Brian's Mom's Potato Chip Casserole

Brian and his girls love this. I think it's tooooooo salty.

1 can tuna drained
1 can mushroom soup
1 bag potato chips

Mix all together. Preheat oven to  350 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes.

Brian's Mom's relish recipe

So much of our family memories involve food. I thought I should start adding in recipes with the memories.
This is Sandy, Brian's mom's, relish. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I will this summer.

12 large cucumbers
6 green peppers
6 onions

Chop all together. Put handul of salt on mixture and let stand one hour. Drain and put on stove and add 1 1/2 pints vinegar, 4 cups sugar and 1 teaspoon celery seed.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Drain.
Put in jars and seal.

The recipe doesn't say if she water bath cans... hmmmm I better ask.

Grandma Dorothy's retirement letter

One upon a time ...

We had snow... bunches of snow. Snow days, snow icecream, sledding snow, shoveling snow... snowballs and snowmen. We built forts and igloos and played outside until we were wet to the skin. Then we went inside and laid our things out to dry in front of the fireplace and drank homemade hot chocolate made with milk from Bossie our milk cow.
And when our clothes were dry we went out again. I sorta miss snow...

Chris the dog's house at Granpa Dave's 1977

Grandpa's cows

The house in valley snowy day 1977

Pine tree in Grandma and Grandpa's yard 1977

 

This is my grandpa Ferris H. Parker Sr. As far as I know this is the only picture we have of him. On the back of the picture it says the cat's name is Blue Boy. I only met my Grandpa Ferris one time. He came back to Ohio once for a family reunion. I was pretty little. I remember riding in the car on the way to Ohio. I didn't feel good. My ears hurt. Somewhere along the way we stopped for lunch and I got spaghetti and meatballs. Dad argued with mom about whether I should be allowed to have something so messy. A really big napkin solved the problem.

I remember meeting my grandpa Ferris at the reunion. I thought he was big, and scary and had a really big cowboy hat. I remember the wind blew the cowboy hat off his head. He was bald. He was mad that the hat got away.   I remember hiding under the porch swing because I was scared of him. I was scared of him because my dad had told us stories about him. How  he was a hit first ask questions later kind of parent. How he abandoned the family when my dad's mother died in child birth. As a little girl that was enough to convince me I didn't want anything to do with him. That was the only time I ever saw him. We didn't hear anything more from him until Dad was called to go to his funeral some years later.

This is the only picure I have of my dad when he was a boy. It's my dad, Ferris Harmon Parker Jr. on the left and his brother Larry on the right. Dad had lots of siblings I remember Larry, Bobby and Rosella. I met some of the others but those three are the ones that I remember. Dad said they were so poor that he only had one pair of pants and Aunt Rosie would beat him up and steal his pants. Then he couldn't go to school.

My dad didn't have a very easy early life.

Wringers, mangles and laundry day

When I was little my grandma Dorothy had a wringer washer. I loved to help her on laundry day. First we sorted the laundry: whites, lightly soiled colors, soiled colors (Grandpa's work shirts), then darks. After the laundry was organized in neat piles we ran the washer full of hot water using a hose hooked to the water heater. Add the soap. Add the laundry. Turn it on. Have a snack.

After the laundry was good and agitated came my favorite part - running the clothes through the wringer!
"Be careful you don't get your finger caught," Grandma would say. "Your Aunt Ruth got her fingers caught once and ran her arm into the ringer clear up to elbow. You don't want that to happen."

Grandma Dorothy taught me to fold the flat things like towels and sheets so they would run through the narrow wringer without jamming.

"Watch out for your fingers." Oops it almost got me.

Then she taught me how to release the wringer so I could get the towels that jammed out of the wringer and try again.

She taught me to fold the blue jeans so that the zipper was protected.

"Watch your fingers." Oops I felt the pull of the ringer on my finger tips.

She taught me to fold anything with buttons so that the buttons lay flat and were protected from being crushed from the wringer.

"Keep your fingers back." Near miss. It almost got me!

Laundry day was exciting!! All those close calls!

Then one day Grandma went to an auction and came home with a "mangle".  I was fascinated. It was a metal cabinet. Inside was a cloth covered roller. You plugged it in and it heated up. She said you could iron sheets. Who knew you could irons sheets. My mom folds the flat sheet and stuffs it along with the fitted sheet into the pillow case that matches so the set stays together. 

It worked a lot like the wringer on the washer. Feed the material into the roller and it came out pressed.

"Keep your fingers out of the way or you'll get burned." Wow such danger and adventure in the laundry room!

Grandma told me if you were really good you could iron shirts and pants and skirts and dresses. And my grandma was THAT good.  I never got that good, but she did let me iron the flat sheets and her table cloths..

June Birthdays

June is a big birthday month in our family. My great Aunt Ruth on the first, my sister on the 7th, me on the 8th and my little brother, Chris, on the 9th. Sooo many birthday's so much cake. At some point that I just can't remember we started having one family birthday party in June. As a kid I all those birthdays got pretty muddled together.  

As an adult, I've made it a point to call the birthday boy/girl and sing them happy birthday on their special day. Ok  it's off key usually and once I had to resort to texting, but the sentiment is there.

So on the 7th, I got ready to call my sister, Laura. I asked mom if she wanted to help sing to her baby. She looked a bit puzzled. "Which one?"  Even Mom has trouble remembering which one of us comes first.

On the 8th, my husband, whispered "Happy Birthday" when we woke up. He's at least go my birthday down.

So on the 9th I dialed Chris's cell and sang my song. "Thanks," he said laughing, "I know it's my birthday, but which one is yours?"

That evening we got together at our house for one of our classic family pitchin dinners. Over dinner Chris confessed that he wasn't even sure which day was his birthday until he was almost 10 years old.

So I told him how I keep it straight: Aunt Ruth was the oldest so she came First (6/1), Laura came before Chris so hers is the 7th. I know I was born on the 8th. Chris came latest so he is last on the 9th. Dad's birthday is easy for me now... it's also my anniversary on the 17th.

Now I only have to consult my "Birthday Book" for my nieces, nephews, mother, cousins... Oh well I have June birthdays down. :^)