HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1959-09-24, Page 2Migrant Workers
on U.S. Farms
A reporter's snapshots of mi•
grant farm workers who are
pinking the nation's crops this
summer;
It is late afternoon in the big
community kitchen -dining room
on the grounds of an Illinois
canning company. A 1.1 around
the wall, mothers stand at their
two -burner stoves, each at her
own, starting the evening meal
for their asparagus - picking
$amities,
Mrs. Dora Pallacios, young,
black-eyed, neatly dressed, has
learned the migrant mother's
art of preparing whole meals
in one pot. She gives you the
recipe for the meal she is mak-
ing: Brown your hamburger
Meat with onion and a little
garlic; add cut-up potatoes, a
can of whole kernel corn, a can
of tomato saucethinned out
with water; season with cumin;
and let it all cook slowly until
the potatoes are done. (We tried
it. Good !)
Dinner hour comes, Each fa-
mily gathers around its own oil-
eloth-covered table in front of
its stove. Dora serves her hus-
band, father, brothers, and sis-
ters as if in a private home, al-
though all around her are other
families doing the same thing.
e i *
M r s. Minten, a Wisconsin
farm woman, is working in her
yard when we stop to talk. The
migrants who live in shacks in
a plot behind the farmhouse
have not yet arrived, but she is
looking forward to 'their return.
"We visited some of them in
Texas when I went to see my
sister in New Mexico last win-
ter," she tells us. "They always
leave their home addresses with
us when they go back in the
fall, and they say, 'Come and
see us.' Well, on this trip we
weren't too far from where they
live; so we did go to see them,
and it was a real pleasant ex-
perience. The migrants were
awfully pleased we came."
* * *
It is after working hours in
the temporary home of some
Texas -Mexican migrants in a
canners' camp near Wild Rose,
Wisconsin. Mrs. Garcia cannot
speak English. We communicate
with smiles while her husband
answers questions. In comes
their 10 -year-old d a u g h t e r,
Maria. The little girl sits on the
floor beside her mother and
the woman brushes the child's
black hair to a luster as we talk;
then she ties it in a pony tail.
Already Mrs. Garcia knows
Wisconsin styles for children's
b:air.
t a*
Patty, a little Indiana farm
farm girl of four, plays with
migrant Mexican children 'who
come from Texas to pick her
daddy's crops. She loves the
small dark-skinned neighbours.
One day she discovered that
everyone has a last name.
"What is grandfather's name?"
she asked her mother.
"Smith:"
"What a funny name!" Patty
chuckled. "Smith!"
"Why do you think it's fun-
ny?" her mother asked.
"Why other people don't have
names like that," cried the child.
'They have names like Hernan-
dez, and Lopez, and Santiago,
but nobody has Smith for a
nem e.
* „
Here is a scene I wouldn't ex -
pest 10 find in a migrant Work-
ers' barracks: in one room, Mrs,
Lopez, wife of a crew leader,
has set up her own tortilla fees
tory and is in business. Tor-
tillas, one cent each, hot from
the machine!
In camps of Texas -Mexicans,
most women make their own
tortillas. They mix the dough,
raise it, roll 1t out thin, bake
it — a lot of 'work, for it has to
be done for each meat Mrs.
Lopez, with her machine, does st
mechanically. She holds her
grandchild in her arm as she
waits on customers, combining
baby-sitting with business while
the child's mother picks the as-
paragus writes Dorothea Kean
Jaffe in the Christian Science
Monitor.
_ q * ,k
Occasionally a migrant family
manages to carry a washing ma-
chine with them in their truck,
but rarely do you see a televi-
sion set or even a radio. Here
in Michigan we came upon six
little shacks of the usual un-
improved type and on the roof
of each was an aerial. A seventh
shack bore a crudely lettered.
sign, "TV Repair," Even mi-
grants, in some cases, seem to
strive to keep up with the
migrant Joneses.
a
* *
"They''re mechanical geni-
uses,"
eni-uses," the farmer tells, me, indi-
eating his migrant workers pick-
ing strawberries in a wide field.
"They come in the worst old
cars. When one breaks down,-
the
own,the owner, gets out a screw-
driver and some baling wire and
works at it. First thing you
know the jalopy is going good
as ever. None of us could do it."
a * ik
Children of Mexican migrants
love to sing. At a special class
held for these tots in an Illinois
town, the teacher asks what
songs they know. "Jesus loves
me," says the group spokesman,
a little girl with pure Spanish
features. They sing it. vigorous-
ly. "And we can sing in Span-,
ish, too," says the small spokes-
man, They do — and you could
never forget it.
Hard Language
To Learn!
How hard is it to learn Rus-
sian? The question is being asked
by teen-agers, because 400 high
schools from New York to Seat-
tle will offer work in the tongue
of the czars this fall (compared
with sixteen in 1957, a year of
Sputnik I). Still, only a few
thousand students are enrolled in
these courses.
The reason is painfully simple.
As one teacher, William Mara of
Stamford, Conn., put it recently,
Russian is "tough."
Once over the hurdle of the
forbidding 33 -letter alphabet, the
student tumbles into a never-
never land of verbs. The English
"to go," for instance, is translated
in four different ways: "Itji (to
go once on foot in one direction),
"xadjitij" (to go on foot habitu-
ally), "yexatj" (to go by vehicle
once in one direction), and "yez-
djitj" (to go by vehicle habitu-
ally).
One bright spot: Russian and
English have many sound -alike
words. "The rose is in the vase"
translates in "Roza v vaze"
(raw'za vee va'zye),
Place of employment is where
you go to rest after your vaca-
tion.
IKE'S BRITISH ESCORT — During his stay in London, President
Eiscnj_iewei was escorted around Town by this special British
moto,-ycle edged*,
FOLLOW THE LEADER — Members of the British royal 'family
walk with hands behind backs during' a visit of President
Eisenhower •to, Balmoral Castle, Scotland, They are, from left,
Princess Anne, Prince Philip, the President, and Prince Charles,
TABLE TALKS
oJaue Andrews.
You can make. gelatin dessert
as simple or as elaborate as• you
desire. Fruit flavored, it may
simply be spooned into sherbet
glasses or cut into cubes and
placed there.
There are several types of
gelatin, but you will find that
the one known as sponge or
snow is fluffy, light, and melts in
your mouth. For this type, you
add egg whites to the gelatin —
and find that it triples the vol-
ume. s „
The method for this type of
gelatin dessert is simple. First,
chill the basic gelatin to the con-
sistency of unbeaten egg whites,
then add unbeaten egg whites,
and beat with a rotary or elec-
tric beater until mixture begins
to hold its shape, Then chill un-
til firm. ;, a
LIME OR LEMON SNOW
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1% cups cold water, divided
% cup sugar
Ye teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lime or
lemon rind
34 cup lime or lemon juice
2 unbeaten egg whites
Sprinkle gelatin on 1 cup of
tht cold water in top of double
boiler to soften. Place over boil-
ing water and stir until gelatin
is dissolved. Remove from heat.
Add sugar, salt, lime or lemon
rind, lime or lemon juice and.
remaining 34 cup cold water;
stir until sugar is dissolved.
Chill to consistency of unbeaten
egg white. (To chill quickly,
half fill lower part of double
boiler with ice cubes and water;
sprinkle with 2 tablespoons salt.
Set upper part of double boiler
with gelatin mixture over ice
water; chill until mixture is con-
sistency of unbeaten white, stir-
ring frequently.) Add egg
whites; beat with electric or
rotary beater until mixture be-
gins to hold its shape. Turn into
a 6 -cup mold or individual
molds, or spoon into dessert
dishes. Chill until firm, Unmold
and serve with custard sauce
which utilizes remaining 2 egg
yolks. o #
CUSTARD SAUCE
VA cups milk
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
14 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Scald milk in top of double
boiler. Beat whole egg and egg
yolks, stir in sugar and salt.
Gradually add to these the hot
milk, a little at a time, stirring
constantly over hot, not boiling
water until mixture coats the
spoon, Remove from heat; cool.
Stir in Vanilla,
4 n +r
This chocolate sponge is a
delicacy made with gelatin and
cocoa. It gets its frothy light-
ness from carefully . folding the
gelatin mixture into stiffly beat-
en egg whites,
CHOCOLATE SPONGE
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
I/ cup sugar
34 teaspoon salt
19, cup cocoa
14 cup cold water
3 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix together gelatin, sugar,
malt, and cocoa in top of double
boiler. Stir in water, Place over
boiling water, stirring occasion-
ally, until gelatin is dissolved.
Beat egg yolks slightly. Slowly
add small amount of hot liquid
to egg yolks; return to double
boiler and cook over, hot, not,
boiling, water, stirring constant-
ly until slightly thickened, Re-
move from heat; add vanilla.
Chill until mixture is slightly
thicker than the consistency of
unbeaten egg whites. Beat egg
whites until stiff; fold in gelatin
mixtures. Turn into large or in-
dividual molds; chill until firm.
Unmold and serve with whipped
cream and cookies.
a a
There is another basic gelatin
dessert named whip — the fluf-
fiest of them all. This dessert is
based on clear gelatin beaten
until double in volume. For suc-
cessful whips, the gelatin -liquid
mixture must be able to hold the
air which produces its foamy
texture .and opaque appearance.
If the gelatin is not ,sufficiently
thickened before beating, the air
will escape and the gelatin will
again become clear. If it is too
firm, it cannot be beaten to the
desired lightness.
ORANGE WHIP
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
14 cup sugar
'/ teaspoon salt
134 cups orange juice, divided
Mix together gelatin, sugar,
and salt in saucepan. Add se's
cup of the orange juice; place
over medium heat, stirring con-
stantly, until gelatin is dissolved.
Stir in remaining 1 cup cold
orange juice. Chill until .mix-
ture is slightly thicker than the
consistency of an unbeaten egg
white. Beat with a rotary or
electric beater until light and
fluffy and double in volume.
Turn into a 4 -cup mold or in-
dividual molds, or spoon into
dessert dishes. Chill until firm.
Unmold and serve with plain
or whipped cream. Serves 4-6.
4 * *
If you'd like to make a whip-
ped dessert without gelatin, here
is one suing marshmallows:
CRANBERRY CREAM
DESSERT
1 cup cranberry juice, cocktail
1/2 pound (32) marshmallows
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream
Combine cranberry juice and
marshmallows in s a u c e p a n.
Place over low heat until
marshmallows are soft; then stir
until smooth. Remove from
heat. Add lemon juice. Chill
thoroughly. Whip cream until
just stiff enough to stand in soft
peaks, Fold' into chilled mixture.
Spoon into dessert glasses and
let chill until serving time.
Serves 6.
In Buffalo, fined $5 for ills.
gal parking, Attorney Charles J.
Grieb won a dismissal six months
later when he submitted a 15.
page brief complete with photo.
graphs, sketches and electronic
tests preying that the meter was
wrong — all at a cost of $110.
In Istanbul, Turkey, beaten.
with a cane once too often by
his gypsy master Arif Arat, a
dancing bear named Karaoglan'
broke his chains, grabbed . the
cane, gave his master a sound
drubbing then ambled off.
How A Unique.
Bookshop Started
The idea came to Elizabeth
that she might open a bookshop
in Boston, a shop which would
differ as much from the ordin-
ary wholesale place as a factory
for spinning wool differed from
the hand Iowa. Here, books
would be arranged on shelves in
the Peabody sitting room, a
"book -room" it would be, and
purchasers could sit . deep In
chairs by the fireside or in the '
sunshine of a front window to
sample the wares. On the shelves
customers would find nothing
to shock their sensibilities but
each book should be worth while
and, for the added pleasure of
her customers, she would stock
the place with French and. Ger-
man classics as well as with.
current treatises on science, all
this a great innovation.
Channings' advice was sought
in the matter of the bookshop
as, until now, it had not been
thought the genteel thing for
women to compete in matters of
trade. The needle -and -thread
shops for gentlewomen were all
that so far had been attempted.
His reply set Elizabeth at
ease. He sent his 'blessings to
her and to the shop with .the
words: "The business seems to
partake • of the dignity of litera-
ture," What's better than this?
But kind friend he was, he went
on to warn her of her haphazard
business methods, her enthusi-
asm so often ungrounded. And
then; to finish the matter, he
deposited at her request suffi-
cient funds with his London
publisher that she might have
a reserve to draw on there for
the purchase of English publi-
cations.
Allston did the same thing
with the firm supplying his art
materials, advising Elisabeth to
stock the new bookshop with
paints, brushes, varnishes. She
thus became the "sole agent in
New England" for these London
organizations.
The shop opened .in a house
at 13 West Street in July, 1840,
when. Elizabeth was thirty-six
LUXURY — The world's most
expensive dinner place' setting,
made of palladium and studed
with gems, gains added glitter
from' Broadway star Carol
Lawrence, The setting is valued
at $7,500, her jewelry at $250,-
000.
years old. , . Mrs, Peabos.
rocking chair was, placed io a
front r bei' inc the
few freewindmoowmentfos between cook•
Ing, tending house, and helping
to sell books. More and mere,
she cto e in his.
last occupationontrived, knowingsharinttl�
mately many of her daughter's
customers and their tastes, able,
to advise and to guide their
choice of reading.
0 n Wednesday afternoons,
chairs retrieved from closets and
cellar were set up within the
library and ladies came in num..
hers from Cambridge and Brook-
line, as well as from Beacon
Hill, to listen to Margaret Ful-
ler's "Conversations.'" Here was
another of Elizabeth Peabody's
generous impulses bearing fruit,
for no charge was made to Miss
Fuller for the use of the room
and she as much as Elizabeth
seemed to take it for granted
that these lectures had perman-
ently succeeded the earlier Pea-
body "Reading Parties."
The Wednesday afternoons,
however, were not entirely dis-
advantageous to Elizabeth and
the shop. The lecture ended,
Mrs. Peabody, Mary, and Sophia
managed all three to make many
sales while Elizabeth, her psyche
knot slipped to one side, excited-
ly discussed with clients the
points Miss Fuller had scored.
—From "Three Wise Virgins,"
by Gladys Brooks.
London Lady
Has Way With Jam
Have you ever motirned the
waste as you skimmed a kettle
of jam? ]:Don't.
Mrs. Lucy Williams, now of
London and formerly of Kent, a
region of fruit, tells how to
improve one's method, Take
strawberries!
Put four pounds of strawber-
ries in a pressure cooker, bring
to pressure, remove lid, and
cool. Add four pounds of sugar,
juice of a large lemon, and a
nice "knob" of butter (',s oz.).
Boil, perhaps 25 minutes, or un-
til it fills the prongs of a silver
York when lifted out erect.
The "knob" of butter is the
secret ingredient," says Mrs. Wil-
liams—and she will show you
jars of strawberry jam made in
1955 that are still strawberry
red in color, clear, and tasty
. Mrs. Williams adds the "nice
knobs" of butter to all jams.
Gooseberries she pressures for
10 minutes and proceeds as for
strawberries.
The Victoria plum (any tart
one will do) she halves, then re-
moves the . seeds, pressures for
10 minutes, cools, adds four
pounds of sugar and one pint of
water. But when she wants a
real fancy plum jam, she cracks
the seeds, removes the kernels,
then adds the kernels to the jam.
' Blackberries she strains to re-
move the seeds, then makes a
"Bramble Jelly" such as is found,
on the shelves df any food store.
Research center of a largo
Eastern railroad has put nuclear
gamma rays to work testing ties.
If tie is good, rays bounce back
to receiver in strength. If tie ie
rotted, bounce -back falls oft'.
Savings in tie' replacement cost
are cited for use of the device.
ISSUE 38 _ 1959
SAFEST SPOT ON EARTH - So young that nobody knows is
sex, a baby koala ,nuzzles its mother in a San Francisco zoo.'
1f will soon leave its mother's pouch to travel on her backs