Count the common blessings

It’s almost a daily exercise for overly mature people such as me to wonder if younger generations ever have thoughtful appreciation of how many now common conveniences they enjoy which were no part of life when I was young.

Have written on this before and recall at least one column wherein I told how turns and stops while driving were indicated with your left arm out the window — 40 below or not.

To make things worse, those windows had to be manually rolled down and up with a crank. Drivers often limited signaling out in the country but had to do it in bigger villages such as Kalispell.

The list could be endless for hundreds of items now taken for granted. Think Kleenex, ChapStick, pizza, refrigerators, automatic windshield wipers, television, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

For memory’s sake, let’s examine just one of those more recent blessings. Once upon a time, there was no such thing as margarine. Bread was buttered with butter. People who didn’t have a cow and a churn or the money to buy butter sometimes used lard on their toast and sandwiches.

It was during early World War II when my family first heard of oleomargarine. It was called a blessing by folks who’d been using lard in their sandwiches because it was relatively cheap and tasted much better, but the dairy industry loudly hailed hydrogenated vegetable oil (oleomargarine) as “the work of the devil and unfit for human consumption.”

A law was quickly passed making it illegal to sell yellow oleo, so it came pure white with a packet of coloring dye. Took a lot of kneading and mixing to get it evenly yellow, so my mother let us kids do it, but we had to wash our hands first.

After arduous kneading, it could be molded into squares to look like creamery butter. For their own personal reasons, some buying the controversial substitute didn’t want others to know. Perhaps they had friends in the dairy business.

In April 1949, Montana Attorney General Arnold Olsen ruled the use of oleomargarine in the food service and cafeterias of the Montana University System unlawful. Olsen said the university system was under the authority of the state of Montana, and the state had a contract with the Montana Dairymen Association for the purchase and use of butter and butter products.

University officials wanted the savings that could be made by using oleo. I was attending the U of M at that time, but for some reason do not remember the big and bitter butter battle. My mind was possibly on more interesting matters. Remember, 64 years ago young ladies wore dresses.

The state legislature eventually settled this matter in 1953, freeing the universities to use oleo and by making it legal in Montana to sell colored margarine “over the counter.” This state’s margarine madness was history.

There is no way of knowing exactly, but the best guess is my last lard sandwich was about 74 years ago. Iris says she has never had any, so maybe I’ll whip her up one the next time I make lunch.

Younger people need to be reminded now and then to appreciate blessings they too often take for granted.

G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.