Cookie anyone?

I spent the afternoon baking cookies yesterday.  I realize most people do their cookie baking on a different schedule, but that's what I felt like doing yesterday.  I use Mom's old Betty Crocker Cookie Cookbook.  It is BEAT UP and RAGGED.  It's spine has been taped over but of course that's long since become ineffective.  There are stains and marks everywhere in in.  I don't remember how it happened that that cookbook found its way to my kitchen, but I take great comfort in it.  It sits right next to the Betty Crocker cookbook Mom gave me for Christmas in 1980.

In the back of the book, there are a series of "best cookies" from particular time periods and this is the one from the time period of Mom's birth.  I thought it was kind of interesting to note the special notice about molasses and that "Betty Crocker service responds to the needs of depression-hit homemakers with balanced low cost recipes and menus."  I've always been quite certain that the effects of the Depression era mightily impacted Mom's cooking and baking habits.  You can see how these pages are well worn even though they are way in the back and likely rarely consulted.

In the front of the book, Mom has noted her name with 11/64 indicating a date.  She has also taped a universal recipe to the front here--I've never tried this one but I have made many others in the book.  Yesterday it was chocolate crinkles.  To prepare to bake, I removed several sticks of margarine from the freezer so they could come to room temperature before I got ready to bake.  This chocolate crinkly cookie recipe didn't even call for margarine!  It uses vegetable oil instead.  Makes me wonder how these recipes have evolved over the years to accommodate current health concerns and economy. I didn't do that research so you are spared that much in this post.

Since she got the book in November of 1964, I figure she must have gotten it into her head that she was going to bake Christmas cookies that year.  What was she thinking?  5 small children at her feet every minute and she wanted to bake cookies?  Who knows, but this is a little view of how things looked on Dennison Road in 1964:

 I think you've seen most of these, but they still make me smile and I hope the same for you. (sorry Judy).  I hope you have a peaceful and happy 2013 the year that I retire.

Suspending Disbelief

I don't think I've ever been away from the blog for this long.  I've had a bit of writer's block followed by complete inability to use words in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre.  Now that some of my words are coming back to me, I'll be sharing them with you. 

This was indeed a watershed event for me in terms of taking a stand on gun control.  Up to now, I've pretended like it didn't matter what I thought; that it didn't matter to educate myself; that I needed to stay neutral.  I no longer feel that way.  I'll be educating myself so that I can speak intelligently about the need for stricter gun controls.    I've read the Second Amendment pretty carefully and disagree with those who believe it verifies the right to own guns.  Ownership of guns for personal use is a privilege, not a right.  There are many many people in this nation who maintain responsible, reasonable gun ownership for purposes of personal recreation and hunting.  They are holding up their end of the bargain in this privilege.  But there's no reason an average citizen needs an assault rifle.  Period. 

In another arena related to the Newtown shooting: I applaud that some are recognizing the extent to which teachers and administrators will go to protect student.  However, I don't believe there are many adults regardless of profession who wouldn't have done all they could to protect young children from such carnage.  It wasn't because these heroes were teachers that children were saved as adults lost their lives--it was because they are human.  We should applaud and uphold those qualities of human nature that collided with the opposite forces of human nature that day in Newton. 

So now I come to my reflection on the season.  It's been hard for me to feel happiness and joy throughout this season overshadowed by tragedy.  I've been thinking about how excited we'd get at Christmas on Dennison Road and how much fun we had with Ryan and Amy while they still believed in the magic of Christmas Eve.  Our suspension of disbelief injects excitement and joy to Christmas preparations.  It is not reasonable to believe in Santa but it's lots more fun to support the story than to live as though it's not true. 
It may not be reasonable to believe that human nature will overcome whatever evil is at the root of tragedies but I'll be suspending my disbelief in honor of the season.  Merry Christmas all.

 Helping with the lights 1960

1975

Your Christmas Bonus

And you thought all that time I spend on Ancestry.com was wasted............

Hey Norm!

I went to Paula's Christmas show in Walton last night.  Don't you agree this character would have made Dad very proud?  Paula did her usual wonderful job.  The audience was eating right out of her hand (ha ha--che was the cook--get it?).  There was a definite buzz when Paula came on stage.  Like it or not, Paula, you have fans!

There were 3-4 younger teenage girls sitting behind me reading the program out loud. 
"It doesn't say who the director is" (an odd comment from a young teenage girl I thought)

"Oh--here it is Molly Taylor and Paula O'Brien"

"I know Paula"

"So do I"

"Everybody knows Paula"

Truer words were not spoken for the remainder of the evening.

It made me smile and think about the legacy Paula has working in her favor.  Weenie was also well known and apparently quite popular.  I think everyone knew who he was also.  Dad brings his theatrical adventures to Paula's history--I think Dad was pretty well known in theatrical circles in Silver Creek and his performances were worth waiting for.  Sadly, my primary memory of Dad in the Walton Theater was him saying LOUDLY during one of the Christmas shows "I can't hear you".  Yikes.  Regardless, Paula's doing a grand job of carrying on the Irish malarkey and Walton is lucky to have her.

Thanksgiving wishes

Sounds like everyone has wonderful plans for Thanksgiving this year.  Although it would be nice for ALL of us to get together, it's nice to know there are several pockets of Thanksgiving goodness sprinkled all over the place:  Erie, Harpursville, Oxford, Walton, Otego and beyond. 

At an "ultimate" family Thanksgiving table, I'd love to gather all those relatives we've lost as well as those in the present.  There are some lost souls I am hoping to gather back up into the family tree.  These are the people I haven't been able to work on long enough to complete their picture, their stories. 

Timothy Ryan the grand patriarch (so far) is one of those.  He's as far back as I've been able to get in the Ryan family line and I don't really know too much about him yet.  He's our great great grandfather and I find him very intriguing.  His story will be a great challenge but I'm hoping for the best.

Gammy Flynn (Barbara Lippman Flynn) is another.  I know quite a bit about her life in the United States but she was born in Germany and I'd love to get a handle on her German life as well as some ideas about her parents and other siblings.

Matthew Fisher is our great great grandfather who settled in the Ellicottville area and I'm exceedingly curious about him.  Another lost Irish immigrant.

Of course, there are all those Nevins that supposedly came to work on the Erie Canal and then scattered to the winds.  I've never really had any hint that this was the case, but I don't disbelieve the stories Nanny told.
Frank Nevins is a brother to our great grandfather Henry Nevins and he's a lost soul (to me) as well.  I believe he went to California at some point but I haven't really been able to pin him down either.

Wouldn't it be grand to gather all these people around a table?   I feel a little like I want to scoop them up and sit them down so their stories can have some kind of substance. 

My first Thanksgiving turkey 20 years ago this year.  Perhaps the lost ancestors wouldn't notice I cooked it upside down..........Enjoy your own wherever you are!

Gloucester Report Part 2

In addition to the nature oriented adventures and the family time, we also hit the jackpot with family history resources!  We went to an antique store and found

This is a program that states: "We, the members of the Gloucester Service Chest welcome you to our entertainment, an Old Time Minstrel Show, which is given for the benefit of all our own boys in the Armed Forces."  It was held on January 20 1944.  I suspect you already know where this is going, but here's what I found inside:

Dad must have been only about 16 at this time and it's gratifying to see that his End Man experiences had a long history.  Edna Handran was on the ticket committee--she's Dad's first cousin.  So far, I don't recognize other names.  But it was a neat little find. 

Tim and Emmy graciously allowed me to bring home the Ryan Bible.  I'd already taken hand notes from this Bible many years ago, but nothing replaces getting your hands on the actual book!

This is one of the pages at the back of this very large old Bible.  It's missing both covers so I try to be extra gentle with it.  Most of the notes are in the same handwriting and I don't know who was documenting the family information, but I feel a kinship to her (because it's almost certainly a female).  I've been wanting to spend some significant time with this Bible for a long time and I'm very happy to have the opportunity. 

As an FYI:  it is Calvin in the previous video entertaining Jim.  Or perhaps it was the other way around, but it's definitely Calvin. 

Also as an FYI:  this blog is now 5 years old!  I'm quite impressed with myself and am very appreciative to all of you that take the time to read it. 

The Gloucester Report

Another great trip to Gloucester is officially in the books.  We did some new stuff, some old stuff and got to hug babies.  Everybody is doing well and send their best wishes back this way.  We got to take Tim to Cape Ann Brewing for lunch.  He'd never been so it was great fun to introduce him to one of our Gloucester favorites.  We saw Kevin briefly to say hello and he seems to be doing fairly well.  Emmy told us some stories about their most recent trip to Ireland all the while STRONGLY encouraging us to accompany them to Ireland in the near future.  Cathy and Chris are great--and I don't need to tell you how wonderful it was to spend time with Julia, Calvin and Claire. 

One of the new things we did was sign up for a guided tour of "the Island" (as our guide calls Gloucester--technically I guess he has a point since you must cross a bridge in order to get there).  I wanted to see Dogtown and the Babson Boulders I've heard so much about.  Good thing we had a guide--there is no way on Earth we'd have found them and then found our way home again by ourselves.  As the guide told the story, Dogtown was the center of town in the early days occupied by many fishermen widows and their dogs.  It's very far from the water and absolutely in the middle of the woods. 

The Babson Boulders are huge pieces of granite carved with words of wisdom.  Apparently Mr. Babson hired some out of work men during the Depression for this and there are a little over a dozen of them.  Here's an example.  Maybe you can see it's kind of desolate.

On our own, we decided to go find Crane Wildlife Refuge and ended up at Crane Beach on Sunday morning to find we weren't alone on the beach:

It's a massive beach and there were probably about a dozen horses getting their morning walks on the beach.  It was really cool.  Literally and figuratively. 

Here's another view of the beach.  I think this is a really neat shot.

Good bye for now!  More cool finds to follow in a day or so.