Fried Chicken and The Lard Bucket

We didn't have TV so what we did was cook and can food all summer. Now on Sundays, it was nothing for Grandma to go out in the yard and chase a chicken down and wring  its neck and get it ready for dinner. She was little but she was full of spunk. She's take it to the old chop block in the yard and cut its head off . It's really true they flop all over the yard for a little while afterwards. We thought it was funny then but I don't think I could stand it now. She always had the big tub of boiling water to put it in so she could pluck the feathers off easy. It was the best fried chicken we ever ate, we didn't know what it was like to buy it from the store.

She had this big lard bucket and it was very important that we always had lard. Can't have fried chicken and biscuits and gravy without that. It just floated in it and I remember we had to hurry and eat before it got cold, then it was hard and greasy. The big skillets were so heavy once they were full of gravy, that she'd yell for Grandpa to come and hold it for her to pour it out. The little tin skillets  they make now could not stand up to the heat of an old cook stove. We had every size they made in them. Grandma always cooked for eight to ten people every day breakfast and supper.  The house was always full of people, that's the way I remember it.