#79 At Grandmother's Table

#79 At Grandmother's Table

It's April Fool's Day and at my Granny Berta's Table it was always a day of much anticipation. Would Granny fool Papa again? The same Granny that I mentioned in post number #76 was just about as cute and sweet as they come, Papa wasn't. Some in the family were down right scared of him and we always wondered how she put up with him, but she did for 364 days out of the year. Then came April Fool's Day and a bit of passive-aggressive behavior would surface. Not in a mean way, a lesser woman might have been tempted to bean him with a fry pan but Granny had her plan. She would make her pancake batter and then as one side of the pancake would cook, she'd place a neat round of cloth on the wet side and patted it into place. When she turned the pancake it was neatly hidden inside. Then she would add the doctored cake to the stack and wait for the old coot to take his place at the table. I don't know if he forgot from year to year or if he just decided she could have this one small victory. Anyway he always seemed surprised and then amazed when he couldn't cut the cakes. It was great!

This is a neat book, in it 68 women share stories of their grandmothers and each concludes with a family recipe. Wow, do we have a lot of Granny Berta stories we could do a whole book just on her. I already mentioned how she drank 4 to 6 cokes a day, well that kept her bubbly. She was fun to be around. Granny like my Mom would take the temperance pledge every time she was asked but unlike my Mom she would raise a glass of beer to her lips the same evening to celebrate the occasion. She had great little sayings that I think were unique to her. If she got a new dress, she always said, "it was just to put on and wear." Nothing fancy. Her grandchildren were NEVER naughty, we were "just confused". She could recite poetry she had learned 80 years before. There was one about, would you rather run a mile or suck a boil, she used this to get the young ladies screaming and running through the halls at her college.

Granny drove her big old car downtown to the drug store for a coke everyday, a distance of 3 or 4 blocks, and would pick up a friend on the way. There was only one left hand turn on the trip but one day she must have been stepping on the gas because when she looked over Lucille had slid out of the front seat and was sitting back at the corner by the side of the road. Poor Lucille was "just confused". So the cookbook for today is #79 At Grandmother's Table, edited by Ellen Perry Berkeley.