Mrs. Geneva Heck, who was born and raised in Bertram, Texas in 1915, cooks supper in 1943 on the William Heck Ranch, which was in the Moreno valley out in New Mexico. It almost looks like a scene in a movie. Naturally, I've got my eye on those biscuits! 😀

Seriously, how great is this?
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Um...do you want my honest opinion?
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I take it you think the photo could be improved? I think it's a pretty great capture of a moment in time and a splendid look at this woman and the work she did. What would you change about it?
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Also, the phrase "barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen" leaps to mind.
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We don't know if she's barefoot. She's probably not pregnant since she already had borne her three sons by this point.
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My problem isn't with the photo, it's with your immediate desire to consume the fruits of labor of a 28 year old woman cooking at a wood burning oven and then assuming that her life was great based on your desire for biscuits. Are you an actual dog?
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I didn't say anything about her life. Are you sure you're reading my words and not somebody else's?
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I was wondered how women cleaned house with a dress on.
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She got up at 4am. Carried in water and wood so she could cook. She made everything from scratch no box mixes. She heated water on the stove to wash dishes. And to wash clothes.
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She spent all day in the kitchen. Making everything from scratch. No boxes
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Those irons are heavy.
People used to even iron their underwear back in the day.
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With real butter
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Super great MAGA great in fact, we are all probably headed there!

But seriously, I love this I lived for years in a house built before NV had its statehood and in the kitchen was this amazing heater, cook stove, and center to my life in winter. I also have the one my great grandmother cooked on.
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Sorry, I don't get what is great.🤷‍♀️
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Yeah, an 18-year-old cooking for who knows how many people on a ranch doesn't sound great to me.
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While dropping kids at an alarming rate. No chance for a real life. Hey wait a minute, isn't that the trump agenda? 😄
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Bingo.
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You can see her biscuits from this angle?
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Look at the irons on the stove!
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RIP Blaze Foley. I visit his grave every election. I leave duct tape.

“Don’t like presidents.
Don’t like stars.”
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interesting time piece!
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The movie you're thinking of is His.
🇨🇦🇺🇦🇨🇦
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Hud! I really hate autocorrect.
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Yes. It does have a HUD look to it, doesn't it?
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Photo by Russell Lee?
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Nope. I'm not sure who took it or even where I got it. I've had it for about 13 years.
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I had a 1925 colonial in Cleveland Ohio that had that very stove with a woodbox, for heat & cooking. The water pipes ran threw it for hot water. and i'm here to tell ya, the fact you could get any food off of it was amazing.
there's not a woman alive who who wants to go back
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Would have been great if Mr. Heck was in that kitchen cooking biscuits
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Well, everybody loves biscuits ---- at least everybody I've ever met. But he was off fighting in World War II, so it would have been hard.
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She would have made a much better soldier than her husband, who should have stayed at home cooking and cleaning …
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Why do you say that?
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It's great if you're not the one cooking on a wood stove. . .
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In Texas- the summer heat is a prelude to hell!
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Texas is pretty much Hell in any temperature.
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I’ve been to Texas. Didn’t like it much.
Went to see the Palo Duro Canyon and spend time with the Comanches.
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I don't know. I've lived here a good portion of my life, though I spent most of my first 11 years in Europe and traveled extensively for work later. I like it. It isn't perfect. No place is, in my experience. Different strokes, I reckon.
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You’re right, no place is perfect.
We had a flat tire at the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon. I brushed my teeth with scorpions scurrying around, there were hundreds of Tarantulas all over the place, heard rattle snakes, kept missing tornadoes and I had the worst steak of my life at a popular restaurant.
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Tarantulas are nice
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I lived in Dripping Springs and San Antonio, both truly wonderful towns but when you left their borders. . .
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Dripping Springs?
That’s a unique name and for obvious reasons.
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Our experiences of Texas and Texans have been entirely different, apparently. That's okay. I've found kindly people and good times wherever I've traveled but that's probably a me thing.
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My Nana's stove that I grew up with.
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A little wan who knows her place- that’s what they want for all women!
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It astounds me that, despite my countless entreaties and polite appeals, some of y'all just can't seem to honor my requests to keep politics out of my feed. Sigh ...
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Born in 1915 married circa 1930? Looks like hell. 🔥
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She was married in 1933. Just reading her obituary, I think she lived a pretty good life, spending 30 years on a New Mexico ranch and dying at the age of 92.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24123993/geneva-seargeant-heck
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😒 What if instead of being chained to (probably a much older) man at 17 years old she got an education?! She could have been a great scientist… maybe even cured cancer but instead spent her life cooking and cleaning for an incompetent man and how many children?! Make your own damn biscuits.
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My grandma’s biscuits were so good I drove 55 miles in a blinding snowstorm thinking all the way, those SOBs (my siblings) better not eat all the biscuits. She went to her grave with the recipe.
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How “great?” Probably not for Mrs Heck.
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Some of you don't understand that this is a Texas history and photography feed. I talk about Texas history and the photographs that document it. Lynchings, sharecropping, racism, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the Civil War --- all of it. If that's too rough for you this might not be your bag.
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Now do the black sharecroppers and the lynchings
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Gross!
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You must be new to Traces of Texas. I have done extensive documentation of both in the past and will certainly do so again. Would you like some links to see what I've covered in the past?
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Absolutely iconic photograph! Wonderful.
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The size of that can of pepper!
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No kidding. It's Schilling pepper. I've never heard of it but the photo is clear enough that I can read the label.
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Huh!?!
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I take it that you don't agree? It looks pretty much perfect to me. Great composition, incredibly clear ... I don't see how it could be improved much. I looked at it at about 400% magnification on my 32" production monitor.
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Not that great…

Rose-colored glasses rarely expose the hardships people faced and are blinded by nostalgia.
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I'm a photographer. This is a Texas history/photography feed. I'm commenting on the merits of the photograph as a historical document. You must not be familiar with my work if you think I have rose-colored glasses when it comes to Texas history. Guess what? I've posted photos of lynchings, too.
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What is going through her mind...did you ever think maybe she is SICK TO DEATH of doing for everyone else while they lie around expectantly? Good biscuits are not a good enough excuse for the automatic slavery of women to drudgery for a lifetime.
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Slavery to some, but service to your family is the very essence of love. There is nothing more satisfying than a perfectly timed fine dinner laid out on the table for the family to gather around and feast, share events of the day. It is the manifestation of love. Otherwise, it is just a word.
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This would be more credible if you weren't a man!
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So you cook like this for the ones you love all the time?
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Her husband was off at war. She lives on a RANCH. Do you think people are just "lying around expectantly" on a RANCH? Have you ever been to a ranch? Reading her obituary, it sounds like she had a pretty good life, dying at the age of 92.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24123993/geneva-seargeant-heck
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Wish I could work over a HOT stove like that while ranch hands pass through and grab me by the ass. Heaven!
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LOL
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What is this drivel?! No one in their right mind wants to go back to either 1915 or 1943!! Women were better off in 2022, and will be again when we flush this nonsense!
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Do you not understand that this is a photography and Texas history feed? Do you not see (in my bio) that it is 100% apolitical? Do you see any hint of me indicating that I think women should go back in time? Seriously? I'm thinking Texas history might be a bit too rough for some of y'all.
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A lot of people have a lot of preconceived notions about things, Traces. After 14-15 years of doing Traces of Texas you should realize that.
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It’s true. I’m so used to being put down by men, I just assumed Traces was another a-hole putting me back at the stove. But, I do make good biscuits!☺️
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1) No worries. I'm sure this was hard work. I'm also sure that her husband, who was off at war, was working hard. I'm sure that her sons and her father-in-law, worked hard. Digging post holes in the desert in the hot sun isn't easy. Life itself is hard work. But this woman lived 30 years ...
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2) ... on a ranch in New Mexico. That's a lot better lot than, say, farming in North Dakota. Or being shot at on Iwo Jima. She lived to be 92 years old and, per her own account, enjoyed life: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24123993/geneva-seargeant-heck

It's hard not to engage in "presentism" when viewing these old photos.
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So sorry to misunderstand your post. I didn’t get your intent. I certainly hope you’re not the misogynist I thought you were.
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Wood burning stove!
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That certainly looks like a pressure cooker in the back corner - can anyone confirm?

I do love looking at pictures of kitchens from the past, but I'm with everyone else on preferring modern cooking apparatus for daily use 😁
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For some reason, it's ambiance reminded me of the classic film The Apartment (Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine)! 😃
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Wow. The replies.

Yum. And cooking for family and friends is one of life’s true pleasures. I know of what I speak.
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Yes - pretty great! I was a little girl in 1943 in the midst of WWII. My aunt had a stove in her kitchen very much like that one. I remember it was green and thought it was really cool!
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Do you have a point??
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I thought I was pretty clear in saying that it's a great photo. I love the way it's lit, its composition, the look at her way of life etc ... It's a wonderful historical document. Did you not get that? Do you disagree? If so, why? What could the photographer have done better?
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Maybe she could tell us if it was so great
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Some of you don't understand that this is a Texas history and photography feed. I talk about Texas history and the photographs that document it. Lynchings, sharecropping, racism, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the Civil War --- all of it. If that's too rough for you this might not be your bag.
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I don’t know how my comment would be out of place. There are many layers to history and pictures don’t always capture the full extent of what is going on? It’s a snapshot out of time. I am grateful for you sharing it and would love to be able to meet and interview that woman.
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If you are Mr. Heck is a good day.
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I am jelly of anyone who can bake a great biscuit.
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I see you’ve joined the 📎brigade.
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I hate Nazis and Fascists….it seemed only right. I like your double paperclips!! It says to me stronger together!! 🖇️
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The double is for the past and the present- to honour the Norwegian teachers who used the paperclip as a symbol of freedom and against N& F.
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But I like your idea of stronger together.
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I did not know that teachers started that movement! Looks like this teacher is gonna be adding double 🖇️ to her lanyard tomorrow!! ✊🏼
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It reminds people of home. Makes me think of my grandmother. 13 kids to raise. My grandfather had to go to the veterans hospital 2 states away for a month for surgery and recovery. He left my grandmother $20 and 5 kids still at home. My grandma spent 1.50 bucks for the entire month. Miss them.
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