"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest." Thomas More
That big rolling pin in the back left of this crock that they are all grouped in was the beginning of this collection. I retrieved it from my grandmother's home after she passed away and it used to sit on a shelf in the center island of my previous home, always reminding me of her. I used it occasionally to roll out pizza dough and sometimes I would use it to smash things into fine crumbs because it is so heavy.
This rolling pin is a tool that my grandmother used much more frequently than I ever did. She baked on a regular basis making sweet rolls, cakes, breads, cinnamon coffee cakes, etc. This rolling pin has memories for me of her hands touching it, gently pressing her arms and body into the flour-covered table and elastic dough mound. Things always smelled good in her home. The moment you opened the door you knew she had been baking.
Things have changed for most people today. We don't make our own dough nearly as often as my grandmother did. We purchase a pizza from a take-and-bake store or buy the dough already made. We have busier lives it seems, although for people of my grandmother's generation, they were busy working each day from morning until evening but at different tasks: ironing, gardening, baking, preserving food, etc. It seems like it was a simpler time but I think in reality, it was much harder. We have become more sedentary with jobs that require many hours of sitting at computer screens.
I'm not saying that one is better or worse than the other but what I do want to remember is the effort it took to perform every-day tasks and what it meant. There was a different sense of accomplishment associated with those. You could go to bed at night knowing that what you had accomplished really felt like something. There is a satisfaction that comes with making things from scratch...from putting your whole body (literally) and soul into these tasks. Simplicity, yes, but like Thomas More writes "important to the soul".
I Love your collection of rolling pins. They are perfect illustration for your quote and for the importance of what you've shared here. There is such value in doing these daily tasks and I have no doubt that for those who came before it represented an immense amount of work, but it may be exactly what we all need to get some much-needed perspective. I find deep satisfaction in baking and cooking. Perhaps too much. :)
ReplyDeleteA great post.
Nice post. It's important for me to nourish my soul by using my rolling pins. I have quite a few as well. I use my rolling pins mainly for making tortillas. I love the feel of remembrance of when I was a child learning then how to make tortillas. I'm old fashioned and still do a lot of the things that were done in those days. Good for the soul! Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeletewonderful rolling pin collection and such lovely memories associated with your grandmother's pin.
ReplyDeletewe still make bread occassionally...and i think the rolling pin we have was my wifes mothers...there is def something to the tasks that some may see as menial now that technology can do it for us...
ReplyDeleteWholeheartedly agree with Thomas Moore. You have a wonderful collection there. Treasures. Both the rolling pins and the fond memories of your grandmother.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic collection! I don't use a rolling pin very often, but I enjoy the slow rhythm of rolling out dough when I do...
ReplyDeleteI have a few tools that were my dads, an ice cream scooper from when I was a kid that my mom used to use. I like using them, knowing that they had these things in their hands once upon a time. And I know when they are gone, it will be my way of still holding their hands everytime I use that screw driver or dish out ice cream for someone I love. You ARE a kindred spirit.
ReplyDeleteInteresting collection of rolling pins. Multi-purpose, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteWhen our grandchildren come, we often have pizza, since they like it. I use focaccia dough to make the pizza crust. Works well! And not too hard to make (though I do make it ahead).