Precious Memories Sharing Joy, Love and Lifelines
A Family Reunion
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
The Fun of Cooking
Grandpa and Grandma Rollins’ children all knew
how to make baked beans. Each child was
famous for them in their own rights.
Aunt Hope was daddy’s youngest sister.
She called him her baby brother. Whenever Aunt Hopey, bought baked beans
to the family reunion all activities stopped. Baseballs were thrown down, horseshoes were dropped and those
that were nearest to her table were the luckiest to get first dibs on “Aunt
Hope’s baked beans.
She would bring a very large pot, but it would never
be enough. Our family is large, and
before you know it the pot would be empty.
Sarah, Aunt Gladys daughter, makes a very good pot of baked beans. She is now a Grandmother, and so I’m sure
the tradition will continue.
If you wanted to eat something a little different,
it’s to Aunt Alma’s you would go. She
could have had her own cooking show. Stuffing this and that, like Julia Childs.
No, not chicken or turkey, but lamb or pork chops. Ha! She had a lot of unique menus and could bake
out of this world.
My mother Fannie was Aunt Alma’s younger sister and
they both cooked very well. My mom was
famous for her Lemon Meringue pie, her ginger bread, and actually anything she
cooked was simply superb.
On Sunday before church service was over, one by one
a few of the members would try to rush downstairs unnoticed, in order to be
sure to get a piece of Fannie’s Gingerbread or Mrs. Paige’s Sugar Cookies. Most everything was made from scratch, and
there was never anything left over. Ha!
Well Aunt Alma and my mother had a very good teacher
- my Grandmother-. Grandma Bassette used to start cooking Sunday dinner on
Saturday. She made her own bread, and
it was fun watching her mash the dough down after it had risen. I sure wish I had that recipe today. She also made her own jellies and jams. There was always jelly in the making. She would put the grapes in a big beige and
brown crock-pot and it would just sit there fermenting. I remember wondering how long would it take
before it would be ready for consumption.
Yummy! When it was ready, she
would put the jelly in a jar with melted wax on the top. This
when cooled off sealed the flavor and the freshness of the jelly in the
Ball Mason Jars.
Grandma Bassette’s son, my Uncle Johnny and his wife
Lucille, lived two houses away from her house and had a fig tree in their
yard. So Grandma preserved figs
too. A very, tall, huge pecan tree
shaded grandmas house. Grapes and vegetables were grown in the back yard and
blueberries and raspberries grew wild in the back woods. What’s not to
love?
As children we would go into the woods to pick
berries, being careful to watch out for the sticky thorns that would stick to
your clothes, and the bees, and hornets who when disturbed would sting you.
Ha! Careful! It was fun and quite worth it all. The reward was that anything we brought back would then be made
into something good to eat, perhaps a blueberry or raspberry pie. Or sometimes we would just sprinkle the
berries on our cereal or eat them from our hand – one by delicious one.
The pigs were in their pigpens on the side of the
house, and they were as happy as pigs in mud.
There was a beautiful cycle going on in those days. Food that was left over from the dinner
table was given to the pigs, and the pigs seemed, oh so happy, to get it. They
made so much noise oinking when being feed.
Ha! In those days you didn’t
have to go to the store for much.
Everything was fresh and you only had to go as far as your yard or your
neighbors yard to get it.
My Stepmother, Bertha, could also cook. She did not make pastry, but that was no
problem. My Mother Fannie had already
established my taste buds for sweets and it was just too easy to go upstairs to
Aunt Alma’s to satisfy my sweet tooth.
Sunday’s traditional meal, and I mean practically
every Sunday, my stepmother would prepare collard greens, string beans, baked
macaroni, fried chicken, home made biscuits and sometimes tomato pudding,
cranberry or applesauce on the side.
Wholecake biscuits were a treat.
Wholecake biscuits is one big biscuit made in a black iron pan. My mother really got started making whole cake biscuits because of our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Black. Whenever I ate at their house they had it, and I would constantly beg Mrs. Black to make it. My mother surprised me one Sunday with whole cake biscuits. What’s not
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This book is a storytelling venture. The idea was planted originally by my cousin
Stephen. He once said, “My mother
always talked about how it was years ago”.
So this is an attempt to tell Stephen and the rest of the young people
in my family and in all families what it was like – way back then.
Part I starts the book off with what was the trip of
a lifetime. My travels to Senegal West
Africa. Part I ends with the reader at
my family reunion listening as I greet and meet the family. I try to give them a feeling of what goes on
there in the course of the day.
Part II is filled with information about the good
old days. While Part III gives an
intimate peek into my childhood. Part
IV, V, and VI really gives a lot of information about the family
traditions.
This book runs the full gamut of emotions. You will laugh, you may cry. You will have some serious thoughts, but you
are sure to have plenty of fun. Some
chapters are going to make your mouth water, as I give you a peek at some of
the family recipes. Ha!
About the Author
The author of Precious Memories started her writing
career at a very early age. Encouraged
to write by her grandmother, who lived in Hampton, Virginia, she wrote long
letters informing Grandma Bassette of what was going on with all of her
children who had married into the Rollins family and consequently moved to live
in Providence, RI.
Throughout the author’s lifetime she would often
find herself involved with writing in one way or another, and always enjoyed
it. She was involved in her community
and was the editor of her Tenant’s Association’s Newsletter which was
circulated to approximately 2,000 households.
In 1980 she started her own newsletter, which communicated reflections,
thoughts, helpful hints, and great ideas.
She had quite a following, and community participation was
substantial. Ms. Rollins also is a
writer of poetry. For several years
during her working career she worked in the Consumer Affairs Department of the
United States Post Office where she was responsible for writing letters of
resolution of customer’s complaints.
She could hardly believe that she was being paid for doing something
that she just loved to do anyway.
Although the author often had ideas of writing short
stories, the idea of writing this book “Precious Memories” was firmly planted
by one of her cousins. He was very
interested in anything she could tell him about the good old days. Although she tried very hard to tell him
about the days gone by, she never felt it was quite enough. Over the years she collected many precious
memories about her family. She often
thought, one day I’ll write a book.