Thursday, April 30, 2015

Aunt Molly

Mr. Mataka had five daughters -- Molly, Marjie, Jennifer, Winnie and Janet.

I have no photo of Aunt Molly. I did not like her. I think she did not like me or anybody else. She lived at Mr. Mataka's house but she kept to her own path. She had built a tiny room abutting the kitchen, a tiny room with its own door to the outside and a short walk to the small building with a toilet.

Mataka's house had a a sturdy flush toilet, in it's own small brick building in the back yard -- a very clean and tidy place.

Molly was a big, beefy, plain-looking woman. She did not take kindly to her lack of good looks. And a poor complexion as well  -- or I might have imagined that part.

She had a big iron kettle in the back yard which she set on top of a blazing fire -- a kettle full of boiling water. She plopped in cow hooves, the split hooves, the final four inches of the four-footed cows. Many cow hooves in a big kettle. The cow hooves, after some hours of boiling, become tender with a gelatinous and quite chewy texture  -- This is quite flavorful and a good bone to be gnawing on -- so I am told. I never tried it.

She would cook her cow hooves and carry them in a sack to the beer hall and take her post in one of the cooking stalls, where the ladies stood behind various piles of edibles.

That's how Molly earned her living.

Molly had a daughter, Maureen, who was a kind and thoughtful young woman, also big and beefy like her mother, but much better-looking. 

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