Lehman’s Country Life

For the past several years, we have hosted the Central Christian Varsity Singers for an old-fashioned Christmas celebration the first Thursday in December in our Kidron store. This local Mennonite school has a world-class choir, led by the tireless Tim Shue, that performs in a variety of venues. We have been fortunate enough to have this 16-member choir perform by the light of their oil lamps inside our store each year, and then move outside for a traditional candle lighting ceremony.

I took photos, but sacrificed good lighting for the ambiance of the performance, which is why this photo is so dark.  The students were dressed in 19th century period costumes and looked wonderful!  The young women had hoop skirts and frilly white blouses, and the young men were actually in top hats and tails, with white gloves.  When was the last time you saw teenagers dressed like that? (Prom night doesn’t count).
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My Dad remembers wringer washers, oil lamps and sock darning balls.  But my daughter doesn’t…so how to make old-fashioned products relevant to new-fangled kids? I ask.   Bring them to the store and explain, not only what we sell, but why we sell, to whom and perhaps mostly importantly, how to use them.  Today when you get a hole in your sock, what do you do.  Throw it away and go buy a new pair, right?  But in the old days, you didn’t because…after you raised the sheep, sheared the sheep, spun the wool and knit the sock, you had far too much time and energy invested in the product to throw it away.  Enter Sock Darning Ball.  Made locally for us, this is a great example of a product our grandparents knew well, but kids today think it a really quiet rattle.

This morning and last Friday morning, I had the chance to give a presentation on Lehman’s and a store tour to a wonderful group of  students from North Royalton High School, near Cleveland.  They braved blizzard-like conditions to drive down to Amish country to learn about Lehman’s.  Not only did they ask great questions, they guessed nearly every single old-fashioned, but new product, I showed them.  From the soap saver, to the wick trimmer, to the lid lifter to the courting candle, they figured them all out.
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These really do go over well. When I asked my granddaughter what she wanted for Christmas, she said, “Some of those sweet, salty nut things you make!”
For one pound of walnut halves (ok, we’re practical and frugal here: substitute walnut “meats” for that “halves” unless you have a cheap source of walnuts), you’ll need two cups of shelled walnut meats.

You’ll also need:

1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of oil (for frying)
3 cups of water
Salt
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