Peanut Butter Fudge Recipe

Our guest blogger today is Patricia Cole Tucker, whom I met in an online recipe group. I loved what she shared there.

Patricia wrote, “This is my mom’s handwritten peanut butter fudge recipe. She passed four years ago this month. This recipe was one of my favorite things she made. When she passed away I framed it and hung it in my kitchen.

I sometimes make it just like she did and other times it is a flop. However, every time I make it my mind is flooded with memories of me watching her make it and hearing her laugh with me each time I tried to make it.”

Patricia Cole Tucker framed her mother’s handwritten recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge.

The recipe, lovingly displayed with lace and a burlap rose in a vintage style frame, is a tribute to her mother and their good times together in the kitchen.

For easier reading, I’ll transcribe her recipe.

Peanut Butter Fudge

2 cups sugar                 1 jar marshmallow creme – small

1 tbls cocoa                  1 – 12 oz peanut butter

1 cup milk                    1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, milk – cook to soft ball stage. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, marshmallow creme, vanilla. Beat until thickens. Pour into greased pan, cut in squares.

Someone commented, “there is nothing more comforting than seeing my mom’s handwriting. I miss her so much. Thanks for sharing your awesome creation!”

Hang your framed recipe where it won’t get direct sunlight that might fade the ink or you can buy special glass that blocks UV rays. This is an idea that we all can take to heart.

 

Gail’s Great-Grandfather

Gail Martin’s Book Includes Abraham Bates Tower – Her Great-Grandfather

In researching family history, Gail grew to admire her Civil War ancestor. He was her great-grandfather who died when Gail was 6-years-old. I don’t think she had personal memories of him, but what she found out about his life impressed her.

Abraham Tower grew up in Indiana and joined the Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War years. Leaving his wife and two children, he marched away to war with thousands of other young men.

Three long years passed as he lived the hard life of a Union soldier marching many miles as part of Sherman’s Tallahatchie March, participated in the siege of Vicksburg, and was captured at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads. Imprisoned in the horrendous conditions at Andersonville Prison, Abraham barely survived the starvation and diseases there.

Finally, the war was over and he rejoined his wife and children. They had moved to Missouri to be with family since he was “missing in action.” His health was affected by his imprisonment but he went on to live a long life. Gail’s grandmother was one of the children born to Abraham and Nancy Tower after the war.

Gail Lee Martin’s Memoir

A childhood on the Kansas prairies in the 1930s springs vividly to life in the detailed memories of Gail Martin. Her simple accounts of long ago school days, celebrations and family life are a treasure. Travel back in time to experience life in the Flint Hills during the Great Depression and the time leading up to World War II.

The memories include her father’s work in the oil field, trips to town in the family’s Model A, raising her pet badger, fishing on the Cottonwood River, and wearing dresses made from feed sack material.

The book also explores her family’s role in early Kansas history with details of covered wagons, homesteading, the Civil War, and fledgling industries. These range from Tyro to Teterville to Eureka.

This most recent edition includes a section with About The Author and a McGhee, Vining, and Tower Family Album.

 

Gail and the Boarding Houses of the War Years

Gail Lee Martin’s notes about the boarding houses she lived in while working at Boeing in the 1940s. These are emails between her and her daughter Karen. All the photos were taken by Karen a few years ago. The houses are still there.

Both of the emails date from July 15, 2011.

The email was in response to the photos of the house on Emporia Street that I sent her:

“I really enjoyed living in the 2nd tower room until I got the intestinal flu and the bathroom was downstairs.”

That’s when her Mother came to take care of her and immediately found the rooming house for her on Pattie Street.

Pattie Street house in Wichita where our mom lived in WWI while working at Boeing Aircraft. Photo by her daughter, Karen K.

This email is about the one on Pattie Street:

“Sure looks like the house Mrs. Dixon owned and I lived in the front downstairs bedroom, with the door opening off the front room.  There was a grocery store east across the street where I bought a package of 6 cinnamon rolls and ate them on the way to work.  The bus stopped there during the daytime and then I had to change buses to go on to Boeing.  Even the front door looks the same.  It was 1000 S. Pattie.”

You’ll remember that she often had to work after the buses had stopped running in the evening and that she walked (most?) of the way home.  I can’t imagine that she walked all the way from Boeing though.

Just checked and Boeing was 5 miles south of where she lived at 1000 S. Pattie,  South Wichita has never been safe, but maybe during the war people were more respectful of those involved in the war effort and refrained from raping the girls.

Maybe the buses just ran a limited route after hours and she didn’t have to walk the whole way.

Karen

I Love Cemeteries

I’ve always found old cemeteries fascinating. You never know what you’ll find there. Perhaps I inherited this interest from my mother. Gail Lee Martin spent many hours in graveyards while tracking down ancestors and looking for birth and death dates to add to the family tree.

Pause for a minute to scan the moss-covered stones and trace a finger over the engraved lettering.

I visited this cemetery in Longmeadow, Massachusetts some years ago.

Who was this person that lies beneath this gravestone? What was his life like and why did he die? Sometimes you find family groupings and can piece together the family’s story. Perhaps the father died in the war, leaving a young widow. Nearby is a stone for their child who died too young. Was it an accident, an epidemic or other misfortune?

A child’s grave in Frankfort, KY.

I’m always intrigued by the long-lived ones, octogenarians and even ones who lived into their nineties. It’s particularly striking when the stone is for someone who lived in the 1700s or the 1800s. In those days, the life span was much shorter, but you find some who were remarkably long-lived.

As a genealogist, I’m usually looking for specific ancestors as I wander through a cemetery. Still, I can’t resist checking out other people’s dead relatives while I’m there.

There’s something timeless and soothing about a sunny day of wending ones way among the marble markers that represent lives of those long gone. Here’s an old graveyard that I discovered in New Hampshire called the Perkins Hill Cemetery. You can read about the interesting graves I found there.

I’ve even stopped by a cemetery on a snowy day. This photo is from Ohio where I lived in the 1970s. The sky was threatening more snow and I couldn’t resist stopping to capture it with my camera. I wish I’d had a better camera back then.

A cemetery in winter near Chardon, Ohio.

Do you find graveyards scenic and interesting?

 

(all photos by Virginia Allain)

Coping with Reading Addiction

How to Cope with Reading Addiction

If you love to read, do you know when reading becomes more than just a pastime or hobby? Has your reading crossed the line into addiction? Here are steps to assess this and also to help you cope with your reading addiction.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step 1

Answer these questions to see if you are addicted to reading.

1. Have you tried unsuccessfully to cut back on your reading?
2. Are you preoccupied with thoughts of the book when you are away from it?
3. Does reading help you escape from your problems?

These are similar to questions used in surveys by the American Psychological Association to determine internet addiction and gambling addiction.

Addicted to reading? Here’s a stack of books for you.

Step 2

Actually, being a book addict isn’t the worst thing in the world. I, personally, would like to see more “book addicts”. Wouldn’t you rather have addictive personalities turned onto reading rather than to drugs? Just imagine, if teenagers after school couldn’t wait to get a book instead of seeking out their local drug dealer.

If they were reading addicts, few people would try to change their behavior or ask them to get therapy. Reading, even in large amounts, is generally viewed as a positive activity. Everyone would admire such a wide background gained through reading.

Step 3

At what point does an addiction become a problem? When an addiction disrupts a relationship or leads people to commit illegal acts or to spend too much money, then it definitely is a social problem. Some people try to hide their addictions. They realize their behavior, whether it is excessive drinking or drug use, is not socially acceptable. Addictions are a problem if they affect your health or keep you from performing your job.

Here’s a self-test to take: Make a list of problems associated with your reading. Do you still recognize your family members when you pull yourself out of a book? Have you gone into debt buying books? Does it make you anxious when you don’t have an unread book on hand? Do you sneak out of work to visit a bookstore or library, just so you can be surrounded by books? How many book groups do you belong to? Do you resist switching to an e-reader because you crave the smell of paper as you read?

Step 4

I probably would be classified as a binge reader. Sometimes I go weeks without reading, while at other times I devour several books in a row. I might read late into the night, not able to put the book down until the very end. I know I’ll be sorry in the morning when it is hard to get out of bed. A novel is sometimes so compelling that I just can’t tear myself away. Reading a really good book creates the desire to read more.

How would you classify your reading? Can you stop if you want to? Is it just social reading so you can discuss the book with friends and the book club? Is it compulsive reading that you can’t stop doing? Do you escape into a book then have a hard time coming back to the real world? Is it hard for you to go to sleep at night if you don’t read for a while first?

Step 5

I hope therapists never label it as a psychological disorder. Libraries would become those dens of iniquity where the reading addicts get their fix. Librarians would face prison terms for providing books to addicts. Books would carry labels warning “CAUTION: this book could lead to addictive reading”.

Step 6

Maybe a ten-step program could be developed. People would attend the weekly meetings, stand up and say, “My name is ___, and I am a compulsive reader.” When they felt the urge to read, they could call another member who would help talk them out of it.

Until that time, enjoy reading as much as you want.

Tips & Warnings

• Try setting a timer when you start to read. Force yourself to put the book down and spend an equal amount of time with the family.
• Consider dropping subscriptions to book-of-the-month clubs. Get library cards instead at all the libraries within a 50-mile radius.
• Addiction to books and reading can start at a very early age. Be alert for signs of it in your toddler and young children.
• Write book reviews for Amazon or other sites. It serves as a way to keep track of your reading. Also when you reach Top 100 Reviewer status, authors will send you free books to read and review. Family and friends may accept your excessive reading as it has a purpose (beyond entertaining yourself).

Resources

Find a library near you

(Written by Virginia Allain, former library director)