Christmas Goodies and Mom's Handmade Ornaments

No matter what time we’d get up in the morning, Mom was always sitting at the table crocheting and drinking coffee. Mom loved to play cards. We’d all get excited when it was Mom’s turn to have Club. She’d usually make tuna casserole and homemade yeast rolls. At each card table there would be bridge mix and nuts bought at the dime store from bins where they roasted all day and made the store smell wonderful. Dessert would be angel food cake with a very thin butter frosting. Once, she gave us the money to walk up to the dime store in Highland to buy the prizes for Club. I’m sure we bought some awful things, but we felt so proud of our purchases and Mom said she loved them. We all loved the yearly Club picnic at Riverside Park. Mom would get up early to make fried chicken, pineapple upside-down cake and scalloped corn. I remember cases of flavored pops—grape, creme, strawberry and orange. The ladies would play cards and kids would play in the park or swim. Later, we would have watermelon. We spent many hours playing 500 with Mom. She’d sit with her hair up in pincurls, smoking and drinking Pepsi and say every time, “Are you girls going to talk all night or play cards?” Not long before her death in 1988, we were playing cards at Carol’s house. Diana was home for a visit from Florida. When Mom made a trip to the bathroom, we decided to fix the hand she was dealt to give her a perfect 500 hand. She suspected nothing and was so excited by this hand that we didn’t have the heart to tell her about our dirty little trick. Mom’s favorite holiday was Christmas. She decorated every room in the house. She made a batch of cookies or candy every day from Thanksgiving on—fudge, toffee, Spritz cookies, Hedgehogs, frosted cutout sugar cookies and Thumbprints. To top all this off, she made a big batch of cornmeal mush to slice thin and fry up on Christmas Eve morning. Delicious! Mom kept all these Christmas goodies on the tiny back porch in tins and Tupperware along with her ever-present case of Pepsi in the small bottles. In the evenings, before Christmas, Mom would work on her Christmas balls. Every one was different and special. I still decorate my tree with these balls and marvel every year at how beautiful they are. I miss Mom most at Christmas. As kids, we had a doctor named Menton. He would come to the house when one of us got sick. Before he came, Mom would call Virginia McFarland, her best friend and closest neighbor. They would buzz through the house to make it presentable for the doctor.

SOME OF MOM’S FAVORITE SAYINGS

“Busier than a cranberry merchant.” “Dutchy” (Now, isn’t that just Dutchy?) “Out of this world.” “Now, we’re cooking with gas.” “Little as a minute.”

I always remember Mom talking about living in North Dakota. She lived in Dunseth at the foot of the Turtle Mountains. The snow would pile up so high, she and her brother could ski over the tops of fences on their way to school. When we had a cold, Mom would give us aspirin crushed between two spoons with a little sugar and water. She’d grease up our chests with Vicks Vaporub and cover them with flannel. Gruesome story: One of Mom’s Club ladies (I think Olene Allerdyce) lost a finger in the Mix Master. This story haunts me to this day. I’m always very careful with my own mixer. When Mom traveled, she always tied a red ribbon to each of her suitcases, so she could easily pick them out. I do this, too. Mother kept a very clean house. We would all be involved in extensive spring cleaning: Changing the paper in the cupboards, (I will always remember the little mouse holes chewed in the back corners) cleaning out all the closets, washing windows and curtains, and on and on until everything was sparkling. This ritual was especially important when we had a coal furnace that coated everything with a dingy film. Every Saturday morning, under protest, we would have to help Mom clean. I especially remember dusting the little bookcase in the living room. She always kept a wonderful little music box bird on one of the shelves. It was in a gold cage. I think Bernie bought it for her in Paris. On her treadle sewing machine, Mom made most of the clothes we wore. She said that machine kept her legs skinny. All the girls belonged to 4H—The Peppy Steppers. Mom would generally end up finishing our sewing projects. She made us beautiful little Easter outfits. We’d wear them to Sunday School with white gloves and hats. Mom didn’t go to church until late in life, but she always encouraged us to go. My daughter, Jennifer, told me that Gramma Guild once told her that she had to have her tonsils removed before becoming a telephone operator.

Mom had red hair until her dying day.