Home Demonstration Clubs

A trip to the Damascus community Senior Center this afternoon gave me the idea for my post on my blog today. I went there to present a plaque to the Damascus Home Demonstration Club for their volunteer service to the Coffee County Training Center in Enterprise. The center's director could not attend at the last minute and called to see if I would go in her place since I am a Mental Health Board Member and parent of someone who attends the Training Center.


Twenty seniors from the community still meet monthly as they did 75 years ago, in the 1940s.
My mother was a member of the Curtis Home Demonstration Club. These clubs were established by the Cooperative Extension Service to aid the rural families. I think the Damascus club is one of a few left in the south.


I remember so many things my mother learned and did at the club meetings. They met in homes and it was the social event of the month for the ladies. I can remember my mother baking and getting ready to host the club meeting. The extension agents would attend the meetings and teach them so many things. We could hardly wait for her to get home from the meetings and sometimes she let one or more of us go with her.


I remember when she learned to make peanut butter and the process she went through to do this. First we had to shell the peanuts and "parch" or roast them in the oven. Then we rolled the peanuts with our hands to loosen the thin husks and she winnowed them by holding the pan over a larger pan, outdoors, and the wind would blow the husks away. Then she fastened the food grinder (used to stuff sausage) to the edge of a table and we would grind the peanuts to the consistency of peanut butter. It was sooooo good. She added a little sugar and salt, and sometimes a little cooking oil if it was too stiff to spread.


I wrote in my blog about a year ago of lots of the activities that took place in the home demonstration clubs, i.e., making mattresses, chenille bedspreads, food preservation, etc.


Today I was recalling my memories of long ago while attending a modern day home demonstration club. Their refreshments reflected that they were all good cooks. They served healthy foods, along with a couple of homemade cakes.


To my surprise, when I walked into the room there was my neighbor from the street behind us. She grew up in Damascus and attends with her sister. I also knew two other ladies who were present.


I thanked them all for the Christmas party and gifts for our son James and his friends at Coffee County Training Center.  Then I spent a few minutes telling them about James and what it's like to have a 52-year-old "man child" in the home and the daily care he needs. Most of all he needs love and to feel secure. This makes him very happy.