Dinner at 6 on Hoyt Street

Lately - I've been cooking in the crock pot adding one package of Lipton dry onion soup mix on top for 12 hours whether it is pork, beef or chicken. Then when I get it out I shred it and put it in small containers for one meal easy cooking. It sure has been making life easier on the run. And I love the garlic mashed potatoes in the refrigerator containers - ee gad - I'm starting to cook like Mom after just Jim and Jane were home!!!!!

When Jane tells you something tastes like Mom's cooking - well - I'm not sure whether that is compliment or not because Mom was working and after Dad died I don't think cooking dinner was a top priority - when Kathy or Larry tell you it tastes like Mom's cooking - you know that is a compliment - when Jim tells you - again - not sure because he had both styles of cooking. When we were growing up Mom spent hours cooking our dinners - 6:00 (right after Kathy came home from work at Bertie's Bakery. Sometimes after watching Superman on TV - Dad and I would walk down to meet her. It was always an experience walking with my Dad - he would do a double take with his feet if you were trying to walk in the same cadence as he was and then you had to do the same to get back in rhythm! It was fun.

Anyway - every night a friend of my brother Jim's would call - and Jim would have to tell him we were eating dinner and he would call him back! Can you imagine - every single night! And lots of times my sister's friend, Nancy, would come over to eat with us.

Sometimes after dinner we would get to go to Andersen Pool to go swimming during family night swimming. That was my favorite time with my Dad and sister Jane - he would pick us up and throw us into the water (until a lifeguard would yell at us.)

Jane and I were talking about memories this morning - it triggered these: I have many fond memories of the kitchen on Hoyt Street. Mom's several kinds of jam in the cupboard, the Novena we were praying every night after dinner written on the chalk board, the maid's stairway up to the pantry and to the maid's bedroom (of course we never had a maid - but it was fun having a back stairway, looking out to the backyard where every winter Mom would say she was taking the fry pan outside to melt the snow, the times when Mom would put our names on milk bottles so she knew if we were getting our milk, Kathy and I sitting at the table while I listened to her as she practiced her forensic talk from "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," Dad sitting at the head of the table, helping Mom do dishes at the sink, watching Larry eat Peanut Butter sandwiches when he didn't like what was for dinner (most anything other than chicken or spaghetti caused him to have a sandwich!)and best of all when Mom and the aunts made Christmas cookies weeks in advance.

We are planning a family get together - Jane and I were saying it will be fun to get to hear everyone's memories! I can't wait to see all of you!