Stories about Mom and Dad

 I'm making bean soup from a mix today and as I drop in the packet of spices,  I remember all the half used packet of seasonings that Mom saved... She never used the full amount and could not bear to throw anything food or food related away; wasting food was just not done in our family. I remember we'd have ham for New Years... then ham sandwiches, leftover ham dinners, etc... then she'd shave any bits of ham off the bone and mix them with buttered noodles (Schinkenfleckerln), then the ham bone would go in a soup pot. One year I watched her eyeing the ham bone after it's soup duty, assessing whether there was anything else that could be done with it... I asked her about the food supply during the war. Apparently while Hitler was in power, some food stuffs were rationed but they were not hungry. But there were definitely shortages.  But during the first few years after the war, when markets and food supply chains were broken, food was scarce. Ever have those tiny bugs in...

As I grew up, all of our birthdays fell between August 8 (Dad) and October 5 (JR), so the roughly two month span felt very much like a pre-Christmas season as I got a little older. I can only remember 1 or 2 birthday parties but they were always shared with David and always closer to his birthday. As we got older, we got to pick a spot for dinner (from a limited selection of restaurants) and a cake flavor.  There was this awful Chinese restaurant in Bakersfield we'd go to and order something sweet and sour, then a local bakery made a light fluffy cake they called a champagne cake... The next few additions to the family fell in the family birthday window as well. It wasn't until Rebecca was born in March that the trend was broken. We were all together for Dad's birthday one year; I think Anna, who was born in the Birthday Season as well, was 2? or 3? at the time? I think Rebecca was there so that would mean she was 3... Anyways, we were getting ready for cake and presents an...

I was reminded today that I should continue with stories... I have a few short anecdotes about Dad's family. Grandma Hampton (Dad's grandma) had all sons; I'm not sure of the geneology and can't tell you how many, but they all had nicknames; Dad's dad was Slim, and one of his brothers was Slick. I don't know where the names came from. When the family all got together, inevitably the boys would be in the kitchen with their mother, telling her dirty jokes which delighted her. Grandma Hampton had a house on Ann Street in Ventura; the house is no longer there. When Dad would visit with his family as a child, she would kill a chicken and cook it for them all. Apparently she made great chicken and dumplings. The grandkids could play in the yard as long as they left the rain barrel alone! Ventura water was awful (very minerally) and she used the purer rain water to wash her hair. Dad mentioned a tragedy in the family, apparently a bunch of kids were in the back of a pi...