Gramma Pickles : The Person

She's got a sparkly sweater, sparkly glasses, and red finger-nail polish (and usually a sparkly beer, too). She's the coolest Gramma I know!

Why do we call her "Gramma Pickles"?

Soon after my son was born, we were trying to figure out how to differentiate MY grandparents (now Great-Grandparents) from my parents who were first-time grandparents. Gramma had given us a huge jar of her famous pickles. We lovingly referred to the pickles as "Gramma Pickles" whenever we pulled them out to accompany our lunches. So the next time we saw her, SHE became Gramma Pickles, and the name stuck.

This is a jar of the current batch of Gramma Pickles (See the Recipe) :

Gramma Pickles : The Recipe

Here's a picture of Gramma Pickles' famous refrigerator pickles.

Gramma Pickles : The Recipe
4 cups thin sliced unpeeled PICKLING cucumbers
3 thin slices onion
1 T canning salt
1 cup white vinegar
2 cups sugar
Dill

Bring vinegar and sugar to a boil. Cool. Pour mixture over cucmbers that have been mixed with onions and salt. Cover. Will keep in refrigerator for several weeks and are always crisp.

On this last visit, she shared the recipe with me. It's a keeper (and so is she!).

 The Gramma Pickles Recipe in her own handwriting.

This is a piece of family history!

Comfort Foods : Gramma Pickles' Grilled Cheese

Gramma Pickles' Grilled Cheese Sandwich consists of :

Mrs. Karl's white bread
Real Butter
Government Surplus Cheese (or Kraft Singles)

Grilled to a golden brown over a gas stove (The flame is important. It's not the same on an electric stove.)

with Gramma Pickles on the side

Grappa's Bear Fat Barometer

When I was a kid, I swear that Grappa had a jar of rendered bear fat in his kitchen window. He said he could predict the weather with it :

* Clear for good weather
* Cloudy for bad weather

If conditions were right for a tornado, a cloudy funnel would form in the center core of the jar.

I haven't been able to verify this any place as yet. He may have been telling us one of his infamous stories ...

I do know that his machine shed was hit by a tornado in the early 1980s. Maybe he dumped the bear fat barometer after that?

Added April 7, 2008 :

I did come across this picture (or Gramma did). She had it on the kitchen table the last time I was there a few weeks ago. So there really was a bear!

My mom is the little girl looking so appalled at this dead bear, and pulling his ear. Gramma looks quite happy, and Grappa looks like the great white hunter (or something). My mom said that bear skin was in the closet of the upstairs bedroom for years and years. She hated that closet. That bear skin scared her to death! It wasn't tanned very well, so they eventually threw it out--the hair kept falling out of it. Makes me think of the episode from Hotel New Hampshire where they stuffed the dog Sorrow after he died, but he was just never the same ...

Funny, I now have a bear quilt hanging on the wall watching me sleep. I don't think my mom has reclaimed that imagery for herself, though.

Tradition & Meaning

Plums for Bohemian Plum Dumplings

I've been looking for some kind of quote that would sum up what tradition means to people, to me. Most of the quotes I've come across have portrayed tradition as something to rebel against, question, and abolish. It's not all bad ...

Joseph Campbell must have something to say on this topic ... but I haven't been able to find it.

I think of tradition as a way to link with the past. Powerful stuff!

The beautiful thing about tradition is that at any moment, we can create a new tradition! or drop an old one.

Many of the posts on Hidden Passages are about foods, memory, tradition and family stories. It all helps to explain where we come from.

Christmas Traditions : Family Stories

My Mom was born on Christmas Day back in the 1950s. That's why she was named Holly. For 10 years, she was an only child. Christmas has always been "big business" for her.

My Dad, on the other hand, was the youngest of 6 kids, born into a poor farm family. He always has a hard time with Christmas. When he was a kid, he and his brother got a new shirt and had to share it between them. He also tells the story of how he saved cereal box tops and sent them in, but his prize never came--until one Christmas morning. Someone intercepted the Halloween balloons he had ordered and given them to him for Christmas. He didn't really appreciate that. He never liked spending much money on Christmas presents either.

Christmas morning, we kids could get up and open our stockings whenever we woke up. But we had to wait for the adults to get up and assemble before we opened presents.

My Dad would stall as long as possible. First, he had to start a fire (so we'd have heat), then he had to have his coffee, then he had to take a rail-roader. One year, he even tried to go out and feed the pigs before we could open presents. We absolutely protested at that idea. He could do the pigs later--Bah-Humbug!

Dad used to jokingly threaten that Santa would give us nothing but a stick (we burned wood, not coal) if we weren't good. I actually put a stick in his stocking one year--but I felt so bad about hiding all the stuff Santa had brought him, that I put it all back WITH the stick.

I was telling Oliver this story the other day, and he's already heard it enough times to finish the story. Time to write it down!

Holiday Traditions : Cross Country Skiing Christmas Day

The one thing my family likes to do every year on Christmas Day is cross-country skiing. There's nothing like a cross-country ski run to get the blood moving again after a heavy holiday meal.

I grew up on a farm in the rolling hills and woods of Northern Wisconsin. My brother and I learned to cross country ski when we were 5 and 6 years old. We've been doing it most of our lives. I remember one year, we went to ski out in the flat fields by Gramma Matucheski's house. Seth fell down, and was too stubborn to get back up. Dad and I skied around the field and came back to him. I guess Seth just wanted/needed a break. He got back up then ...

My Dad's land was just down the road--now it's in their back yard. How nice! Dad takes care of the trails so skiing and hiking is very nice there.

In recent years, we haven't always had snow at Christmas, so some years, we just hike. These days, my mom doesn't care to go out--She prefers her sewing room. Dad is too busy with his own stuff, or he went out earlier and couldn't wait for the rest of us ... So my own little family of 3 goes out to ski. Yes--Oliver is doing very well on his little skis. This year when he falls down, he gets right back up. He just chugs along like a train ... At one point, I fell, and Oliver said. "Ok, Mumma. I'm not going to wait for you ..."

When we go now, we like to ski in the nearby woods flowage groomed with excellent cross-country ski trails for novice to expert. Down by the river is a small cabin where we build a fire and have a little picnic. We sit on the porch and watch the chickadees flit around the bird feeder with a view of the bridge in the background.

I can't think of anyplace else I'd rather be in December. Even better if it's snowing!

Even a stump looks elegant in the snow!

Christmas Ornaments and their Meanings

We finally got the Christmas tree up a week before Christmas. We were a little behind schedule this year. I was determined to keep it simple--I only put up ornaments that did NOT require extensive packaging. Just the free-form, free-wheeling ornaments floating around the box.

As I trimmed the tree, I was struck by the MEANING that flooded back for a few of them ...

The Fan : On the first day of school in the mid-1950s, Little Holly made a paper-folded fan. She gave it to another girl in class named Sally. Holly said, "I'll give you this fan if you be my friend." That was the start of a lifelong friendship. Sally's mother (Gramma B.) made a similar ornament and shared the story many years later. The story has entered our family lore.

Seahorse Symbolism : Back in my single days, I had a seahorse ornament that I kept up and out all year long. The seahorse held significant symbolism for me : The male seahorse keeps the seahorse babies in a pouch (like a kangaroo). The male seahorse is the nurturer and caregiver of the seahorse family. That's what I was looking for in a mate. And I found it in CL!

Holiday Traditions : Fanny & Alexander

Fanny & Alexander is the other film we like to watch over the Christmas Holidays.
Here's a movie trailer on YouTube that can give you an idea of the MAGIC of this film.



Here's my all-time favorite scene of Christmas Eve at the Ekdahls :


"Christmas Eve was always a production at our house. The towering tree in the central hall, covered with shiny red ornaments, draped in silvery tinsel, lighted with real candles. The staff, in their long black uniforms with starched white aprons and caps, setting out piles of generously wrapped gifts underneath the tree. There were tall white candles on the dining table, where after dinner (which always began at 4:30 pm) we sang and toasted everyone's health. Mother wore red brocade and Father, like all the men in the family, wore white tie. Eventually we all held hands and danced through the house, singing until we fell exhusted, into our chairs and listened to an uncle read the Nativity story from the second chapter of Luke. In lovely, lilting Swedish. Oh, no, wait. That was Fanny & Alexander."
--Anita Gates, "Holiday Films : Celluloid Visions are What Dance in My Head, New York times, November 5, 2000.

It's neat to see this wonderful film has had a similar effect on other people! For us, it just isn't Christmas without seeing this wonderful film with the family dancing through the apartment singing, "Uyauyaly" (whatever that means!)

Fanny and Alexander came out in 1982 and depicts a wonderful Christmas in turn-of-the-century Sweden. It is filled with so much light, laughter, and RED, a few tears, family (great and exasperating). Wonderful characters, as you would expect in any Ingmar Bergman film!

And Isaac's apartment is a place of MAGIC, literally. There's so much STUFF there : puppets and books and antiques, and a crazy brother ...

Little Holly on Christmas Day

This is a picture of my mom on Christmas day back in the 1950s when she was still an only child. Christmas has always been "big business" for her because she was born on Christmas Day. She always makes it a nice holiday for everyone, even now.


Even though it's a black and white picture, you can really see the sparkling tinsel on the tree in the corner.

One year, Great Gramma Josephine was left in charge of Little Holly on Christmas Eve while Gramma Pickles and Eddie did the barn chores. When they got back to the house, they discovered that Great Gramma had "watched" Holly open ALL the presents. Great Gramma was having a GREAT time watching Holly ... There were all the presents, opened on the floor with no idea what gift was for whom. Grappa could have "crowned" Gramma.

I Remember Gramma Matucheski : Homemade Egg Nog

Gramma Matucheski used to babysit me and my brother out on the farm when we were small. We were the last of that generation's grandchildren (before the great grandchildren started coming).

Gramma used to make us home-made egg nog as a regular treat. Creamy and rich, we loved it!

A few years ago, I found the cups above that also reminded me of the coffee mugs that hung on hooks beneath the kitchen cupboards. Each of her 6 children had a mug with their name on it with this sort of classic glaze ...

Here's the recipe :

Gramma's Egg Nog

2 eggs
2 cups milk (not cream)
vanilla
sugar

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Enjoy!

Gramma had an old style hand-cranked egg beater that did the job magnificently.

I've taken to straining out the stringy parts of the raw egg before we drink it. We also like to add a splash of rum these days.

Gramma Matucheski died in February 2007. This is how I remember her.

Warning : Drinking/eating raw eggs may be hazardous to your health. Consider pasturizing the nog before you partake. That just means heating it to a certain temp to kill any microbes, but not enough to cook the egg. (My mom is Director of Public Health in her county, so she's tracked enough salmonella cases back to raw eggs. She'd have a heart attack if she knew I still drank this! Just once in a while ... ;-)

A Cookie to Keep Him Quiet ...

Up until this fall, Grappa Eddie has lived on the same land his whole life. His parents were immigrants from Bohemia who met again in Chicago, decided to get married and head to Northern Wisconsin to start a life together. They bought some land outside of Polar and laid little Grappa down under a tree with a cookie to keep him occupied while Josephine and Albert set about the awesome task of building a house ...

A Warm Pair of Boots on a Cold Winter's Day

Winters were cold in Northern Wisconsin. The farm kids had to walk to school in their un-insulated leather boots over snow-covered fields. They stamped their feet in the snow to get rid of the pins and needles of the cold poking at their feet. Grappa didn't like that so much. One day, one of his cohorts, Otto Pavek said, "Eddo--Here, try these felt liners for your feet. If you don't want 'em, I'll take 'em back." So Grappa gave 'em a try. He was amazed that these gray liners kept his feet toasty and warm all day long!