THE CLUB MEETING

                           Polly,  put the kettle on
                           Polly,  put the kettle on
                           Polly,  put the kettle on
                              We’ll all have tea.

                           Sukey, take it off again
                           Sukey, take it off again
                           Sukey, take it off again
                              They’re all gone away.
                                                                                              
                                         --Nursery Rhyme

On the Saturday afternoon before Mother was to have club, they went to town as usual. At the Variety Store Mother bought a cellophane wrapped package of pretty paper napkins that had Easter rabbits hopping around in the green grass and baskets of pink, purple, yellow and green Easter eggs. The edges of the napkins were scalloped. When she did her “trading” at Matson’s Grocery store, she bought some things she didn’t usually get, such as graham crackers, a can of crushed pineapple and a bag of marshmallows.

On the day before the club meeting, Mother asked Daddy to kill two chickens. She scalded the chickens to make the feathers easier to pull off, plucked most of the feathers, lighted a rolled up newspaper for a torch and singed the tiny pin feathers off. Jenny hated the smell of burning feathers and she didn’t like the smell of the chicken when Mother cut it open and scooped its insides out. Next Mother gave the insides to the live chickens in the chicken yard and they gobbled them hungrily, not knowing or not caring where they had come from. Mother thoroughly washed and rinsed the chickens with plenty of cold clear water and put them in two big pans to stew on the kitchen range. After a while the kitchen was filled with an aroma that made Jenny hungry. She wondered how anything that had smelled so bad could now smell so good. The chickens were cooked until they were tender, and Mother picked every bit of the meat off the bones and gave the bones to the dogs and cats who grabbed them in their jaws and teeth and ran away with them, to enjoy them in secret away from the other animals. She got out the sausage grinder and clamped it to the table, then she ground the meat and the skin in the grinder. She let Jenny turn the handle for a little while and it was fun to see the ground up meat come through the holes.

Then she heated the ground chicken with a little of the chicken broth for a few minutes and put the mixture into big flat glass cake pans and pressed down on it to make pressed chicken. She set the glass pans in even bigger pans of ice cold water in the cool pantry. Tomorrow she would slice the pressed chicken for sandwiches. After that, Mother made “Fairy Pie,” a delicious dessert made of whipped cream, cut up marshmallows, crushed pineapple and plain gelatin with layers of graham cracker crumbs. It too would set overnight and be firm enough to cut with a fork She had asked Daddy to go to town and get some loaves of sliced bakery bread at Ely’s bakery. He came home with 4 loaves of the soft bakery bread; two were orange and two were bright green. The bakery had put food coloring in the dough. The bakery lady said this is what some of the town ladies served at their bridge clubs and Mother said she thought it looked so elegant. Jenny had never seen such pretty bread and wanted to eat some right away, but Mother said she must wait until club because she didn’t want to run out. Mother always made extra food when they had company. There might be a bigger crowd than expected. Husbands who stopped by in the late afternoon to pick up their wives from club, were always offered refreshments and they usually accepted. They ate in the kitchen, as they came right from their fields, still wearing their dirty overalls, and didn’t want to go into a whole room full of dressed up women.

On club day, the noon meal was mostly a no-cook meal and Mother and Jenny had to get cleaned up and changed into nicer clothing. Mother told Jenny not to get all dirty or make any messes. She put the good white bedspread on the bed and checked the house for any last minute dust and clutter. She opened the double doors between the dining room and the parlor, making the two rooms into one big room. Daddy built and lit a fire in the dining room heating stove to take the chill off the front rooms. They put the good wooden straight backed chairs around in the now- big room, leaving the center open. Jenny thought it all looked so nice and kept very quiet, and tiptoed around, being careful not to make any messes. Mother put trays on the kitchen table, which had been made bigger with extra leaves. On each tray she put a pretty Easter napkin, a dessert plate and a matching smaller plate, a cup and saucer and a fork and spoon. She got out two big coffee pots.

At about two o'clock the women began arriving, sometimes one at a time and sometimes in groups of two or three. All were dressed in their best dresses, high heels and silk hose, spring coats and pretty hats. Mother would go to the door to let them in and walk a ways with them, telling them they could just put their wraps on the bed. There were three other children and they milled around in the kitchen where Mother had said they could play. Jenny got out some of her toys and they played together for a while, but Jenny was more interested in watching the circle of ladies from the doorway to the front room. One woman brought her baby and sat him on a blanket by her feet. Several of the women talked baby talk to him in high loud voices. He began to cry and his Mother had to hold him. Jenny noticed a circle of legs and shoes. Many of the women sat with their silk- stockinged legs crossed. There were fat and skinny legs. One woman had a loud laugh. Every so often the voices would get louder and louder and then they would get softer and softer, until it became so quiet you could hear a fly buzz. An older woman who walked with a cane went out to the toilet. Jenny thought Mother would be glad they had cleaned it so well. There was a short business meeting and a roll call in which each woman told something about Easter. Some of the women had brought embroidery, knitting or crocheting. They chatted pleasantly about their children, husbands and interesting things that had happened, about who was sick, who had died and even gossiped a little about some who weren't there. Jenny thought it was a very long afternoon.

Finally Mother went to the kitchen and put the coffee on to perk. She then got out the green and orange loaves of bread and buttered each slice and put a generous slice of pressed chicken on each, making 2 sandwiches for each plate, which she cut into 2 triangles. She put squares of “Fairy Pie” on the smaller plates. Two women came out to the kitchen to help carry the trays to the seated women. When the women saw the sandwiches the said “Oh, how pretty!” Mother poured the freshly made coffee into their cups and another woman brought the sugar and cream around for their coffee. Jenny like the ringing sound of the spoons against the thin china cups. The women ate and sipped daintily and exclaimed about how delicious the refreshments were. Jenny and the other children ate at the kitchen table. Jenny thought the orange and green sandwiches were so good. She even ate the crusts. She loved the “Fairy Pie” and wished they could have it every day. Several men came to the door to take their wives home. Mother invited them in for coffee and refreshments and three of them gathered around the kitchen table. Margaret came home from school and ate at the table too. They teased her about how fast she was growing and asked her who her boyfriend was.

It was time for the guests to go home. They put on their hats and filed out the kitchen door. Everyone spoke about what a nice time they’d had and how good the refreshments had been. One woman said to Mother that it would be her turn in May and she hated to think about all the work she needed to do to get ready. “Oh, it really wasn’t so much work,” Mother protested. She wanted to let them think her house always looked that spic and span.

After all had left, Mother stacked the dishes and began washing them. Margaret got a clean dish
towel and carefully dried the good dishes, silverware and club trays. Mother and Margaret made a pleasant clatter, reminding Jenny of the the lovely afternoon. She could still smell the fragrant coffee and the mingled scent of many kinds of perfume.