How can people get in such a tizzy about Hoosier cabinets? After I heard Nancy Hiller, author of The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History (IU Press) and a Bloomington cabinetmaker, talk about their social history with Nelson Price on Hoosier History Live! radio show this week, I called my friend Glynis, who has a “Sellers” in her 1920’s era kitchen. Her kitchen is so crammed with stuff that you can hardly realize that there is a valuable antique in there. Glynis had listened to the show sticking her radio out the back window; she lives in country about 50 miles from WICR’s radio tower. (Modern humans can hear the show online anywhere as it airs, but Glynis is no-tech.)
Later I proceeded to get into an email war with a former “girl reporter” (that’s what women reporters were called in the ‘40s) of the long defunct newspaper Indianapolis Times, who had sent me some cockamamie story about Hoagie Carmichael’s grandfather having “invented” the first built-in Hoosier cabinet. My grandparents home had a “built in” cabinet in their 1920’s bungalow home in Decatur, Illinois.
As I learned on the show, these marvelous inventions were marketed in the early part of the 20th century as “a boon to women.” And they sold like hot cakes. They had spice racks, storage bins, a built-in flour sifter, a pull-out counter. And you could sit down in front of them to do your work. They centralized the food storage and preparation area, saving many steps. More than 2 million Hoosier cabinets had been sold by 1920, meaning that they could be found in one in ten American homes. (photo from Wiki) One old ad showed that “Lincoln had freed the slaves, and now the Hoosier has freed the housewife from unnecessary drudgery!” Yes, I did see that ad somewhere on the internet, but now I can’t find it now! Maybe it is in Nancy’s book.
Now, I reflect that, for the last fifteen years or so, designer kitchens, food prep, gardening, kitchen gadgets, and haute cuisine seem to be absolutely the yuppie, upscale thing. Having all the right stuff in your kitchen tells people that you have “arrived.” (Where, exactly, I’m not quite sure.) Friends of mine continually get kidded about their solid cherry designer kitchen cabinets and granite counter tops, which set them back about 50K. Their cherry cabinets were ruined by flood, but those granite counter tops remained intact, by God, and will eventually be moved to their new retirement home!
Me? I am barely a cook, and I lasted about 48 hours after my microwave pooped out, after which I went to Goodwill to get a replacement. I mean, I’m not s’posed to live like a frigging pioneer, am I? The thing I don’t get about the new trendy kitchens is that they all have this single, huge, “farmhouse” kitchen sink, always in copper or burnished brass or something appropriately foo foo What is that about, really? I mean, even I can admit that a stainless steel double sink, where one can use one sink for rinsing and one for washing, with one side having a disposal, is actually a pretty practical thing. So, isn’t the huge single sink a step back?
Well, Hoosier History Live! does make me think about a lot of things, and I felt almost lazy when I heard about many of the Hoosier pioneers arriving on foot. It was often their kitchen gear and valuables in their wagons, not them. It’s really not that long ago! And back to my grandmother actually having her own “built in” Hoosier kitchen in her house in Decatur, Illinois in the 1920’s . . . what an absolute boon that was to her! In her own house, along with the sink, stove, dining room, living room, three bedrooms, detached garage, and a bathroom indoors! She had grown up on a dairy farm in Michigan, one of nine children, and when they washed dishes they did not use soap because the dishwater scraps were fed to the pigs, and the pigs would not eat food with soap on it.
Now, that’s a flash back in time, and to my own sense of what’s important.
Thanks Nancy and Nelson. I guess people can get in a tizzy about Hoosier cabinets.
