Making Noodles

     Several times a year Grandma Mast would have a noodle making day at her house. Aunt Lydia and her children, several other aunts, and Mom and we children would arrive early in the morning with eggs and flour. Grandma had lots of eggs too from her flock of a hundred hens.
     We cousins would watch as they measured flour into 20 qt. bowls and separate the eggs, the yolks would be added to the flour and the whites were put into glass gallon jars. Cousin Emma and I were allowed to carefully measure in the salt. There was no talking as everyone was concentrating on counting the amount of ingredients they were measuring. Once everything was measured Aunt Vernie and all us cousins went to play until the dough was kneaded. Kneading noodle dough was hard work and took quite a bit of time.
     Once the dough was done to their satisfaction, we would eat the lunch that aunt Emma prepared. Afterwards Vernie would wash the dishes while cousin Emma and I dried them. Once we were done with the dishes we watched as the women rolled out the dough on Grandma's big table. They rolled it into thin strips 6 inches wide by  5 feet long. Grandma had a noodle cutter, she would turn the handle as Mom and the aunts held onto the long pieces of dough and fed it through. It was fun watching as long strands of noodles came out of the other side.
     As each piece was turned into noodles Aunt Emma would gather them up in a big bowl and take them upstairs in one of their many spare bedrooms and spread them on cloths that she had prepared earlier as a place to dry them. We used to run upstairs with her and help her spread them out gently so they wouldn't be piled on top of each other. It was slow tedious work, but we didn't mind, it felt good to be considered big enough to help in such important work. Brother David and cousins Esther, Rueben, Mervin, and Lizzie Ann could only watch and hope that by the next time they would be big enough too, they spent most of their day playing with Vernie so I'm sure they didn't mind too much.
    Once the last noodles were spread out to dry and the mess was cleaned up, we headed home with a gallon jar full of egg whites that would be used to make angel food cakes and other special treats. Aunt Emma would bring our share of the noodles once they were dried. It was something to look forward too, but for now we were anticipating all the yummy things that Mom was going to make with our egg whites.