Buelah Scott has fond memories of growing up on her family's 160 acre farm in Cortland.

From watching her father, Earl Meyer, till their land with horses in the early 1940s to getting their first black and white television set in 1951, Scott recalls a time when people ate differently and families spent more time together.

In those days, Scott said, most people, including her family, didn't buy their food or their clothes from big retail stores like Wal-Mart. What they needed, they grew, made or traded for, she said.

"We had two gardens and grew vegetables to eat and can for the winter," Scott said. "Mom said that we needed a hundred quarts of tomatoes, green beans and everything else."

Once a week, the family would get groceries from a traveling wagon.

"A peddler wagon came by our house on Thursdays to sell groceries, and Mom sometimes sold eggs to him," she said. "The wagon was from the Surprise grocery store."

Besides vegetables from the garden, the family also produced their own meat.

"We butchered around Thanksgiving when the crops were all harvested and the weather was cool. Grandma Kate Meyer usually came on that day to help," Scott said. "A sausage stuffer is in my kitchen today as a remembrance of the farm. Mom said that we used everything but the squeal when we butchered hogs."

Not only was Scott's mother, Helen Meyer, a hard worker on the farm and in the kitchen, but she also was an expert seamstress, Scott said.

"She made some of my dresses from feed sacks because girls could not wear jeans or slacks to school," she said. "Many of the readers today will not know what I'm talking about, but it was printed or flowered cloth sacks that we bought with animal feed in them."

But it took more than one feed sack to make a dress, she added.

"Of course we always chose the feed sack to our liking and sometimes we had to match the sack we had chosen previously to have enough material to make the dress," Scott said. "Mom sewed on a Singer pedal-type sewing machine and I have it in my living room today."

As for cooking, Scott also learned that from her mother.

"Mom cooked and baked everything from scratch," she said. "She used bacon grease for seasoning because we never heard of cholesterol, and she baked three loaves of bread twice a week in our wood-burning kitchen stove."

On Mondays, Scott said she could count on having the same meal.

"Mom had soup beans with jowl bacon cooking every Monday because it was washday," she said. "Mom did the washing with a wringer-type washing machine and hung the clothes on a clothesline outside to dry. We only washed once a week."

Sometimes, for a treat, Scott said, her family would get all dressed up to go to  town.

"If Dad wasn't too tired, we would drive our old Ford to Seymour and try to get a parking place in front of Murphy's Five and Dime store," she said. "We would just sit in the car and watch the people go in and out of the store. Many would stop and visit with us."

During those trips, Scott said her mother would sometimes surprise them by going to the grocery store across the street from Murphy's.

"Mom sometimes went across the street to buy a pound of bologna and a box of crackers to eat in the car," she said. "Bologna was just 10 cents a pound."

She also remembers riding a wagon to Freetown with her grandpa on Saturdays.

"On occasion, I would ride in a wagon led by horses with Grandpa Anderson on a Saturday evening," she said. "Saturday night was a big deal in the late '40s and early '50s as farmers would come to Freetown to sell their eggs and cream and to buy groceries," she said. "Also, they had free outdoor movies."

Scott's mother's talents did not end with just cooking, cleaning, sewing and farm work. She also kept the family well-groomed by cutting their hair herself.

"Mom cut Dad's hair outside in the summer and in the screened porch in winter," she said. "Dad never went to a barbershop the 50 years they were married."

In 1955, Buelah married Jack Scott of Freetown, and they lived in Seymour for 53 years before he died in February 2009.

They have two daughters, Jacqueline Scott of Seymour and Jill Murphy of West Chester, Ohio; a son, Jeff Scott of Carmel; and two grandchildren.

After Buelah retired from Pantasote in 1990 and Jack retired in 1995, the couple made a decision to travel as much as they could.

"That decision changed our lives," she said. "We decided to travel with our daughters each Christmas and sometimes more often instead of exchanging gifts. We have toured from Maine to San Diego to the Bahamas to Mexico. It's the time we value most."

She remembers many of the sights, sounds and smells of those trips.

"We have seen the Alamo and surrounding missions, we've traveled by hot air balloon over Sedona, Arizona, woke up overlooking the Grand Canyon and sipped coffee at the Café Dumond in New Orleans," she said. "We've traveled by car down the Natchez Trace to Natchez, Mississippi, toured the antebellum homes of Natchez, Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans.

"We've seen the ducks parade at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, seen the Civil War battlefields of Shiloh, Vicksburg and Fredericksburg and visited Disney World," she added.

The couple's adventures took them from coast to coast and even around the globe to China.

"We went to Hong Kong and Beijing, China, five years ago," she said. "Hong Kong reminded me a lot of San Francisco or New York City."

While there, Buelah said she and Jack enjoyed visiting many famous sites.

"We walked on the Great Wall of China, toured the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs and many more fascinating places," she said.

Her favorite trips, however, were to the East Coast.

"The East Coast towns of Plymouth, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts; and Woodstock, Vermont, have been some of my favorites," she said. "To see Plymouth Rock, lighthouses, covered bridges, quaint villages, seaport harbors and to breathe the crisp air was truly memorable."

Later this summer, Buelah said, she plans to return to the East Coast.

"The kids and I are going to Newport, Rhode Island, to see the Vanderbilt and other mansions and to relax on Cape Cod," she said.

When she's not traveling, Buelah said, she likes to relax at home with her black Lab mix named Mountain Dew and her big black and white cat, Big Mac.

She also enjoys reading.

"I love to read and use the library often," she said. "It's a great service and most of the employees call me by my first name."

Strawberry Glaze
¾ cup strawberries
1 cup water (divided)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Red food coloring
Mix strawberries and simmer for three minutes. Add sugar. In a separate bowl, mix together cornstarch and 1/3 cup water and add to strawberries. Cook until thick.
Pour over 1 quart of strawberries in a baked pie shell.

Cucumber or zucchini relish
1 gallon cucumbers
½ gallon onions
½ gallon celery
½ teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups vinegar
5 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon celery seed
Chop cucumbers, onion, and celery fine (can use a food processor). Add 2 heaping tablespoons of salt. Let stand at least 3 hours or until you are ready to can it. Drain well.
Bring to a boil the mustard seed, salt, vinegar, sugars, turmeric and celery seed. Simmer 5 minutes. Add vegetables. Put in sterile jars while very hot. Seal with flat tops and rings.
You also can use zucchini or mix it.

Zucchini bread
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup oil
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup nuts
2 cups zucchini, grated and drained
Mix all ingredients and bake 1 hour at 325 degrees in two greased and floured loaf pans

Pumpkin cheesecake soup
2 30 oz cans pumpkin pie mix
2 15 oz cans chicken broth
2 cups half and half
1 cup sour cream
½ tsp. basil
Mix pumpkin and chicken broth. Whisk and heat for 7-8 minutes. Stir in half and half and basil. Cook 2-3 more minutes. Top each serving with a spoonful of sour cream; sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Wilted lettuce
8 cups lettuce from the garden, torn in small pieces
6 slices bacon
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup water
½ cup green onion, sliced (from the garden)
4 teaspoons sugar
Fry bacon until crisp. Drain and crumble. Add onion to drippings and cook until tender. Add vinegar, water, sugar and bacon to onions, and boil it just a little bit.
Pour hot dressing over lettuce. Toss to coat. (Put in large mixing bowl to toss and cover with a plate or lid while it wilts)
Garnish with radishes (from the garden).