Plucky: 1936

I'm surprised at how many of the housewives from this period look like my mother and other relatives. It must be the clothing they wore and maybe their body language.

I've never plucked a chicken, but I've certainly eaten many over my lifetime. Like most folks, I'd bet I'd eat a LOT less if I had to do what it took to get the chicken into the pot.

(Maybe that's why my grandmother and great-aunt were only sent to the yard to wring necks once a week...and why she could work wonders in the kitchen with very little meat...a hambone in the pot of pinto beans, a little bacon grease in her potato salad, etc.!)

Thanks for the reminder that chicken doesn't come from cellophane packages in the grocery store! (Oh, and if you haven't read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma," named one of the Ten Best Science Books of the Year by the NYTimes, you're missing something. His experiences on Polyface Farm were enlightening!)

It's been less than 100 years and most of us no longer know how to live this way. The march of progress, I guess...