Her View: Putting food on the table in Pullman

Buying groceries has undergone many changes over the years, yet in many ways much is still the same. As I prepare to have my groceries delivered because of the difficulties these 90-year-old bones have getting around, I reflect on the changes and similarities I’ve experienced over the years.

When I was little, growing up here in Pullman, our milk appeared on our doorstep early in the morning on a schedule. The delivery man always carried extras so If we wanted changes, we left a note rolled up in the top of an empty bottle on our front porch the night before. Instead of cartons, our milk came in reusable glass quart, pint or half-pint bottles. We had a regular delivery from the dairy to our front door. Some houses were equipped with a special closet type door in the outside of their house with openings to the outside and inside. This was nice because it prevented freezing. When the milk did freeze, we would find about a three-inch tube of ice coming out the opening topped off with the cardboard disc that was the lid for the bottle.

During the Depression years, when we were too poor to own a car, it was handy to be able to call the grocer and have him deliver our food. Mama would phone in her order early in the morning and either Mr. Kirkland or Mr. Norberg would gather up the order into collapsible wood boxes that would stack easily on the back of a flatbed truck. When the day’s orders were ready, they would load up the truck and deliver the groceries. They would just walk in our kitchen door and stack the goods on the kitchen table. It was nice to be able to have that kind of trust.

Maxwell Meats was our meat provider and it, too, delivered. One advantage we had was that the meat would be cut and trimmed to our specifications. Our family is very fond of both lamb and mutton and they had access to buying from the meat lab at the college where they would teach potential butchers the fine art of butchering. Most stores never had mutton for sale so, when the store was able to buy it, they would always let us know. We always felt we hit the jackpot when we were able to buy a whole leg. It was enough to last the three of us a whole week.

Working with flour gave my mother asthma so we were also thankful for the nice bakery we had in town. We especially liked its fresh bread instead of the “Wonder Bread” type that the grocery store sold. They had cakes, cookies and pies as well. The college dairy has its ice cream parlor called Ferdinand’s (after the cartoon character Ferdinand the Bull). Its product was well worth the extra steps out of the way.

One of the college’s favorite products is Cougar Gold Cheese. Named after its developer, Dr. Golding, it had the distinction of aging in a can. Besides buying it in a can, locally one can buy wedges as well. The college does a thriving business selling it with orders from all over the world. They have since developed a canned cheddar as well.

Over the years, we had several neighborhood stores available such as Ozzies, which started next to the Cougar Cottage and later built a larger store a block away. In the Midway area there was Don Lee’s Midway grocery on Maiden Lane. Downtown, the K and N was where Sam Dial is now and Dissmore’s on Grand across from the Cordova Theater served the whole town. Safeway came in later, at first, downtown. Over the years, area farmers would drive up and down our local streets shouting out what they had to sell such as eggs and produce in season. Pullman always had food available, but during the Depression, the problem was paying for it. Those of us who had the land grew and canned or dried, then in later years, froze what we grew. Those with ornamental yards planted fruit and nut trees and berry bushes. Those who lived in rental apartments missed out. I never learned how they managed to put enough food on the table during those Depression years.

Harding lives in Pullman and is a longtimeLeague of Women Voters member. She also has served on the Gladish Community and Cultural Center board. Reach her at lj1105harding@gmail.com.