Happy Mother’s Day

My First Mother’s Day as a Mom – 1954

Journal entry – May 9, 1954:  Nancy was two weeks old on Mother’s Day.  She celebrated by waking up  at 3:30 AM and staying awake until 6:00 AM.  I accompanied her.  (Note:  I remember that she was lying in bed beside me, eyes wide open and trying so hard to talk.)  Her Daddy bought a box of chocolates for her to give me and a card signed, “Daddy and Nancy”.

I followed that first celebration with three more children and many more happy Mother’s Days.

My four kids – 1970

Happy Mother’s Day.

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Remembering Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving is so much about family traditions – like baking pies – two of the pie tins go back to the mid-1950s…

….getting out the 1952 wedding china….

…my oldest daughter embroidered the tablecloth in the 1960s…

….having the youngest kids check out the turkey.

This tradition began in the mid-1950s with my two pre-school children posing for the movie camera, gently poking the turkey with large forks to see if it was done.  It continued with another son and daughter in the 1960s and 1970s and now the youngest grandchildren are somewhat bewildered looking at the turkey.  Grandson is happily contemplating turkey breast, cranberry sauce and apple pie.  Granddaughter doesn’t eat anything.

We had a good Thanksgiving.

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The Significance of September 8

After 61 years, I still think twice when I see the date September 8.  My father hadn’t allowed me to date in high school, but in 1951, I had graduated from school and was a secretary at Procter & Gamble.  I had been dating a little bit – never more than one date with the same person and never feeling it was a successful outing.  On September 8, 1951,  my sister suggested I come along with her to the neighborhood St. Rose Bingo.

We didn’t go to St. Rose Church, but my sister was the best friend of a girl named Cecelia who was a member.  I didn’t really want to go but it was Saturday night with no plans and I gave in.  Besides, there was a possibility that a boy who was being suggested as a potential date might be there.  Cecelia’s boyfriend Peanut had a pal who had moved away while in the 6th grade at St. Rose – Buddy – and everyone thought we would make a great couple.  So, I went to the bingo and sat at a long table with the rest of the group and sure enough, in came Buddy, dressed in nice slacks and a maroon corduroy jacket.  He sat across the table and was very sober and serious but he had pretty green eyes and seemed pleasant enough.  There wasn’t a word of conversation between us that night but it was an introduction and later in the week we did meet again, made a date and on my birthday on September 30, we agreed to go steady.

“Buddy” told me immediately that he hated the nickname and wanted to be called Frank and his pal “Peanut” also insisted on being called Rich.  We double-dated with Rich and Cecelia all the time – mainly because Rich had a car and Frank didn’t have a license (or a car) yet.  We had some really nice times – Rich and Cecelia were both outgoing and funny and they usually made the plans on where we would go.  We went to football games, drive-in movies, Frisch’s for Big Boys (which were really huge then and I had never tasted one, plus they were served by car-hops on trays that hooked to the car door), a hayride in the back of an old farm truck, lots of house parties, and many, many evenings playing Poker with Frank’s family where the only outlay of cash was for a jug of beer and whatever money we might lose playing cards (Cecelia and I nursed a soft drink for the evening).

We even went to one of Cecelia’s high school proms which was good for me since I hadn’t gone to my own.  I picked out heavy gold satin fabric and Mother made the dress for me.  Frank wore his standard blue pinstripe suit.  The prom was predictably boring but at least I could say I had been to one.

Dating came to an end pretty quickly when Frank left for the Navy in February.  By the time he came home on leave in May we were getting married and dating was over, but for a short time I experienced what the kids talked about all through high school – going to movies, eating hamburgers in the car, watching football games, going to parties and proms – some of it was nice, some was boring,  but at least I got to try it.  And it all started on SEPTEMBER 8.

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It Was a Very Good Year – 1954-1960

On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day.  The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way.  This is what I received this week.

1954 – My oldest daughter embroidered dish towels from 1954 patterns.  The Dutch Boy is from The Workbasket – April, 1954 (the same month and year she was born) and the girl with the umbrella is from a 1954 coloring book.

1955 – A 1-½ inch diameter tin labeled School Buildings 1955 and containing an actual film strip showing the latest improvements in school buildings in that year.

1956 – A TV Guide for February 4-10, 1956.  A note is attached, “You were probably watching some of these shows waiting for your first son to arrive.”  My oldest son was born on March 8, 1956, so I was spending a lot of time watching Gary Moore, Perry Como, Annie Oakley (a favorite of my toddler daughter), and Cincinnati’s local star, Ruth Lyons.

1957 – A Betty Furness Westinghouse Roast Meat Thermometer and Skewer.  Betty Furness was best known in the early days of television for opening Westinghouse refrigerators and talking about all of their wonderful features.

1958 – A 1958 copy of Woman’s Day Cook Book of Favorite Recipes.  I have a large cookbook collection but have never seen this one.  I was interested to find a lot of canning and bake-from-scratch recipes.

1959 – A metal tin that had held a typewriter ribbon.  It has an interesting graphic on the top of the tin and Feb 59 on the back.  After all of the years I spent typing, I love anything dealing with typewriters, especially the vintage items.

1960 - A picture of President and First Lady Kennedy leaving the hospital with John Kennedy, Jr.  The note attached to this picture says, “1960 – The year two important John-Johns were born“.  This refers to my youngest son, John, who was born March 11, 1960.  When he was a toddler, we did refer to him as John-John now and then.

As I was leaving the hospital with my baby John, I looked nothing like Jackie in her perfect suit, hat, gloves and pumps.

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

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My Daughter’s Birthday Post

In reply to my gift of a table topper mini-quilt for her birthday (click here), my daughter posted a poem on her blog that gives her side of the story of the 1958 picture.

http://www.nudged2write.com/archives/2719

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A Birthday Mini-Quilt Table Topper

Today is my oldest daughter’s birthday and this mini-quilt table topper is my greeting card to her.  As the center,  I scanned a favorite picture of her when she was 4 years old and printed it on June  Tailor Sew-In Colorfast Fabric Sheets for Ink Jet Printers.  I like to use 1 inch strips of fabric to make 3-1/2 inch log cabin blocks to form a frame around the center.  I usually make these blocks of scraps, but this time I chose fat quarters in white and two shades of blue.

I did a very simple, fused applique in the border.

The label is in the form of a pocket so I can print out this post and place it there for future reference.

After over 50 years, I can still remember the fabric in this dress so well.  I look down at my lap and can see it there as I’m hand-stitching the finishing touches.  It’s a pale aqua cotton with white flocking, a bit of a splurge at the time.

She had her requisite white gloves and black patent leather shoes to accessorize the dress on Easter and again on her birthday.  It appears she also chose to wear her crucifix and charm bracelet for this special occasion.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

It has been so much fun celebrating her birthday for 58 years.

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Our First Christmas Together – 1952

On December 25, 1952, Frank and I had been married for 7 months.  We were settled in a three-room apartment on the second floor of my parents’ two-family house (rent was the grand sum of $12.00/month).  We were making payments on a living room suite and appliances purchased from Jake Tennenbaum Furniture in downtown Cincinnati and the rest of the furnishings consisted of family hand-me-downs.

I was secretary to an executive in the TV-Radio Advertising Department of Procter & Gamble and Frank was beginning a long career with the Cincinnati Water Works.  This was ….

OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS

It wasn’t a very big tree – just over four feet tall – but it was broad and bushy at the bottom and tapered to a graceful, willowy top.  And the ornaments were all brand new and shiny – little glistening balls of shimmering beauty that hung so proudly on this, our very first tree.  There were tiny red balls with white sleighs gliding across them, and large pagoda-like wonders of yellow and purple; and the new, freshly-hung icicles were like glimmering trickles of a cold mountain stream that wound its way over each small green limb and hung precariously in places over the tiny pine needles.  Each light was a star within itself, twinkling with friendly cheer and winking at the few people whose eyes chanced to look up at the second floor window and see the little tree.

This was our first Christmas as man and wife and we had planned and prepared as was fitting for a first Christmas in our own apartment.  At each window a red, snow-bedecked wreath hung grandly and on a sheet-covered cedar chest were two elaborate silver candlesticks (wedding gifts) containing bright red candles, which glittered and shone in desperate competition with the tree lights.

In the clean whiteness of the new refrigerator a cool, pink turkey was awaiting his chance to be the center of attraction at the Christmas dinner.  Plans were being made for pies and cake and fresh rolls – eye-tempting and tummy-filling produce for the visiting relatives. 

This was our first Christmas – the decorations. the dinner, the squat little tree – all  of these traditional and beautiful things made us feel like a family at last.

From my journal – December, 1952

Hope you all have a memorable Christmas.

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The Manger Scene

Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc.  As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).  

The children will be known here by the nicknames their grandfather used when they were toddlers:  The oldest daughter will be Newsie (because she was as good as a newspaper for finding out the latest happenings), the oldest son is Bar (because he called Grandpa’s truck Bar and Grandpa called him Bar), the youngest son is Jackson, and the youngest daughter is Shanty (as in Shanty-Boat).

In 1954, I had an 8-month-old baby girl and was looking forward to her first Christmas.

Newsie, 8 months old, 1954

One day in December, I carried Newsie on one arm, a folding Taylor Tot on the other, and boarded the bus to go to downtown Cincinnati.  My mother worked in the large Shillito’s department store and I liked to meet her at lunchtime to do a little shopping.  That year, for my first Christmas with a baby in the house, I really wanted what we called a manger scene – or creche or crib – with the little figures to set up on a table.  We found one with a cardboard stable complete with the Holy Family, angels, shepherds, wise men, sheep, a donkey and a cow.

I fell in love with it but didn’t have the $5 to purchase it.  My mother bought it for me on the spot and it has held a place of honor for all these years.

I arranged the set on a low table so that little ones could get a good view of it.  I don’t recall Newsie ever touching the figures, but the two brothers who soon came along were inclined to use the stable as a parking garage for their mini cars, with the figures scattered helter-skelter.

When little sister Shanty came along in 1970, she was just as fascinated with it:

“We are just about ready for Christmas, 1972.  The tree has been up for a couple of weeks now and Shanty continuously takes down ornaments, rearranges ornaments, breaks ornaments….She fools with the tree constantly and is almost as bad with the manger scene.  At any time we can find the whole set down on the floor where she has been ‘playing house’ with it.
December, 1972”

Shanty, 2 years of age, 1972

The stable has been replaced many times.  Some of the figures were broken – the wisemen seemed to be particularly hard-hit – and I was lucky to find vintage replacements for them in an antique store about 20 years ago.  Most of the figures are original with one headless sheep…

… and just a few chips here and there.  Now, the manger scene sets as it always did, low enough for small children to get a good look at the figures and maybe even switch them around a little.  I don’t mind the chips when I see little hands moving the angels forward a bit or repositioning the donkey.  This year, the great-grandson  arranged the figures as if they were on a stage with everyone facing the audience.

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Visits to Santa Claus – 1956 to 1972

Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc.  As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).  

The children will be known here by the nicknames their grandfather used when they were toddlers:  The oldest daughter will be Newsie (because she was as good as a newspaper for finding out the latest happenings), the oldest son is Bar (because he called Grandpa’s truck Bar and Grandpa called him Bar), the youngest son is Jackson, and the youngest daughter is Shanty (as in Shanty-Boat).

VISITS TO SANTA CLAUS

Soon after Thanksgiving, we got on a bus to downtown Cincinnati and the big Shillito’s department store to visit Santa Claus.   This one was taken of Newsy in 1956.  Newsy took one look at it and told everyone, “It is the most amazing picture I ever saw.”

Newsy, 2 years of age – 1956

Bar was shy around strangers and refused to have his picture taken with Santa.  Instead we have a snapshot of him where he was happiest – straddling his mama’s hip.

Bar, 2 years of age, 1958

By the time Jackson was visiting Santa, we found him in a mall and the pictures were in color.

Jackson, 2 years of age, 1962

“Newsy and I took Shanty to town on 12/20 to see the decorations and to visit Santa Claus.  She ate the two little candy canes almost immediately and pestered me to carry her the entire way through town.  12/20/72″

And now the great-grandchildren are having pictures taken with Santa.

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Retro Coffeecake

This recipe goes back to my early days of marriage in 1952.  It came from either a Crisco or Sunbeam mixer cookbook (two of my favorite sources at that time) and I made it countless times.  The crumb topping is very sparse and light but is just right for the cake which is richer than most coffeecakes.  I have always called it my “best coffeecake”.

BEST COFFEECAKE

• 1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Tblsp. baking powder
• 1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9″ baking pan.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, place the shortening, sugar and egg.  Beat until light and fluffy.

In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.

Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with flour, and beating until well blended after each addition.

Pour into a greased and floured 9″ pan.  Sprinkle the following topping on the top of the cake:

TOPPING

• 1-1/2 Tblsp. melted butter
• 4 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 Tblsp. flour

In a small bowl, mix together the butter, sugar and cinnamon.  Stir in the flour and mix well.  Crumble over the top of the unbaked cake.

Bake cake @ 400 degrees F for approximately 25 minutes, until cake tests done.

Cool for 10 minutes on a rack.  Cut into squares to serve while still warm.

In the early 1960s my husband and I were raising three children in a 1922 house on Maple Drive in Oakley (Cincinnati).

I used to bake this cake as a treat during the evening when we didn’t have money for snacks like potato chips and soft drink.   I would omit the crumb topping and after it was cool, frost it with some powdered sugar icing and sprinkle raisins on top.

ICING FOR TOP OF CAKE

• 1 Tblsp. softened butter or margarine
• 1 Tblsp. undiluted evaporated milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup powdered or confectioners’ sugar
• Dash of salt

Place all of the above ingredients in a mixer bowl and beat until smooth.  An additional drop or two of evaporated milk can be added gradually to make a good spreading consistency.  Frost top of cooled cake while still in the pan and sprinkle about 3 Tblsp. of raisins on top.

The three kids (age 2, 6 and 8), my husband and I would eat the entire cake that evening while watching television.

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