The antique hand pump

The hand pump was a fixture on the large back porch of the big farmhouse built in 1869. It was the house where my mother was raised, and where I started going in 1965. My grandparents, John R. and Janice Day Watson, lived there for some 55 years. Before that my grandfather's parents, Garfield and Ellen Barker Watson, lived there.

The last time I was at the farm was yesterday, to pick up the hand pump that I won in the Watson Auction.

The Watsons are my kinfolk. My mother, Sandra Ellen, was a Watson before she married my father, Fred McDonald. Her brother, David, and his wife, Kathy, and their two children now own all of the Watson farm. My late aunt and uncle, David and Peggy Ruppel, and their children used to also live on the farm.

I paid $121 for the hand pump. Why? Because it means something to me. It's a part of my memories of the farm. I haven't been in the farmhouse since 2018, after my grandmother died, to collect a few things. After that the house was gutted and renovated. 

The back porch was removed. The hand pump was saved, I was informed when I asked about it.

Last week I saw it in the online Watson Auction. 

I never resided in the farmhouse but for 50 years - until the middle of 2015 when grandmother was sent to a nursing home -  I was a reoccurring visitor. 

After my mother died in 1968, my grandparents wanted me to live with them. But my father did what he thought was best for himself and me and he placed me with his parents, Fred and Ruth DeVol McDonald, in Caldwell while he lived and worked in Columbus. 

Dad made certain that I saw my mother's family. 

Dad remarried and started a new family but he made sure I had a relationship with my mother's family. And I did.

Over the years I came to love to go to the farm and I made memories there to last a lifetime. 

Some of the memories I have are in photographs taken by others and some I have taken myself. 

In July 2012 grandmother and I visited on the back porch and before I could snap a picture of her my rechargeable camera battery was exhausted. Earlier in the day I captured the empty rocking chair, hand pump, cat and the view. 

I had this photograph made into a canvas that hangs in my house. This image invokes a strong memory of the farm, porch, farmhouse, grandmother, cats and LOVE.

See grandmother, in her nightgown, feeding the cats a day after her 87th birthday in 2013. There's the hand pump.

The hand pump is on the porch, circa late 1940s, where grandmother and her sister-in-law Dorothy who married my grandfather's brother Harry, pose. They have picked strawberries and are in front of the porch of farmhouse where their in-law's Garfield and Ellen Watson reside. Grandmother and Grandfather later moved into the farmhouse.

I'm sure my love of cats started at the farm. They seem to be in a lot of photographs, especially when I was little. 

Today is National Cat Day!

As far as the hand pump, maybe it will be come a garden water feature at my home. Stay tuned.

Grandmother's House

I miss the smell of grandmother's house as I enter the back door.

I miss the toile wallpaper and gas fireplace that is lit three seasons of the year.

I miss the purple bedroom where I slept with my aunt until she got married and moved next door.

I miss the red bedroom and huge Gone With The Wind lamp that sits in front of the window.

I miss the ladybugs behind every curtain in the house.

I miss the grandfather clock's toll and Westminster chime.

I miss the winding staircase with heavy wood banister.

I miss the turquoise bathroom with Estee Lauder powder and lingering scent.

I miss the attic where I found my mother in 2012.

I miss ringing the dinner bell.

I miss the radio tuned to WILE, and the whistle of the tea kettle.

I miss the breakfasts of oatmeal, toast, tea and oranges.

I miss Muffet, Ryan, Tilly and Shane.

I miss the cats that gather for scraps and bread and milk in a tin plate on the porch.

I miss the huge trees that shade the parlor and kitchen windows.

I miss the porch swing and rocking chairs.

I miss her.

I miss my grandmother.

 

Valentine Cake for Mother's Day, and Pumpkin Ice Cream for October

VINTAGE FAMILY FIXIN'S

(This column was originally published on Sunday, May 4, 2014, in the newspaper where I was employed for 25 years. I lost my job a few weeks later. It has been a life change for me. I am so very blessed to be able to be a stay at home mother after all of these years. However, the reality is that it is true what the doctors say, that the loss of a job can be compared to a death, divorce, etc. It ranks right up there. Let me tell you. I had a pretty good summer easing into sleeping in late and staying up later, and of course vacation was a blast. But truth be told I have struggled with my identity since my children have gone back to school. I haven't decided what I am going to do but I am working toward finding my way to be productive and happy without my newspaper job and also dealing with the loss of friends. One of the ways is writing this blog, which I have been ignoring. I believe my mother would be just as proud of me today as she was of me six months ago, when I shared my story about her. As a side note it should be mentioned my mother died on this day - October 20 - in the year 1968.)

Since I won't be writing next week I want to celebrate Mother's Day by sharing a story about my late mother, Sandra Ellen Watson McDonald, and two of her recipes.

My mother died at the age of 24, just two months shy of my third birthday, a victim of leukemia.

I do not remember my mother but many in the area do. My grandmother, 88, certainly remembers her, and my father, her boyfriend and then husband, remembers her well.

She had many friends, now in their late 60s, some with whom I've become acquainted that knew her.

For years I've wondered about my mother. Seeking something more.

And a year ago on Valentine's Day I finally met her.

"Spent a few hours with my grandmother this afternoon, and found in the attic a scrapbook belonging to my late mother of her school days. I broke down when I came across the photograph of her class touring The Daily Jeffersonian and comments about that day in her handwriting. Awesome discovery that made me just weep," I posted on Facebook.



A photograph of my mother and me, and a page from her scrapbook showing she visited The Daily Jeffersonian, and in her handwriting a list of the names of her classmates who toured the newspaper where I used to work.

In that attic I found my mother's youth and the years leading up to me.

Finding the newspaper clipping from The Jeffersonian was profound.

I have been employed with this newspaper since June 1989 and to know that my mother, when she was 11 years old in the spring of 1956, set foot in a space that I now occupy brings me comfort.

Before I came to work in Cambridge, the Jeffersonian plant she toured was razed and a new Jeffersonian building constructed next door. The lot where I park my vehicle is where the old building stood, the place where she and 17 of her classmates from Mt. Ephraim School toured.

I have become familiar with my mother's handwriting as in the attic I also found many handwritten English assignments from both Sarahsville High School from where she graduated in 1963 and The Ohio State University where she attended.

Career exploration was apparent from her writings. In one of the assignments she talks about being in the College of Education but intending to major in home economics, and in another paper she talks about becoming a flight attendant.

My mother attended classes at OSU until she learned she was pregnant with me. She then became married to my father, Fred, and then I was born.

Since finding my mother on Feb. 14, 2013, I have also found recipes in grandmother's recipe box that were clearly written by her. It's no coincidence that one of hers that I've selected to share today is called Valentine Cake.

Valentine Cake

1 1/3 cup coconut

1 regular size package Jell-O (strawberry)

Package white cake mix

6 cups fluffy white frosting

Tint coconut with 1 tablespoon Jell-O - prepare cake mix batter as directed on package, adding remaining Jell-O before beating.

Pour in greased, paper lined pans. Cool 10 minutes. Split cakes horizontally, making four layers. Spread frosting between layers and over cake. Sprinkle tinted coconut around sides.

BONUS RECIPE

The second recipe also is from my mother and was part of a term paper she wrote in English composition at Ohio State with Mr. Gross, the fall of 1963. The class met at 8 a.m., according to the theme folder that holds dozens of essays.

In the writing assignment she talks about the month of October. (She was born Oct. 7, 1944). She talks of Halloween, trick-or-treat and masquerade parties. She offers a recipe for Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie.

Ingredients for 8 servings.

Date and nut cookies - 1 2/3 cups or about 13 cookies

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Butter, melted - 1/4 cup

Canned or cooked pumpkin - 3/4 cup

Cinnamon - 1/2 teaspoon

Ground allspice - 1/2 teaspoon

Ground ginger - 1/4 teaspoon

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Brown sugar - 1/4 cup

Vanilla ice cream - 1 1/2 pints

Chopped pecans 1/3 cup

For one pie: Place cookies in a clean plastic bag. Lay flat on counter, open end towards you. Pound and roll with rolling pin until fine crumbs are formed. Add sugar and melted butter. Hold bag and knead until well combined. Turn ingredients into nine-inch pie pan. Press against bottom and sides of pan to form crust. Chill until firm.

Let ice cream stand at room temperature to soften.

Combine pumpkin, spices, salt and brown sugar in a bowl. Stir in softened ice cream and pecans. Pour into chipped pie crust and freeze until firm. If desired, use chocolate frosting in a tube to make a pretty cobweb design on pie surface. Or garnish with shipped cream and nuts.

On her paper the instructor writes in red ink, "Rewrite this in English English which is different from cookbook English."

I wonder what she would think of my writing?

P.S. I'd like to wish the woman who raised me and never treated me like a step daughter, Judy Behringer, a Happy Mother's Day also. See you on Mother's Day, Mom! Love you much.

Republished with permission from the newspaper publisher.

Revival of Vintage Family Fixin's

Early this spring I started a recipe column in the local newspaper where I worked. I called it Vintage Family Fixin's. I wanted to offer readers a recipe - or two - from the recipe boxes of my late grandmothers. In doing this I recalled stories about these women, and other members of my family, and found that sharing those memories with an audience resulted in letters and telephone calls from those who knew them.

It was the beginning of a great journey for me that ended too soon. After the publication of only five columns, I suddenly lost my job due to an error in a headline that had nothing to do with the recipe column.

I did not have an opportunity to tell any of the readers about my sudden departure or my blog but it is my hope that as I revive the recipe column maybe you will share this URL with someone who might find it interesting.

Over the next few weeks I will reprint all of the columns on this blog.
 
Here's the first one.

 

Vintage Family Fixin's

Two Ruths

Welcome to Vintage Family Fixin's.

Today begins with a story of discovery, a theme that has accompanied me through the past year (more about that in a future column).

My late paternal Grandmother Ruth (DeVol) McDonald's recipe box is much like my maternal Grandmother Janice (Day) Watson's attic -- full of unexpected surprises, coincidences or perhaps fate.

Looking through Grandmother McDonald's recipe box last week I ran across a dish called Chicken Cashew Casserole by Ruth DeMarco who in cursive wrote her recipe on a large index card that has two holes punched along the top. DeMarco, hmmmm, I know a DeMarco.

Wow!

It just so happens that Ruth's son, Steve DeMarco, is a contributor to [the name of the newspaper where I used to work] of news concerning Cambridge Concert Association. We are periodically in communication as I am his contact at the newspaper. We also are friends on Facebook.

So it was a coincidence that my Grandmother McDonald, who died at age 68 on Jan. 20, 1989 -- six months before I came to work at the newspaper -- at some point and time during her life met Ruth DeMarco.

Grandmother McDonald resided in Caldwell and worked in the Auditor's Office and later Probate Court at the Noble County Courthouse.

Ruth DeMarco lived a very active life in Cambridge and passed away in 2008 at the age of 81.

The women were six years apart in age.

So how did Ruth McDonald know Ruth DeMarco?

"Her mother's maiden name was Riddle. So she has/had lots of relatives and friends in Caldwell and the area," said Steve of his mother.

Steve said of his mother's Chicken Cashew Casserole, "I make it often and it's very tasty!"

More meals from Noble County folk will be coming your way because in Grandmother McDonald's recipe box I found recipes from the old Ralston's (Pharmacy in Caldwell), the Club in Caldwell, and some of my grandmother's friends (Wanda Wheeler, Mary Jane Yontz) and my Grandfather Fred McDonald's sister Ruth Smith.

Plus you'll enjoy fixin's from my husband's late grandmother Bea Loos, plus some from my late birth mother Sandra (Watson) McDonald, my late aunt Peggy (Watson) Ruppel, and my mother who raised me Judy (Spitler) McDonald Behringer.

Today's featured recipe is from Grandmother Watson's recipe box. Grandmother celebrates her 88th birthday on March 25. Happy birthday, Grandmother! You are the best cook and I remember you making this soup for me. I'm so blessed to have you.



Grandmother Watson's Fresh Mushroom Soup recipe prepared by me.

Fresh Mushroom Soup

1 pound mushrooms

6 tablespoons butte or margarine

2 cups finely chopped onions

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 cup water

2 cans beef broth

1 cup dry vermouth (optional)

1/2 tablespoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper
Chop mushrooms. In large pot melt butter. Add onions and sugar. Saute over medium heat, stirring frequently for about 15 minutes or until golden. Add mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes. Stir in flour until smooth. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour in water and smooth until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered 20 minutes.

P.S. I fixed this soup and my family liked it with the exception of Will, 13, who doesn't particularly like mushrooms. Lee, 11, said, "It's delicious."



Grandmother Janice Watson and me.

BONUS RECIPE

Ruth DeMarco's Chicken Cashew Casserole

1 (3 ounce) can chow mein noodles

1 1/2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 breast of chicken (or 8 ounces of any cold chicken, more if desired (cooked chicken)

1/4 pound cashews, cut in quarters

1/2 cup celery, cut fine

1/4 small onion, cut or chopped

Dash salt and pepper

Set aside 1/2 cup noodles. In 1 1/2 quart casserole, combine the rest of ingredients. If cashews are not salted, add more salt. Sprinkle reserved 1/2 cup noodles over top. Dot with butter.

Bake 30 minutes in 325 degree oven.


Originally published on March 23, 2014; reprinted with permission from the publisher of the newspaper where I used to work.


　
 


　


　
　




　
 

Unbelievable photograph from 1948

You’ve heard stories about fate, destiny, serendipity, coincidence, etc. Well here's another one.

Last week I received a gift from my 84-year-old grandmother. It is an old photograph with these words written on the back: “Santa Claus on the Caldwell square Dec. 11, 1948, Sandra Ellen age 4 years.”

Sandra Ellen was my mother.

She is pictured in the front, holding her mother, my grandmother Janice Ilene Day Watson’s hand. Grandmother Watson is 22 in this photograph. She looks so happy.

What’s so special about this photograph, which I did not know existed until I received, is that my father also is pictured in it with his mother.

Fred McDonald is in the back, center of the photo being held in his mother, my grandmother Ruth Frances DeVol McDonald’s arms. Dad was 3 years old in this picture and Grandmother McDonald was 28.

I’m still in awe of this photo, which I think was published in the Caldwell newspaper. Somehow here are both of my parents as little children with their mothers. Here are two families that did not know each other when the photographer captured this moment in time.

It is the split-second creation of an image of two complete strangers during Christmastime 1948 viewed by their offspring 62 years later.

It would be a decade and several more years from 1948 until Sandra and Fred and their families would meet, and everyone would share in much joy and then sorrow in a short amount of time.

Fast-forward to Dec. 20, 1965 – the day Sandra gave birth to her and Fred’s baby daughter – Lisa Lee McDonald – that’s me!

Grandmother Watson tucked two other vintage photos in my birthday card this year. One is of my parents on their wedding day in May 1965, and the other is of me and my parents on Easter morning 1967 at the farm. My mother is ill in the latter photograph, suffering from leukemia. Sandra Ellen Watson McDonald left this world in October 1967.

Thank you Grandmother for sharing with me a glimpse of our past through these wonderful photographs.

Scents

The 10 year old said it smelled like Christmas the other day.
It was cold outside and the furnace, which had kicked on a few days earlier, was running around the clock.
I remarked at Christian’s association of the cool outdoors and warm house and apparently some other comforting smells.
Likewise, his 8-year-old-brother a couple of months ago told me, “You smell like Aunt Peggy.”
I was taken back and shocked at his Will's senses.
My aunt, Peggy Ruppel, died unexpectedly at age 55 this past April and I brought home some of her favorite perfume “Opium” that I had not worn until the day Will said I smelled like her.
At that moment we all remembered Peggy and it was sad but comforting that something so simple like a smell could incite a fond memory.
Maybe I get emotional when it comes to the senses.
So many smells trigger certain places and certain times.
My grandmother Ruth McDonald wore - more often than not - a perfume by Evyan launched in 1945 called “White Shoulders.” Grandma’s been gone for 20 years now but I still smell her occasionally like when that woman pushed her cart by mine at Riesbeck’s the other day.
My grandmother Janice Watson’s signature scent is “Youth Dew” by Estee Lauder. She smells wonderful, and always will.
What I really wish is that I could bottle the way Grandma Watson’s 1800s farmhouse smells – like radiant gas heat mixed with clean laundry, hot tea and orange slices.
Bedrooms and bathrooms each have their own radiant floor heaters. There are fireplaces aglow in the office, parlor and living room. In the kitchen at least one burner is continually lit on the gas stovetop. And so in the wintertime the house envelopes me with its warm historic smell that will always be remembered as grandma’s house.
I loved the way the house I grew up in smelled too, which is a compliment to my mother, Judy McDonald given she had four children and a husband and all of their smells to deal with. Mom and a lot of her friends used Claire Burke Original room freshener. It contains roses, lavender and spice mixed with patchouli and vetiver. For a while Kroger marketed a spray air freshener that rivaled Burke’s trademark scent and I remember grocery shopping with mom and stocking up on canisters.
I have an affection for patchouli and enjoy wearing perfumes containing this mint that originated in East India and yields a fragrant oil. I’m always checking out Bath & Body Works latest scents to see if they contain patchouli.
I started wearing a new fragrance this week called Angel by Thierry Mugler, which contains patchouli.
I love the smell of Gerber’s Grins and Giggles Oatmeal Baby Wash, which we’ve been using for 10 years, since Christian was born.
This scent is no longer manufactured but I bought nearly a case of it at Odd Lots this past summer because I just can’t let it go.

We have maybe 12 bottles left.
Smells are like music they take you back to different times in your life and for a little while you remember ....

Cambridge Area Yard of the Month

Thanks to the Old Man's green thumb, we've got one of the best-looking landscapes in town, and we've again received the Cambridge Area Beautification Council's Special Recognition Award.
This is the second time we've gotten the certificate in the 10 years we've been working on the house and yard.
Our newest flower bed was completed today, almost a week after our names appeared in the paper.
Everyone in the family helped make this bed and everyone loves it!
The bed is the focal point of our new on-street parking pulloff and widened driveway. The concrete for these new areas was poured last week (the day of the choking incident).
The new bed features a huge sandstone boulder which was retrieved from my grandparents' farm in Noble County. It was a cornerstone from the foundation of a wash house on the century-and-a-half-old Watson family homestead. Another accent in the bed is a sandstone address marker that David carved when he worked for a local stone yard.
A professional landscaper for more than two decades and gardening enthusiast, David knows his plants and tonight we made a list of all the perennials, bushes and trees in our yard.
Our newest bed - full sun - features lemon balm, red cardinal flower, China girl holly, Asiatic lily, Stella de Oro daylilies, coral bells, variegated liriope, mums, bells flower, hibiscus (annual), whiteconeflower and blanketflower.
Other perennials around our yard include autumn joy sedum, hens and chicks, purple aster, red and yellow daylilies, purple coneflower, green liriope, at least 10 different varieties of hostas, double knockout rose, old-fashioned yellow rose, Fourth of July rose, Pom Pom Scot's Pine, Colorado Blue Spruce (tree), Cherokee Chief red flowering variegated dogwood (tree), rhododendron, dwarf burning bush, blue sedum, Indian paintbrush, Mimosa (tree), iris, black-eyed Susa, lilac, spiderwort, zagreb coreopsis, hydrangea, oriental poppy, dianthus, green and white euonymus, green and yellow euonymous, lamb's ear, red yarrow, clematis, loosestrife, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Alaska daisy, crimson pygmy barberry, wand flower, lamium, blueberries, Ravenna grass, sedge grass, mock orange, Texas scarlet quince, ostrich fern, and blanket flower, Little Princess spirea, and Creeping Jenny.
We have lots of annuals too including geraniums, petunias, marigolds, verbena, salvia, dahlia, bacopa, million bells, coleus, lobelia, begonias.
Plants are like clothes for the yard and I think David and I both are always looking for new places to put plants ... but we've run out of closets!
Our backyard, though seldom seen by the passerby, rivals our front yard. So if you're in the neighborhood, take a walk around the house and enjoy!