When I went to link up this morning for the Hodgepodge we had the news from Joyce that her dear Mama passed away earlier this week. Our hearts and prayers are with you, Joyce, and with your whole family.
1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine?
I’ve always loved the transition from summer to fall. Even the years I was in school, I welcomed with excitement going back. These days I enjoy the fact that Ladies Bible studies will start up again and there will be more order in our days. I enjoy Fall weather and Fall events like cider fest and the corn maze.
2. Your favorite cookie?
~
I like homemade Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookies with oatmeal, walnuts, almonds, and sometimes coconut!
I use the toll house recipe and load them up with extras.
~
3. What’s something you’ve learned from a culture different than your own?
~
I grew up in Southern California just outside East Los Angeles and the neighborhoods we lived in were multi cultural with Mexicans, Jews, Russians, Armenians, Japanese, Scots, and Heinz 57 Americans. I included Scots, although I only first heard of anyone who was Scottish in 5th grade when Karen’s parents moved to Montebello and she was introduced as a new student in our class. I was enthralled with her from the start and she taught me a few Scottish dance moves that we shared with the class for show and tell. I think we sang a song, too, The Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomand.
Apart from the great food we enjoyed in the homes of my friends from these cultures, I learned about the Jewish custom of coming of age.
A bar mitzvah and a bat mitzvah are both Jewish coming-of-age milestones. A bar mitzvah (“son of commandment’) marks the religious maturity of a boy at the age 13, while a bat mitzvah (daughter of the commandment) marks the religious maturity of a girl, traditionally at age 12.
I was invited to one of my Jewish friends Bat Mitzvah and I was blown away by the lavishness of the celebration!
These are my multi-cultural Cheer friends from my high school at a Russian dinner at my house before a football game. (My Scottish friend from 5th grade, Karen, is the one with the rollers in her hair). We would have a meal at a different Cheer members home before Varsity games. They are eating borsch. That was just one of the food items my mother prepared for them. I think I see piroshky on the table, also. After the meal we would all get our cheer clothes on and head to the game for a night where we would work off every calorie we ate at dinner!
This is one of my best buddies from school days, Nanc. I spent a lot of time in her home where I learned how to make guacamole and we learned every popular Leslie Gore song by heart. Her parents brought me along to Mexican restaurants with them and to the downtown wholesale fashion district for shopping. Growing up, my family did not eat in restaurants so that was an eye opening experience all its own. Her dad drove a Volkswagon Square back and we spent many miles in that little car. One summer when she got back from visiting her uncle who was a jeweler in Mexico City she gifted me the ring below that he made for me.
While we were living in Camarillo for a short time Nanc and I reconnected online and we met up a couple of times for meals and to catch up on life. The photo above is of one of our meet ups. I hadn’t seen her for 40 years! There is a long story about that…
~
4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic…which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why.
~
Of these choices I’d choose the Food Critic hat because I love to travel and I love to try new restaurants and eat good food. I’d have a hard time writing bad critiques, though. I’ll just choose to be a traveler and enjoy trying new food in different places and being satisfied.
I’m not a film buff, or the reader of a variety of genres, and I’m definitely not artsy.
5. What’s a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly?
This will give you a little insight into my character. I remember hiding from my mother and father on Saturday mornings because I did not want to go to Russian School. When they found me, I would stomp my feet and say, “I’m an American!”. Well that didn’t work. In my latter years I was thankful to have learned the Russian alphabet and to learn to read and write in Russian.
To say “I am American” in Russian, use Я американец (if you are male) or Я американка (if you are female). If you want to say “I am from America” or “from the USA,” you can say Я из Америки or Я из США.
Я американка, Yah Amereekanka, I am American.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
These questions pulled up a lot of memories from my past.
These next photos from my high school years might show one of the reasons for my interest in sports. These were taken from 1966 to 1968 at my home and at Montebello High School in Montebello, California. Montebello is just East of East L.A.
I was on the Song leader squad in my junior and senior years. The first few photos are from my junior year.
Every Friday before game time we would have a Pepster Squad Dinner at one of the Pepsters’ homes. When the squads came to my house my mother would prepare a Russian meal. We enjoyed this time together before game time. It was easy to lose 5 pounds in one night of cheerleading.
This was my best friend and she was a flag twirler our Junior year. In our senior year we were both Song leaders.
Some more of my friends Judy, Shelly and Bet. The hanging of Dumbo is a long story.
It was crazy hat night at our Basketball game. Looks like we were playing the Whittier Cards? Shuffle the Cards was our motto for the night.
Our uniforms changed every year but they were always some combination of blue and gold our school colors. This was my senior year.
It was crazy hat night again.
We’d always go out for fast food after the game to try to gain back some of the weight we’d lose in the course of cheering during the games.
The Pep squad would have their own Physical Education hour together to practice our routines and to learn all the rules connected with the different sports we would cheer on the sidelines for. I remember studying the rules for football and learning all the referee signs. It has come in handy in understanding what’s going on when I watch sports now. These were the days when you had to have your P.E. uniform washed each weekend at home and brought back on Monday pressed and ready for the week. After class you were also required to take a shower in those group shower stalls and get your name checked off. I don’t think kids use uniforms anymore for Physical Education. Did you have uniforms in high school for P.E.?
We had a very quiet Monday here. After all the excitement yesterday with the Super Bowl it was nice to have a quiet day. Katie and I are talking about going to the Super Bowl parade in Seattle on Wednesday.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, our new dishwasher is coming to be installed. I’ll have to learn a different technique in filling the new one.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 