Wisdom

Grandfather B – You are a young gentleman. I expect you to behave like one.

My paternal grandfather was an interesting person.  I;m not sure how tall he was but he was not a big man.  His skin was red, like an Indian. He wore dark gray work shirts and trousers. He drove a truck for the local shipping company running day trips.  He also had two very large subsistence gardens, ran a pack of beagles for rabbit hunting, raised chickens and kept a couple bee hives. 

He was a member of the local Odd Fellows Lodge, I suspect more for Grandma to play bingo than for anything else.  Bingo at the Lodge was a regular thing and I often tagged along.  His other regular hobby was attending auctions.  This is where I found a love of playing "what's this."  I'm pretty good at looking at some random piece of hardware and figuring out what it was used for. 

It was a treat to go with Granddad to get Saturday hair cuts.  His barbershop was in an old cinder block, shed-roofed building heated by a potbelly stove.  The old guy that owned the shop once gave me a blacksmith puzzle that had been taken apart.  He told me I could have it if I could reassemble it and take it apart again. 

Hanging out with Granddaddy B required a higher level of self control than my 6-year-old self was usually capable of achieving.You had to keep your hands to yourself, no picking up random things, and "don't pester me." The "act like a gentleman" comment came with a lesson on the importance of reputation and family honor that many young people today could sorely use.  

Granddad drove a green, step-side,50's era pickup. It caught fire one evening around dusk.  The fire department responded quickly but refused to drive the engine over the bridge that spanned our creek.  That is until the chief was shown the bridge was constructed my steel i-beams supporting telephone poles as the foundation.  Unfortunately, by the time they we able to reach the truck the .22lr and shotgun shells in the glove box started cooking off.  So they backed off and pored water on the barn while the truck burned. 

He gave me my first pocket knife.  I was 6.  It was a stiff, old hawk billed Barlow that I found in a box of auction stuff.  When he finally agreed to let me have it he gave me another bit of wisdom: "Don't do anything stupid." I've carried a knife pretty much every day since then. 

While he was strict I only remember him spanking me once.  One of his bee hives was near the chicken coop and beagle pen under a small maple tree.  I used to climb on the bee have to get a leg up into the tree.  The hive was painted green and white and had a tar paper lid.  I had a new daisy BB rifle that I carried everywhere. I decided one day that shooting the bees off the front of that hive was a fine way to spend the afternoon.  Granddad found the BB's embedded in the front of the hive and knew exactly what had happened. 

I take that back. I remember a second time.  My cousin and I found a box of "torpedoes" in the attic.There were aluminum wrapped fireworks about the size of a big cherry.  They exploded on impact like today's bang snaps. We used the whole box throwing them down on the sidewalk. They blasted little divots in the concrete. We both got it that day.

Jane's Recipes - 69 Bake Off

Another example of the bake-off style marketing recipe book.  Short of pushing "TV" dinners, pushing pre-made pie shells, cookie dough and refrigerate biscuit and crescent rolls. The whole convenience factor was aimed at (newly) working wives.

Wisdom

Food should taste like love. -  Grandma B

Grandma B taught me to cook. I remember standing on a chair stirring the pot for Sunday supper. Usually, this was homemade spaghetti. Uncle G and his family would come over. Sometimes, Uncle S, who was in the Air Force would make it up from the Hampton Roads area. This was always a special treat.

When Dad's parents passed Mom managed to get the "spaghetti" bowl, a brown earthen-ware bowl that was chipped. It brings back memory of eating together, fresh bread, sliced tomatoes, and lazy Sunday afternoons where us kids were sent outdoors while the men watched "The Wide World of Sports." 

Mom often said that Mr B never ate a tomato peal in his (married) life.  Grandma B would peal them all. She sometimes worked as a school lunch lady.  This was before the federal government took over with school nutrition programs that made everything taste like crap. This was the days of real egg salad, green beans that didn't taste like a tin can and Texas sheet cake for dessert. 

I wish I could go back to that front porch and shell some peas or Lima beans, or snap some green beans. 

Jane's Recipes - 1964 Bake Off

One of the features of family focused magazines was the inclusion of "Bake Off" winning recipes. Eventually, these morphed into some very strange concoctions that used jello molds and odd combinations. these all appear to be relatively tame. These came as a perforated booklet designed to be torn out and saved. 

 

 

 

 

Good Dogs

I'm a very tactile shopper. I only pick things up when I'm ready to by.  I need to know how an item feels. What's the heft? Does it feel soft, solid, cheap?  IN the same way I'm a visual internet browser.  I've been online since you had to have a local .edu or darpa account so I'm very versed in using the advanced search features on the various search engines.  That said I was once asked how the heck I found something so quickly when a group I was sitting in needed an answer.  The trick is that I do the search and then switch to "image" view.  This allows me to scroll through the images weeding out results that obviously aren't what I need. So I was really happy to see Pinterest when it was launched. It's kind of the same idea with the added benefits of having the result group sourced and tested.

After that bit of background: recently a picture of my Bestest Old Girl showed up on the book of faces memory feed. 

I miss her every day.  As a puppy she picked us out when we finally decided that my daughter was old enough to take on the responsibility of a pet.  My wife had recovered from her cancer surgery and we were moving back into normalcy. However, she soon had to deal with the side-affects  which lead to a double hip replacement.  She turned that lovable mutt into a well trained service dog. She pulled clothes out of the dryer for folding. She picked up and fetched items that were out of reach. She knew to get out of the way and not be underfoot as my wife navigated on crutches.  

For over a year after her last day I would look for her outside to be let in, or stop to put water in her bowl, or stop in the mud room to check her kennel. I've been lucky to have had many 'good' dogs but none that I loved like her.  

This leads me to Gun-dog. He's a purebred German Shepherd and the most stubborn, hard head-est thing I  have ever had to deal with and I've worked customer support. Yeah, I love him but we don't have the same connection that I had with Stitch..... and that seems to be part of the problem.  It's been very hard for me to realize that he is not Stitch. Comparing him to her is not fair and I'm working on it but dang it's hard.

Dad (and others) Wisdom

Several years ago, during a Men's Day message at church, we were challenged to think about the words of wisdom that had been passed down from the men in our life.  I jotted some notes in my prayer journal and figured that I would also include such thoughts from the women in my life also.  Here's the first on the list:

Dad

"Never fry bacon in your underwear."
"If you know how to fix things, you will always have a job."

This is a running joke on the internet. I think everyone's dad at one time or another has said this.  I have a very distinct picture of my father in my mind making breakfast one morning while were at his house when he actually said this. 

My parents divorced when I was 11 or 12. My relationship with my father was strained. While he wasn't a bad dad, he just wasn't very active in my life after the divorce. I have memories of sitting on the front porch waiting for him to actually show up for his weekend.  After I left the Army, I made an effort to eat lunch with him whenever I was in the area for work.  He said the second quote at the last lunch, before he passed away.  He told me he was proud of me and my career choice.  I'm very happy that we were able to mend our relationship before his passing.

 

Jane's recipes - Burger Stew

Mom and Jane both made this one.  Jane called hers Slumgullion. Mom called her version goulash. 

Veg-all is still a popular brand here in the south.  Not sure about the rest of the country. I grew up on a cattle farm. If you've never put a whole cow in the deep freeze then you probably don't have any idea just how much hamburger you get when you purchase your beef that way.  This was a quick easy meal that my brother and I both knew and could prepare on those nights when it was our turn to cook.  It was usually doubled and made in Mom's Miracle-maid electric skillet.  This pan was pre-microwave so just dumping 2 lns of burger in the skillet with a little water was a great way to get dinner going after school.

 

Ve-hicles

One of the benefits of working from home is saving wear and tear and milage on the vehicles. The truck is used for most business trips, hauling trash and is my primary ride. The mustang goes to church every Sunday or she gets cranky and eats her battery. Neither one is used daily.  

On the last work trip I noticed the truck's mileage was really bad. I normally average around 25mpg. It's down to 19. So a little sleuthing was in order. I didn't remember ever having the air filter changed while doing the oil so I started there. The air cleaner box is fed from the wheelwell which I found interesting. No "forced" air from the front grill. After getting it open of course I found that it was way past due for changing. I also found a deep layer of nut hulls. I blew it out with compressed air and then started looking for other mischief. 

When I was younger and newly divorced I rented a house that had a detached workshop/garage. It was the perfect place to park my brand new Mazda SE7 pickup. This was the first nee vehicle I'd ever bought. That shop was infested with squirrels. One day the truck was running like crap so I took it to the dealer where the found the dang things had chewed on all of the spark plug wires. Darn things...

Looking around under the hood I found a very snug looking, fuzzy nest pulled from the insulation on the firewall. Thankfully I haven't found any other damage.

I'm surprised they tried to make a home there. The neighborhood cats all hide under the truck. Gun-dog must inspect for cats on every walk.  At least the issue was minimal.Mileage is back up in the 24-25mpg range again.

 

 

Jane's Recipes - Cast Iron

As you can imagine I really enjoy open fire cooking and cast iron.  I was surprised to find this in the box. I don't remember seeing any of these molds in Jane's kitchen. I'm not sure where she got this pamphlet.  It may be useful if you have one of these John Wright cookie molds.

 

 

Jame's Recipes - Fudge

When you start looking at these old recipes you start to find some that "everyone" makes.  These are good examples.  The Foolproof Chocolate Fudge recipe is on an old Broden Sweetened Condensed Milk label.  This is the one that my mom used when she didn't want to go through the long, involved "make a ball" process from Aunt Sug's fudge recipe.  I have that one someplace and will post it sometime.

Jane's Recipes - Zucchinni AND Funnel Cake

This one is interesting because my wife remembers her mom making funnel cake.  They were all together on one photocopied sheet. So you get 2 zucchini bread recipes along with the funnel cake.