Recently, while we were tottering along down one of the aisles in the HEB food store, we found ourselves looking in the cooler and studying one of those modern packages of four sticks of butter. Immediately, a thought flashed across our mind, which we want to direct to you modern housewives who still live on the farm. Do you know what "Butter and Egg" money is? We certainly do hope so! Otherwise, your dear grandmothers might be sorely tempted to direct a clap of thunder in your direction from up in Heaven.

When your grandpa and grandma were struggling to make a living on a "cotton and corn" farm, it was hard to make ends meet and what money was available after the crops were harvested was used to pay off notes at the bank, settle debts at the grocery store, pay taxes, and buy some clothes and shoes for a housefull of growing kids. Rarely was there any pocket change left to give mama to spend on frivolous things such as buttons, safety pins, braid, maybe a nickel to each of the kids to spend as they saw fit when they went to town on Saturday, etc.

But shortage of pocket change to buy a few "extras" never was much of an obstacle to be met by these early day ladies who lived on the farm. They always had a flock of hens to provide eggs for the family, and two or three milk cows that furnished nourishing milk for growing children. As a matter of fact, there usually was an oversupply of each item in each kitchen, but none of it was allowed to go to waste. The extra eggs were placed in a bucket and set aside, and the surplus milk was put in crocks and set in safes to allow the cream to rise to the top. Then it was skimmed off and churned into butter. Then, the eggs and butter were taken to town on Saturday and exchanged for groceries, or sold for a modest sum of money. Hence the name, "Butter and Egg" money.

We are proud to say that to a lesser extent, we engaged in such an operation with our mother when our family lived on the farm. One of the chores assigned to us was to go out in the evening and gather eggs. Even now, on the cold days in winter, we still feel tinges of pain at the spots on our hands where cross old hens pecked us to show displeasure at our reaching in their nest to take eggs.

Another chore, which was assigned to us, was the churning of butter prior to the advent of the electric churn, this was a very physical thing, which fell into about three categories. The one which we disliked the most involved our mother pouring cream into a gallon can (like molasses used to come in), sealing it with a lid, and then seating us on a stool, telling us to hold it between our two hands, and shaking it vigorously until we could hear lumps of butter. The churn we liked the most was a tall crock jar with a tall wood dasher with a handle inside. After the cream was poured inside, all we had to do was sit on a chair, put the churn between our legs, move the dasher up and down, and whistle while we worked until the butter made its appearance.

The churn, which was easiest to operate, was the glass jar with gear wheels and a handle on top. When you turned this handle, it would cause a wooden paddle to go round and round, disturbing the cream until it surrendered the speck of butter.

There are very few people still around who gathered eggs and churned butter like we did in the old days. But we still would like to be around when one of you modern farm ladies walked up to the checkout counter, put down a bucket of eggs and a box of butter, and told the clerk you wanted to trade them for groceries.

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