Sunday, January 22, 2012

THE HOUSE ON STATION STREET


     I remember Daddy stopping at the store on the corner of Rt. 7 and Rt. 123 to get Coca Cola in the bottle (were they 6 or 8 oz. then?) because my little sister Linda would get car sick on the way up Rt.7 to Herndon.  This was in the days before the big malls at Tyson's Corner...the early 1950's.  We were driving from Cameron Valley, Alexandria. to visit my paternal grandparents who, when they sold the farm in Aldie, Loudon County, moved to a "smaller" house in Herndon.  Herndon was one of those towns built on the railroad line and not on a major highway, a town from the last century.  The house, an old Victorian, is still there but the front porch has now been made into a wrap around. I drive by every once in a while when I'm in Virginia because I sometimes dream about this house--adding rooms that never existed anywhere but in my mind.

     You walked up steps to a front porch with a swing and a front door with glass panes.  As you stepped into the entry hall there was a door to the right for the living room which was never used.  The door on the left led into the sitting room and straight ahead was a door to the dinning room, a door to a coat closet under the stairs, and the stairs went up to a landing and then doglegged right to reach the second floor landing.
 
     The sitting room was where everyone sat and visited and, next to the kitchen, was the heart of the house.  There was a double tall and a single tall wood pane window.  A daybed was where my Grandfather slept after he had his accident at Murphy and Ame's Lumber Yard which made it painful and difficult to climb to the second floor and his big bedroom.  He had been standing on a platform at the lumber yard with his back to the outside and stepped back and stepped off the platform about fifteen feet off the ground.  He had enough sense about him to turn himself upright to land on his feet but his legs were crushed and he spent many months in the old Leesburg Hospital.  In the sitting room was his big secretary desk which I admired as a little girl...it was way bigger than the secretary I sit at today writing this memory on a laptop.  It didn't have a bookcase on top of the desk but there was a porcelin clock decorated with flowers.  The room was heated with a fancy ceramic gas heater that showed its little blue flames with the orange tips.  It was so pretty and all the rooms in the house were heated this way.  There also was a crown molding on the ceiling that covered where the gas lights were before electricity.

     From this room you walked into the kitchen with more big windows and cabinets so tall they reached the ceiling.  It was in this room my Grandmother baked her pies and roasted the mutton we would make cold sandwiches with.  A slice of Grandmother's chocolate pie was so big it felt like she was giving me a whole quarter of a pie and apple pie was always served with a warm hard sauce.  Grandmother called cookies  "cakes" as in "Would you like to have a cake?"  My Father, her son, had a saying he always used when he liked something "it tastes so good it makes you want to swallow your tongue" and I know I've told you this before but I loved it when Dad said this.   As you walked into the kitchen you could go out the door to the left and there was a pantry with a door to the outside.  The door on the right led into a well lit room that  held my Grandmother's wringer washer (laundry was hung outside on the line), a sink, a shower, and a toilet.

     Back in the kitchen opposite the door to the pantry was a door to the dinning room.  Just as you entered the door there was a big wardrobe on the right which my daughter has today.  She also has the china closet to Grandmother's mahogany dining room set.  A huge mirror was above the buffet and I remember a picture she had which was a piece of apple printed cloth stretched behind a picture frame.  Some fancy plates hung on the wall, also.  In this room she also had her sewing machine all modern and electric.  If you passed through another door you were back in the the entry hall.

     At the top of the stairs on the second floor landing if you walked to the left was a huge bathroom with a claw foot tub.  Before indoor plumbing everyone had there own bowl and water pitcher in their rooms for bathing.  I think when they brought plumbing into the old houses they just took a bedroom and converted it to a bathroom so the bathrooms were huge.

     Directly across from the top of the stairs was a bedroom which had a kitchen sink.  This was already installed when my Grandparents bought this house.  Down the landing and on the same side as this bedroom was my Grandfather's bedroom which I have never been in, just glanced inside from the hall.  This is the room that I've had dreams about.  In my dreams I've put a door inside this room leading to other rooms that I wander through finding treasures.

    There was a window at the end of the landing that looked out on the street and on the other side of the landing was my Grandmother's bedroom.  Grandmother had beautiful linens, bedspreads, sheets, pillows, towels, stored in a big armoire stuffed  full.  I think my love of beautiful linens came from my Grandmother.

     In the back of the house was a carriage house and a paddock for when former owners had a horse and carriage.  Granddaddy had a metalic rust colored Hudson automobile that had a backseat that felt as large as a sofa and looked like a big beatle which he parked there.  Also, in the back of the property Grandmother kept bees.  I remember being somewhere between three and five thinking to myself "I'm going to go visit the bees".  I remember walking down to the hives and being stung and screaming.  Daddy ran down and picked me up and ran with me back to the house.  I hadn't been stung that many times but it sure hurt and  I never did that again! 

     Granddaddy died in 1964 and my Grandmother turned her house into a boarding house.  It was set up perfectly for this. She rented the downstairs living room out as a bedroom and there were two bedrooms upstairs for rent with the third bedroom  set up as a kitchen/sitting room which all her boarders shared along with the bathroom.  Grandmother made the dining room her bedroom, had the kitchen and sitting room and a bathroom/laundry room for herself.  She made her living quarters completely independent of the rest of the house.  She did this for about ten years till she was unable to take care of herself anymore and the house was sold and she went to live with her daughter my Aunt Annabelle.








  • Sunday, January 15, 2012

    LET THEM EAT CAKE

         "Biscuits" evidently keyed some good memories for several of my friends.  Nancy Showalter wrote:  "My grandmother made a grape jam cake that no one liked but me.  She only made it when company was coming and we sat in the "front room".  I found a paper bag with all my grandma's handwritten recipes in it and the grape jam cake recipe was in the bag.  After I stopped crying, I decided to make the cake - it was right before Easter so all my family was coming for dinner.  The cake was exactly as I remembered and no one liked it so I knew I had made it right!  That cake made me think of my grandma and how much I missed her and how sweet the memories are!  I  understand the biscuits and share your joy!"  I could never have retold this as eloquently as Nancy so I have used her words.  I loved this memory, Nancy.
         My niece Bobbi wrote that her single working mother Carol taught her to cook and provided well for their family.  Also, that she would have dinner ready when her mother got home from work.  A lot of their recipes were modern recipes using ingredients like Campbell's Soup.  It wasn't until she married into the Abold family that my mother-in-law Doris who was her husband's grandmother, and her own mother-in-law my sister-in-law Barbara, taught her how to make dishes from scratch and she added those dishes to her repertoire.  She also loves that her own children ask for her "how to's and recipes" and that sharing and cooking together and laughing in the kitchen make memories that become traditions.
         My friend Holly wrote:  "My grandmother Harris couldn't cook at all...she would put a whole chicken in a pot of boiling water and cooked the poor thing until lunchtime.  The same with the meat for dinner, once lunch was over she'd put a roast in a pan and cook it until dinner time.  She was great!  Everything tasted the same and as kids, the blandness of the meal was perfect."  Holly, I've used your words, too.
         My sister-in-law Suzanne told me of when she was a new bride and made and decorated a sheet  cake for our mother-in-law Doris' birthday dinner.  In transporting the cake in the car there had been a vibration that had made the cake separate and the cake cracked..  She was thinking of how she could take toothpicks and more frosting and try to cover up the crack when my husband's boys Jimmy and Johnny, who were under ten years old, met her at the door, looked at the cake, and exclaimed excitedly that she had made a San Andreas Fault Earthquake Cake!!!  This surprised her and made her feel so good that she had made such a special cake.

    Here's the recipe for Nancy's Grandmother's Grape Jam Cake:
         CAKE:  6 eggs, 1/2 c. butter, 3 c. flour, 2 tsp. baking soda mixed in 1 c. buttermilk, 1 lb. raisins, 2 c. sugar, 2 lbs. nuts your choice, 2 c. jam, 1 tbsp. ea. of allspice + cinnamon + nutmeg + ground cloves., 1 c. coconut, dash of salt.  FILLING:  2 c. sugar, 1 c. milk, 2 egg whites, 1 stick butter.
         Nancy made three layers but thinks 2 layers would work  better.  There weren't any directions  on how to mix so Nancy just added as the ingredients appeared in the recipe and baked at 375 degrees till the toothpick came out clean.  She says:  "I hope someone tries this and likes it!!! xxxoooo"  OH, also, she says you can use blackberry jam, too.

         Nancy, I'm definitely going to make this cake it sounds so rich.  I live in the country and I'm going to pick up the extra ingredients I need next time I'm in town.  Love, Sandy

         EPILOGUE:  I made the cake!  Both Rod and I loved it.  I had three huge layers too big to make into one cake so I glazed the tops of each individual layer.  I also used 1 3/4 lbs. pecans and I baked it at 375 degrees in my convection oven but feel 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or till toothpick comes out clean would be better for me.  On the filling 1 c. milk was too much and it was runny so I added powdered sugar to make a glaze.  I will make this cake again but I think I will make it in loaf pans or a sheet cake pan and glaze the top.  The cake was delicious...2 thumbs up!!!
     

    Saturday, January 14, 2012

    MISS GULAGHER AND THE BOAT RIDE

         My third grade teacher at Fairview Elementary School in Fairfax Station, Virginia was Miss Joyce Gulagher.  Miss Gulagher was a very plain looking young woman who had a wonderful personality and was very kind.  I was a plump little girl who loved to draw and Miss Gulagher made over my artwork and I just wanted to please her.  One day in the middle of  the winter, out of the blue and with no forethought, I asked her if she wanted to go for a boat ride with my Uncle.  Uncle Carroll was a milkman for Alexandria Dairy and I adored him.  He was Mama's baby brother and very handsome and had beautiful blue eyes and a ski boat and he loved me, his niece.  Miss Gulagher did not say anything until later in the day when she asked me "when?" and wanting to please and feeling on the spot I said "after school". 
         I had put it all out of my mind until Miss Gulagher knocked on the door of my house.  My eyes went wide and I ran back to Uncle Carroll's room where he was sleeping because a milkman begins his day in the middle of the night.  I tried waking him but couldn't make him stir and I was saying "Please, Uncle Carroll,  you've got to wake up and take my teacher for a boat ride."  I couldn't make him budge.  I finally gave up and walked into the dining room where Miss Gulagher was talking with my mother.  I am found out!  Mama asked me to fess up and apologize and I did and as we talked Uncle Carroll  walked down the hall, through the dining room and out the kitchen door.  He nodded his head to everyone as he went out for the evening.  I guess I had managed to disturb his sleep.
         Miss Gulagher stayed for dinner that night.   Mama had made vegetable beef soup and biscuits with butter and iced tea and I remember she apologized for the simple fare but I also remember Miss Gulagher had enjoyed her dinner very much.  As for my Uncle, when he learned what I had done he asked Miss Gulagher out to dinner and they doubled with our cousin Harry, Jr. and the second grade teacher Miss Betty Lou Kendall who did happen to be very pretty.  I loved my Uncle Carroll.

    Friday, January 13, 2012

    ALL MY SOAPS ARE ALL WASHED UP





    I started watching Soaps with my mother in the early 50's when they were 15 minute segments televised around lunchtime. The CBS Soaps are the ones we watched and in the sixties we could get all of them plus General Hospital and One Life To Live on ABC.  Mom and I never did watch the NBC Soaps. The only one left I watch now is the Young and the Restless CBS which if I don't get to see it televised at 11AM here in the North Sacramento Valley CA. I can watch on Cable's Soap Net at 4PM or 9PM (even after midnight) LOL.   And yes, I watched Dark Shadows, too, back in the day and loved it. It was on late enough I could catch it after work. They're going to make a film of Dark Shadows and it may be in production now starring Johnny Depp.   RIP Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow, The Guiding Light, and As The World Turns . My daughter says when she was a young accounting major at Northern Virginia Community College and was working in the accounting office in Merrifield of a company that owned Hahn Shoes and several discount dress shops that they used to watch The Young and the Restless while on their lunch break. I think a lot of people who still watch soaps watch them in the lunchrooms of their offices on their lunch breaks and THAT may even be outdated now with all the new ways to watch TV shows (computers/laptops, phones, IPads). The demise of the soap I believe has come about because you don't have stay at home Moms now like you did fifty years ago.  Soaps are dinosaurs of a bygone era and are being replaced by talk shows of all kinds and a few reconstituted game shows.
      Thanks, Shar'on  BITD Northern Virginia for the good idea.

    Wednesday, January 11, 2012

    "THESE DREAMS"-Heart

         I'm not a person who remembers their dreams.  My husband has serial dreams that can go on for days and even weeks.  He can wake up enough to talk to me and still be dreaming and he can tell me what's going on and he always remembers every detail.

          These are dreams I remember.  Have you ever been chased by something and you're running and gasping and trying to call out and you just can't get your voice out?  The unidentified figure is lurking behind shadows behind trees or other objects that obscures it's true self.  What your sleeping partner hears is you making strange strangling noises that make no since. Arghlllouuuargghaaa!!  You're trying so hard to make yourself heard.  Then you finally wake up and you're sweaty and exhausted.  My husband says dreams like this are anxiety dreams.

         Recently I had this dream I don't remember what it was about but I was terrified and determined to make myself heard and I kept trying to scream until I actually was screaming out loud and woke my husband up.  Even though I was not in an awake state I was conscious that my screams couldn't be heard so I made the effort, hard as it was, to actually scream and I did.

          When my daughter was little I had this dream that she and I were walking on the beach at Pedro Point in Pacifica which is a suburb of San Francisco.  We're walking along and we walk up onto the rocks and around the point going north and see a cave which we climb to the mouth of.  A huge rogue wave comes crashing up and washes my child out to sea.  I couldn't do anything I couldn't rescue her or anything I dreamed I just stood there and watched her go and I woke up in a panic.  This dream bothered me for a long time as a young mother I felt guilty that I couldn't get my child and even more guilty that I even had a dream like that.

         Maybe twenty years later I had another dream where Robin, now a young woman, and my sister Kim and I are at a mountain cabin beside a stream.  A big storm comes up and the stream swells till it's a raging river and it floods our cabin and washes it into the swirling river.  I'm fighting fighting to get to the top of the water to fill my lungs with air and my lungs are about to burst when my head finally pops above the water and I gasp for air and look around and don't see Robin or Kim.  Where are they?  Again another  dream where my loved ones are lost to me.

         On a positive note I do remember holding onto a parachute type umbrella and being blown into the air and flying along on air currents.  It was thrilling and Mary Poppins didn't have a thing on me.
                              

    Saturday, January 7, 2012

    BISCUITS

          My Mom tried so hard to make yeast rolls and bread and just couldn't get them right to suit herself. She made wonderful biscuits, cornbread, and cakes from scratch, though.  I have a story I tell young people that are getting ready to go out on there own.  I loved my Mom's biscuits but never tried to make them until after she had been incapacitated by a stroke.  I had tried different recipes, etc., trying to duplicate but the results weren't to my satisfaction.  When she had her last heart attack and was in Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia my husband found an old Savour Magazine in a waiting room and was attracted to the cover which featured pheasants and pomegranates and he brought it back to California with us.  The area we live in in the North Sacramento Valley is famous for pheasant hunting and we grow a lot of pomegranates here.  My sisters-in-law Barbara and Suzanne make the best  pomegranate jelly in the world and as my Dad would say "It tastes so good it makes you want to swallow your tongue".  Within a month of her hospitalization my Mom passed away.  One day I was thumbing through the Savour magazine, it was an old Thanksgiving issue,  and saw a recipe for biscuits which I tried and for the first time I was successful.  The texture was right and they tasted like Mom's.  I always felt Mom's spirit directed my husband to pick up that magazine for me to find her recipe for biscuits.  Now the reason I discuss this with young people is to tell them if there's a dish their families make learn to cook it yourself  because you'll miss it when Mom or Dad aren't there to make it for you anymore.  Even a recipe as simple and plain as biscuits.