Butter churn stories.

Frank Fusco

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As promised, here are a couple butter churn stories from the time I worked as an interpreter at an 1800's village.

1) In the central big house in the village, it was the family rule (in the 1800's) that the two youngest boys had the chore of churning butter. But, since this was considered real work and not much fun, the boys came up with a better idea.
They would fill the churn with cream and wait until their mother left the kitchen. Then they would lift the lid of the churn and toss in a big ole bullfrog.
The boys would then run off and go swimming in the pond for a couple hours.
Well, while they were gone, that big ole bullfrog would be jumping up and down trying to get out of that churn. Of course, all the time he was jumping he was just sloshing that cream around something fierce.
When the boys returned, they would lift the lid and, there that ole bullfrog would be, sitting right on top of a big chunk of freshly churned butter.
You can laugh now. :D


2) One day, while giving a tour in the big house, I took the group into the kitchen and pointed out the butter churn. Always trying to mix a little entertainment with edikation, I told the story above.
In the group, standing right in front of me was a boy about eight years old.
When I finished and got the appropriate chuckle from the crowd, the boy spoke up and asked, "Mr. What's butter?"
Well, folks, this got my attention. I also brought my spiel to a halt. Usually I had responses to most of the tourist questions. But this kid had me stumped.
Fortunately, in the crowd was an elderly, and very wise gentleman. After a pause he answered the boy by saying, "Son, butter is homemade imitation margarine that we used to make when I was your age."
The kid seemed satisfied and said, "Thanks."
Good answer and an example of how times have changed.

(legal stuff: the second story, titled "What's butter?" is true. It is copyrighted and I am trying to sell it to a major publication. Sorry to be stuffy, but part of my meager income comes from selling words I :type: )
 
Hehehehe - good stories Frank!! The part about the changing perspective (butter / margarine) is dead-on.

A quick story from my own youth .... My sweethearts uncle were among the last farmers in Northern Ontario (Cochrane District) to separate by hand and sell cream. Periodically, for nostalgia's sake, they'd set aside some milk, get out the old cream can churn and make up some butter instead of separating. I was about age 22 when I first saw this and being a smart ass, I asked them to lend me some milk, took it to the automotive store I worked at and put it in the paint shaker in a clean (we washed it) gallon paint can. We had butter in about 10 seconds :). The uncles just shook their heads ... some of the "churning" was relaxation for them ... I didn't understand that until many years later.

cheers and thanks for the stories :)
 
Good stories, Frank. I still remember my kindergarten teacher showing us how to make our own butter. She took heavy cream, added salt, and whipped it with an electric hand mixer until it was whipped butter. The whole class had fresh-buttered saltine crackers that day for afternoon snacks. :)
 
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