Here’s a recording from 2014 in which Patrick recalls his childhood, specifically how his family would can foods in the summer and eat them in the winter.
PM: We canned green beans and tomatoes and I think peas, canned peas, and so of course all winter we had that stuff from the garden. When you emptied the mason jars – there was a hole under the back porch steps – you’d it throw it the hole and they’d be stacking up under the house all winter.
PM: Come spring, you have to go into the side door, crawl under there with all the black widow spiders, and get out all of those jars, get ’em outside, wash ’em up, and get ready for the next canning.
PM: I hated going under there to get all those glass jars out of there. On the other hand, I used to tease a black widow spider into a jar, put a lid on it, and take it to class.
CR: Of course you did. I wish it was more like that now. I think we’re too…
JP: More black widows?
CR: No, more…
PM: More widows.
CR: More earthy. We’re too commercialized.
PM: We’re too separated from the earth. Everywhere. Spain, the same thing. The generation before? The guy, when I bought the house in Galilea, the guy in front of the house was still plowing his land with a horse, a mule.
CR: Wow.
PM: Of course, he also put his wife’s head in the oven and burned her hair off.
CR: He was trying to kill her, obviously.
PM: No, punish her. He was a bad guy. Beat the mule too.
Transcribed by JPMD
Recording file: 141008-095250-patrick-canning-beans-and-stuff.mp3
Patrick Meadows 1934 – 2017.
That was a funny conversation. Wish there were more!
I also wish there were more, and that the collection was still growing.
As time, energy, and motivation allow, I’ll continue to add from what remains.
When Kathy Smith and I went to Mallorca in 1973, things were very basic and many products we were familiar with in the states were not available. Deia had 1 restaurant where one could eat well for a few psetas. Now there are several multi-star restaurants. Lodging cost about te same as a bottle of wine. No Carrefour, plastic bags, cold milk or many of the prepared foods we were used to in the states. Toilet paper seemed to have splinters in it. The coast of Andraix was bare as was the coast of Port de Soller. Cars were few and far between and there were no freeways. Few, if any bicyclers who now seem to clog all the roads between Palma, Valdemossa and Soller now. It was basic and , to be honeat, I preferred it then more than my several visits 30 years later. Progress is good, change is usually good but not at the expense of nature and charm.