in August 1959 was not easy, although August provided a little respite, a good thing given the heat and humidity levels. August is that in-between time on the farm. While the tasks of milking, feeding the hogs and gathering eggs continue 365 days a year, the work in the fields is on hiatus until the next big event – Fall harvest. Crops are planted, fertilized and growing, hopefully adding bushels by the day. The cattle are self-sufficient, foraging on their own, grazing the pastures. Much easier than winter’s requirements of delivering hay bales to them and water when the ponds are frozen. In August, mental work and anguish trumps physical work. Praying for rain and favorable weather is the most important work of the day. The weather in August determines the crop yields, which has far reaching consequences for the rest of the year. A couple of extra showers in July and August determine if it will it be a one or two present per kid Christmas; and how many of the boys will get new shoes in the coming year.
The family making sausage from one of their pigs on the farm.
By that time, Grandpa was well on his way to be an established, successful farmer, and the well-maintained house shows it. He was one of the first in the area to get electricity in the house, in 1948. The electric pole visible in the bottom right windowpane in the porch window was added in 1948 to route the electricity from Highway KK, the nearest blacktop, to the north side of the house. Lights at the flick of a switch provided a monumental change. Next came receptacles, and, in 1949, a life changing appliance. The Philco, their first refrigerator, was prominently placed in the kitchen. It was already ten years old in 1959. Back then appliances were built to last. Son #4, in the middle on the left side of the table, then 10, still has a Philco in his shop – his beer refrigerator, that works quite well. The linoleum table and metal chairs with vinyl covered cushions on both the back and seat were another upgrade over the all wooden chairs of the past. The walls contained no flaking paint, and neatly painted white trim outlined the door to the back, enclosed porch. Drapes covered the window in the corner. Grape vines just outside the window next to the garden provided plenty of grape juice for the boys, as well as the basis for grandpa’s special, dripping-with-sugar, homemade wine that provided a little extra pleasure, but only once in a great while and no more than two glasses a night.
Grandpa was one of the hardest working man I’ve ever known. His sole focus in life was working on the farm. No need to bother with sports, reading (other than farm magazines), or excessive socializing. Up by sunrise every day, he packed about a day and a half of work into those 12-hour workdays. But he almost always finished by the six o’clock family dinner. On this special occasion, his workday was done, given his rare appearance in just a t-shirt under his overalls. His work shirt was already hanging with the day’s sweat drying out, preparing for a 5:00 AM revival the following morning.
The six boys ranged from one to sixteen years old in 1959. The boys are all in their typical clothes for an August day – buttoned, collared shirts and long pants. Their Tuff-Nut jeans from Rozier’s each contained the free pocketknife that accompanied a purchase of a pair of work jeans. This was their typical work uniform, as they owned zero shorts. The only T-shirts were all white and were only worn under another shirt. Grandma made most of their shirts, usually from repurposed feed sacks, which were then all cotton and often had a reusable design, suitable for shirts for boys and girls.
Hawkeye Brownie Camera, 1950-61. This is the camera used to shoot the Fried Chicken Dinner Picture.
At first glance, this is a photo of a typical family dinner in August. But there is deep mystery surrounding this photo. The mystery: why was it taken? The mere existence of the photo defines that it was not a typical night or meal. Photos of the family then were rare, taken only on special occasion. Grandma did own a camera (another sign of Grandpa’s success), a Browning “Brownie”, a square, hard, heavy plastic brown cube about five inches per side. To take a photo, it was held at waist level and the photographer looked down from the top into the eyepiece. But having it and using it were very different concepts. The process required to obtain a printed photo was time consuming and expensive, two attributes that Grandpa held in low regard. At least three trips to Perryville 20 miles away was the beginning price of a photo. First, a camera purchase. Then one trip to buy film; another trip to drop it off to get developed; and a third to pick it the photos. Trips to Perryville were infrequent then, at this time about once every two weeks. The minimum turnaround time from shot to photo was at least a month, but likely more. Photos were taken very judiciously, and only on special occasion, so weeks or months were the norm to fill a roll of film with pictures. This August photo was probably first unveiled to the world after the first of the following year, combined with a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And what is Grandpa holding? That may be the key to the reason for the photo, but it is just not clear. Perhaps a new kitchen gadget of some kind? Whatever it is takes two hands and is not worthy of a glance at the camera. The boys are not paying any attention to what he is doing, as all are aware of the camera, making the most of an infrequent opportunity to pose for a Brownie photo. The boys, especially #6 in the back left, are making a vain attempt to “smile” upon Grandma’s command. But the oldest on the back right is just too cool to pay attention to the photo.
The older boys don’t recall the reason for the photo, or even having seen it before, or know what Grandpa is holding. I have theories. Grandma was missing mom and wanted to take a picture to send to her in St. Louis. Grandpa is holding a new gadget that was worthy of a commemorative photo. They were celebrating someone’s birthday or another special occasion, although no one in the family has an August birthday. The table and chairs were brand new (they look to be in remarkably good shape for a family of eight). Unfortunately, these will remain theories and the mystery will never be solved. No one is around to shed more light on the photo. Grandma, Grandpa and now mom are gone. As time passes, we will all continue wonder, and make our own stories to fill in the blanks.