MK's Family Page

I haven’t had much of a chance to post lately. But I couldn’t let the Geneabloggers’ prompt for this week go unwritten. This week’s prompt is “Favorite Food.” 

I really do not remember one favorite food in particular, but I do have some good food memories. I was not particular fond of milk and my mother was always trying to find ways for me to get my calcium. One of my favorites was grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell’s Cream of Tomato soup.

I used to like to eat peanut butter by the spoonful (in fact I still like to do that) and my mother would scold me when she caught me. As a child I never could figure out why she did that. My only guess is that I was probably double dipping my spoon into the peanut butter. My siblings liked to eat sugar by the spoonful; I never cared about that.

For my birthday I always liked to have an angel food cake with chocolate icing. The cake was always store bought as my mother did not bake cakes. But often the frosting was put on at home.

Another favorite food memory was when we would visit Texarkana and my Aunt Florene would take us out to eat at the local hamburger  joint. I liked my hamburger with lettuce, tomato, mustard and pickles (I still like them that way though now I eat turkey burgers instead). And of course they had to be accompanied by French Fries.

As a child I was a fussy eater and not real adventuresome as far as food was concerned. But while living in Hutchinson Kansas, I discovered Mexican food. My first introduction to this food genre was when I was in fourth grade. One of my girl friend’s mother made and sold Mexican food from her home kitchen. I would often visit my friend after school. One game we use to play was Statues, in which we would be spun around and assume funny positions.  Her mom would treat us with hot buttered tortillas hot off the grill. Yum, Yum. I graduated to tacos when my parents would buy them from her and bring them home for dinner. Today Mexican food is a staple in our house.

Till next time, MK

This week’s topic in Geneabloggers prompts for “52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History” is Cars.

My first car is one I purchased with my first husband, Loren E. Davis. It was a green Ford Maverick. This had to have been about1970. Before that he had a white Chevrolet Corvair.  The Corvair in my opinion was a very bad car design wise and had lots of problems. When I was pregnant with my first daughter, Mary, and living in the Santa Barbara area, it used to stall out and I would have to get out and push it to get it started again. Luckily people would see me and come over and help. Also we would drive from Santa Barbara to LA in it and on U.S. Highway 101 there is a steep hill that we would pray the car would get over. As we approached the zenith each time the car would lose power and go down to 35 miles an hour max. people behind us would get irritated if they could not pass us.

The Maverick served me well and was my car, as Loren had a company car he used. I used to pile in  the girls and neighborhood kids when we lived in the Valley and head to Malibu or Zuma Beach. I really enjoyed driving Malibu Canyon Road with its twists and turns. Other times I would take the girls to the LA zoo or the museums or anyplace in in LA that sounded educational or fun.

The car lasted as long as my marriage. The Maverick began to die on the Cahuenga Pass when I would go to pick up or return the girls to  the Valley from Huntington Beach, my new home after 10 years of marriage. The judge at my divorce proceeding laughed when Loren said that the Maverick was an asset I was getting. I retained my maiden name and got a new car all at the same time.

After the Maverick my cars have included a Toyota Tercel, a white VW Sirocco, a red Toyota 4 wheel station wagon, a grey Toyota truck, a few non descript, immemorial cars I had when I sold real estate, a red PT Cruiser and my current navy VW Passat, which I really like.

To me, cars mean independence. When a teenager I could venture out on my own. As a young adult and mother I could seek out adventures with my girls. As a professional, I could relocated anywhere in the country.  As a REALTOR and then sales rep, I could earn a living. Currently my car allows me to be involved in my community and visit other parts of the country. If that day comes when it is no longer save for me to drive, I think it will a sad day for me.

In fact I feel so lucky to be living in an age and country where I have such freedom and mobility. I often wonder how different my life would have been if raised in a more restrictive time or country. Topic for another day.

MK

Cook home in Texarkana, Arkansas. A Goodyear Tire company exists there now. Here is a link to a map.

This year Geneabloggers weekly prompts are entitled “52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History,” and the theme this week is “Winter Memories.” I hope I do better on this theme topic than on the one for last year. I think I only got through week 2 or maybe even 4, but obviously not very far.

Growing up in a family that moved around a lot, it is hard to recollect what winter was like where I grew up. I do remember one winter in Hutchinson, Kansas. I was in the third and fourth grade when we lived there. We lived in a subdivision and our home backed up to a corn field. My school was only a few blocks from home and I walked there every school day. In fact our church met at this school because the church was new and did not have a building yet. One winter it snowed a lot, but schools were not closed. I remember walking to and from school. The snow drifts were high. I do not remember being cold or what kind of clothes I had to keep me warm.

Around Christmas one year we went to visit my mother’s sister, Mary Katherine Sain Wooten, and her family. I think they were living in Oklahoma, but I could be mistaken. Her husband, Charles Wooten, was in the Army and this was one time where we did not live too, too far from each other and could play with our cousins, Kathy (she went by Jessie then) and Chuck. 

The other weather related memory about Hutchinson was that there was hardly a day that went by that the wind did not blow. I remember my mother complaining about the dust.

Though my mother did not like living in Hutchinson, as it was a big change from Naples Italy, where we had moved from, I loved living there. It was a small, family oriented town. I made friends, had a lot of freedom and there was a lot to do as a kid.

I do not have any pictures of this time frame. I used to have one of myself with short hair. But it has been missing for a number of years. I liked my hair in this picture. It was one of the few times my mother had not given  me a permanent, which made my hair go hay wire.

As usual I rambled on and got off topic, but that is how it goes when you start remembering.

Until next time, MK.