Remember When? By Lisa Sydnor
Susan Remembers When Family traditions? Yes, we certainly had traditions. We had hayrides; they were a time to snuggle with your favorite guy(gal)! At the destination, we built a huge bonfire, ‘cause it was COLD, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows around the fire and sang. As a child, my favorite tradition was going to the pumpkin patch to select my pumpkin to carve. On Halloween, we went house-to-house and covered the whole town. Of course, the population of my hometown was only around 2100 people and I was related to most of them! We had a very big extended family and everyone had their specialties they made for holidays. One of my aunts made taffy every year. I swear I must have pulled 10 miles of taffy every Thanksgiving weekend. We would add the taffy to the boxes of goodies being given as Christmas gifts to friends and family. Liz Remembers When Traditions? We didn’t have traditions. I was raised in California and during the fall my family would go to the beach, build a bonfire, go night fishing, and cook what we caught. Being a musical family, we sang and played various instruments, such as guitar, tambourine, harmonica, & mariachis. My “Ma” was our vocalist. She led our singa-longs and the rest of us joined in even when off-key! Maybe we did have a tradition, I just never thought of it in that way. Pat Remembers When I never actually thought we had family traditions. As a child, we were what you might call “dirt poor”. There was no Halloween celebration but we always went to my grandparent’s home for Thanksgiving. We had turkey and dressing and everyone sat at the table to eat. Later on my husband, Bob, who was a very good cook, began our family tradition. He loved to cook, especially holiday or special event meals. We had turkey, dressing, ham and his great pumpkin pies and amazing chocolate cake. After his death, my son insisted we cook “Dad’s meal” to continue the tradition. I have to admit neither of us could match Bob’s expertise in the kitchen. Another tradition I loved, my best friend made heavenly divinity, and every holiday, I got a box of divinity. I looked forward to her special box of homemade divinity and other homemade candies. Ron Remembers When My favorite tradition was Trick or Treating, my favorite holiday! Back then we had “neighborhoods” and we could go to every house in our neighborhood. We used
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