July 31, 2012

Tomorrow is August 1, 2012; had she lived Ms Alberta would have been 86 years old.

I don’t think we ever get over the loss of a father, mother or child; the grief of their passing just gets a little easier to bear.

Ramblings from Ann

Ms Alberta had visitors from near and far while she was fighting cancer. I didn’t always remember to take pictures while they were visiting. This is something that I regret very much. Ms Alberta believed in documenting everything that happened with pictures; a habit I need to acquire.

Friends: Four Legged as Well

When my ex-husband died from cancer in 2008 I inherited his little brindled Boston Terrier, Chyna. I’ve always told the kids Chyna was his revenge on me because she snores louder than Heinz ever did.

Chyna loved Ms Alberta very much. One night when I tried to put Chyna in my room to sleep she let me know in no uncertain terms that she wanted to sleep in the living room on the couch. So, since she isn’t spoiled at all, I let her sleep on the couch.

When I got up the next morning I couldn’t find Chyna anywhere. I looked all over the house, even under my bed. I knew there was no way Chyna could be in Ms Alberta’s room, because that door was closed. I looked and worried until it was time for Ms Alberta to take her first medicine of the day.

When I opened the door, there was Chyna snuggled up to Ms Alberta’s back. “Good Morning!” Ms Alberta called; “How are you this morning?”

“I’m doing fine. Have you seen my dog?” I asked. “No.” Ms Alberta answered. “Have you lost Chyna? Where could she be?”

“Do you really not know where she is?” I asked. “No. I don’t.” Ms Alberta answered.

“Try looking behind you.” I said. “How did she get there?” Ms Alberta was as surprised as I was.

We finally figured out that when Ms Alberta had gotten up to use the bathroom that Chyna had slipped into her room and then after Ms Alberta had gone back to sleep, Chyna had jumped up onto the bed.

Ms Alberta laughed and said, “That explains why my back stayed so warm last night.”

Chyna and Ms Alberta after the Great Escape

Chyna 2009

Christmas 2010
Ms Alberta sent her a new collar for Christmas

Recipe: Michael’s Fried Apples

4 to 5 medium apples, unpeeled                                 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar                                                      ½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ cup orange juice                                                      3 to 4 teaspoons butter

Cut and slice the apples and place them in a 10 inch fry pan. Add brown sugar, orange juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Dot the top the apples with butter. Use medium high heat until sugar dissolves and butter melts. 

Lower heat to medium and continue cooking until liquid is thick and apples are soft. This makes four servings.

Source Unknown except for the name Michael.

Friends: James Collins Jennings – J. C. Jennings

James Collins Jennings was born April 8, 1910 in Bracken County, Kentucky and died December 22, 1978 in Hardin County, Kentucky, of lung cancer.

J.C. Jennings, Jim to his friends, worked as a photographer for the Lexington Herald and the E’town News (later called The Hardin County Enterprise, and later The News Enterprise). J. C. Jennings was the official photographer for the Hardin County and Larue County Fairs (1964 to 1974).

Jim taught Ms Alberta how to take photographs and how to develop them for the results that she wanted. I can’t help but feel that the chemicals used in developing the photos is one of the causes and one of the reasons that both Jim and Ms Alberta died of lung cancer. Then too we should take into account that they both were heavy smokers. Jim smoked right up to his death; but Ms Alberta quit cold turkey, after fifty nine years of smoking and remained smoke free until her death.

Jim - 1978

Jim - 1978 in Ms Alberta's dining room
 Cherrywood Drive, Elizabethtown, KY

Recipe: Maxine High’s Corn Pudding

Maxine High is from Radcliff, KY

¼ cup all purpose flour                                     Salt

¼ cup sugar                                                      Pepper

3 eggs                                                              15 ¼ ounce can whole kernel corn, drained

6 tablespoons butter

Combine all ingredients and blend well. Pour into buttered pan and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Serves 4 to 6. The recipe can be doubled.

Recipe: Pumpkin Chip Cookies

 – Makes 5 dozen

From Marion Lawson to Ms Alberta 2007

2 small or 1 – 1 lb. can of pumpkin                             2 teaspoons baking soda

4 teaspoons baking powder                                        1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon                                                 4 cups flour

2 cups sugar                                                                2 beaten eggs

2 tablespoons milk                                                      1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla                                                       1 – 16 oz. package chocolate chips

1 Cup nuts

Mix all ingredients together. Drop by teaspoons full onto cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 14 minutes. Since ovens vary watch the first batch closely to keep them from scorching.

Recipe: Mississippi Mud Cake

Cake Ingredients:

2 sticks margarine, room temperature                          4 eggs

2 cups white sugar                                                      2 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup coconut                                                            1 ½ cups chopped pecans

1 teaspoon vanilla                                                       1 ½ cups all purpose flour

Frosting Ingredients::

1 lb (4 ¾ cup) powdered sugar                                   ½ cup margarine, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla                                                       ½ cup cocoa

½ cup evaporated milk

Mix all ingredients together and place in greased and floured 13 X 9 X 2 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. While still warm, spread one jar of marshmallow cream over top of cake. Mix frosting ingredients together. Spread frosting on top.

Note: This recipe is from Ms Alberta's Recipe File; there is no credit given to who she got it from.

Don't Forget

The alarm didn’t go off, I got up late,

My feet hit the floor on the run.

Wouldn’t you know that’d be my fate?

Today was a terrible date,

A big shindig at the store.

No time for quiet or to pray;

That’d have to wait for later today.

“Get up children we have to run,”

Still sleepy they want to debate,

“Just five more minutes to snore”

“No,” I said, “We should be out the door.”

Not really liking what life had dealt.

With unbent knee and hasty breath,

I quickly mumble to myself,

“Help me Lord - they worry me to death,”

I still remember when they were born and how my heart did melt.

It’s not been that long since they were first held.

At the end of a long stressful day, I finally knelt.

God where were you today?

It was a really rotten day.

The thought entered my over strained brain;

I knew why I felt so drained.

I had not done my part,

This whole long day I had forgotten to pray.

Like sunshine after a sudden rain,

His love filled my wounded heart.

All I had to do was do my part;

So He could take away the pain.

When you are having a really hard time and nothing seems to go right; pause a moment and see if you have forgotten one of the most important things in life - Don't let your day start without communication with Our Lord. No matter how things are rushing at you, the day will go better if you pause for prayer. God Bless you. 

The Flower Bed Bandit – Part 2

Ms Alberta went home after the weekend. Miss Teri continued to sit on her front porch every morning before work for her coffee and to count her Naked Ladies. Ms Alberta was given an update on how many more lilies had come up over night.

One morning, when Miss Teri counted her Naked Ladies; there were fewer plants than there had been the day before. When she started looking to see what was going on; she found that in places there were bare spots where the Naked Ladies had been pulled out by the roots. “This is war!” she declared; no critter was going to steal her precious Naked Ladies.

For about a week Miss Teri tried various gentle traps to try to catch her Flower Bed Bandit. Miss Teri had a soft heart and didn’t really want to kill whatever was taking her Ladies; she just wanted the critter gone from her flower beds.

One morning Miss Teri was up a little earlier than usual. She and Mr. Barry decided they would go out and watch the sun come up while they had their coffee and a cigarette. Miss Teri had her coffee fixed sooner than Mr. Barry so she started out ahead of him to the front porch.

Miss Teri placed her coffee cup on the table between the two chairs on the front porch and as usual glanced over to count the Naked Ladies. Just as she glanced over she saw a critter in the middle of the Ladies with one of the plants hanging from its jaws. Miss Teri started screaming at the top of her lungs. She didn’t know what that critter was but he sure was bigger than she wanted to tackle!

Mr. Barry came running out the front door, saw the critter and started chasing it. Several times he could almost touch its tail; but it was a fast runner and ran for all it was worth across the road and into the drainage ditch in front of the church across the road.

Mr. Barry came back and sat down to catch his breath. When Miss Teri asked him what it was he told her he wasn’t real sure but he thought it had been a possum; but if it was it was the biggest possum he had ever seen.

That afternoon when Miss Teri came in from work, Mr. Barry told her she wouldn’t have to worry about her Flower Bed Bandit anymore. The possum had not been as quick running back across the road as he had been going and had been taken out by a car passing through.

Morale to the story – look both ways before crossing the street.

The Flower Bed Bandit – Part 1

Once upon a recent time, not so very long ago; a young husband named Mr. Barry and his lovely wife, Ms. Teri, decided to find the perfect place to raise their three beautiful daughters. They looked for a very long time until they found the perfect place that would need some tender loving care and a few final touches to make it just exactly what they wanted.

They added a fence around the back yard to keep their daughters and their dogs safe when they played. Then they added an above ground pool for the daughters to swim in during long summer heat. All it was missing was a flower bed around the front of the house and along the sides.

Miss Teri loved lilies; all types of lilies; calla lilies, day lilies, star gazer lilies. The list went on and on. But there was one lily that Miss Teri did not think she would ever have because she did not know what the lilies name was. The lily had pink blooms that came up on a single spiky rod that grew out of the ground with no leaves of any kind. Her Nana had these lilies when Miss Teri was growing up and she had always thought they were beautiful but she had forgotten the name her Nana had told her they were called by. Now she couldn't get Nana to understand even what kind of flower she was asking about. So Miss Teri knew without the name she would not be able to find the lily so she just gave it up and planted all the other lilies that she loved.

One fine spring morning Miss Teri counted all her beautiful lilies. There were yellow, red, and orange Cannae lilies, purple crocus, orange and gold day lilies, and gold star gazer lilies. But there was a surprise for Miss Teri! There growing in the middle of her carefully planned flower bed showing their beautiful pink flowers were the lilies that she did not know the name of.

They had not been anything she had planted or counted on growing; they had just worked their way from below her carefully planned flower bed and made a home for themselves, not just in the flower bed but in Miss Teri’s heart.

She counted them until she saw their number was over a hundred and she knew by the time they bloomed the next time there should be at least half that number again or maybe even twice that number.

Miss Teri asked everyone who visited if they knew the name of the surprise lilies but no one knew what they were. Then Miss Teri had a call that she was going to get a visit from her Nana, Ms Alberta. Teri knew that as much as Ms Alberta knew about flowers she would finally know the name of the surprise lilies.

And sure enough when Ms Alberta got there she told her the lilies were called Naked Ladies. Ms Alberta also told her that was the largest bed she had ever seen of them.

 Continued tomorrow -

RECIPE: Slow Cooker Beef and Beans

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef                                                 1 tsp. salt

4 to 6 slices bacon, diced                                            1/4 tsp. pepper

1 cup chopped onion                                                   1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar                                                    1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 to 3 teaspoons liquid smoke (optional)

1 (15 oz.) can butter beans or lima beans, drained

1 (15 oz.) can pork and beans, un-drained

Preparation:

Brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat; drain well. Place the ground beef in a 3 1/2 to 4-quart quart slow cooker. In the same frying pan, fry the bacon pieces and onion over medium-low heat, until the bacon is cooked and the onion is tender. Add to the ground beef and mix well. Add the remaining ingredients to the cooker and stir to combine. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low from 4 to 9 hours.

RECIPE: One Bowl Chocolate Chip Cookies – From Ms Alberta’s “From the Back of” File

This is an original recipe from the back of an I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Cooking and Baking sticks box.

Preheat oven to 375º

1 cup (2 sticks) Margarine or Butter                  ½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar               2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup granulated sugar                                      1 12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract                                 1 large egg

In a Large Bowl - Beat together margarine with sugars with an electric mixer or wooden spoon until smooth. Beat in vanilla, egg and baking soda. Stir in flour until blended. Stir in chips.

Drop mixture by heaping tablespoonfuls, w inches apart, on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes or until edges are golden. Remove cookies to wire racks and cool completely before storing.

Recipe Tradition: Thanksgiving and Christmas - Seafood Casserole

2 slightly beaten eggs                                       ¼ cup chopped pimiento

1 (8 oz.) can oysters                                        ¼ tsp. salt

1 can oyster stew                                             dash of pepper

1 (17 oz.) can cream-style corn                        2 Tbsp. melted butter or margarine (topping)

1 cup crushed saltine crackers                          ½ cup crushed saltine crackers (for topping)

1/3 cup finely chopped celery                           ½ cup milk

Combine together beaten eggs, oysters, oyster stew and cream-style corn.

Add 1 cup crushed saltine crackers, celery, milk, pimiento, salt and pepper.

Turn into buttered baking dish (8X8X2 inches).

Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.

Before baking, combine together the 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine and ½ cup crushed saltine crackers. Sprinkle over mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Friends – Engle Davenport

Ms Alberta spoke a lot of one young man she knew, went to school with and was friends with; and under different circumstances, might have married. That young man was Calvin Engle Davenport. When he went off to war he carried a picture of Ms Alberta and they corresponded as much as was possible during the war. I found one V mail letter from him to her in one album.

Ms Alberta had his sterling silver ID bracelet among her affects. Inside are a picture of Engle in uniform and Ms Alberta. The same picture, but cut down to fit the bracelet, that I posted of Ms Alberta with her little sister Sue in the background.

As I was going through Ms Alberta’s photo albums I found this picture of Engle. I felt that it should be added to Ms Alberta’s blog. She spoke so often of this young man who gave his life while defending our freedoms.

Calvin Engle Davenport, born April 3, 1924 - killed in action, Germany July 15, 1944

Ms Alberta and Tradition – Passing of the Wine Making Business

Ms Alberta always made her own wine for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have no idea where the original recipe came from, so I can not give credit for who gave it to Ms Alberta. I just know that from the beginning of the 1970’s until she passed the bottle and her recipe on to her youngest sister; her wine making was another holiday tradition.

When she passed the tradition on to her youngest sister, Sue; Ms Alberta sent her large bottle, her recipe and a Certificate of the Passing of the Wine Making Business. I don’t have a copy of the certificate, even though I was the one who made it for Ms Alberta. I got a new computer and I guess that was another of the things that I lost while sitting it up. At least I have the picture of Ms Alberta holding one of her wine decanters.

Ms Alberta holding one of her Wine Decanters

Now Brother Elmer will know what the story was behind this picture.

CONCORD GRAPE WINE

From “A Cookbook of Treasures”, May 1995 Compiled by Ms Alberta and Anne Thomas

1 (12 oz.) can frozen   Welch’s Concord Grape Juice                   2 lb. Sugar

1 package dry Yeast                                                                          2 cups Water

Mix yeast in water. Add sugar and grape juice. Finish filling jug with warm water; shake to mix.

Put a large balloon (make sure this is a large balloon and that it is not used for helium) on the mouth of the jug; tie a piece of twine around the balloon at the mouth of the jug. Be sure to tie this very tightly. The balloon will expand as the wine works so be sure to have a good clearance for your balloon. The balloon will go down when the wine is finished, approximately 25 days. Strain and put the wine into decanters.

Ms Alberta and Tradition – Five Generations

Ms Alberta loved her family and believed everything needed to be documented; especially special occasions like a fifth generation being born. As soon as possible after a fifth generation baby was born a picture was taken that would be sent to the local newspapers and placed in Ms Alberta’s picture album for preservation of the family history.

Anne’s oldest daughter Christina, married Langley Garner Mullins. Their only son, Broc Alexander Mullins, was born June 30, 1988.

Danny’s oldest son’s daughter Kara had twins; Jacob and Kairi Rupp, born February 2007. Anne’s middle daughter Angela had one daughter, Ceceilia Ann. Ceceilia married Charlie Fouch, Jr; they had a daughter, Kamryn Nora Nicole Fouch, born March 16, 2010.

Anne’s youngest daughter Teri had three daughters and one son. The oldest daughter, Kearstin was married to Kevin Wayne Tipton by Ms Alberta’s pastor Elmer Varnadore. Kassidie Lynn Tipton was born January 9, 2010.

August 1988 - Mom Shoupe, Ms Alberta, Anne, Christina holding Broc

    2007

Kara, Harold Danny Sr holding Kairi, Ms Alberta holding Jacob and Harold Danny Jr

   2010

Ms Alberta, Anne,.Angela and Cely holding Kamryn

   2011

Keary holding Kassidie, Teri, Ms Alberta and Anne

Mom Shoupe died December 1, 1989 of congestive heart failure.

Since Ms Alberta’s death May 2011, Cely and Wes have had a son, Aiden McClellan Fouch born Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2011.

Ms Alberta and the Wax Museum – Part Two

Some of the figures Ms Alberta dressed are pictured here marked by an X.

 

Booker T Washington
                                                         Mary Todd Lincoln
                         

  John F. Kennedy - Ms Alberta said that Herbert Allen Moore was never quite satisfied with the wax figure of John F. Kennedy.

Unfortunately there can no longer be tours taken by Ms Alberta’s children, grand children, great grand children, other family members, or friends. The Mammoth Cave Wax Museum closed its doors forever in 2011 and the wax figures were all auctioned off.

Ms Alberta and the Wax Museum – Part One – Purchase of Land, Ground Breaking and Finish

Herbert Allen Moore, an artist from Cynthiana, Kentucky, bought the land and built the Wax Museum in 1970; then he started making the wax figures to go in each display room.

Ms Alberta dressed the first 29 figures and worked for Herbert Allen Moore from the ground breaking, until the Grand Opening. As he would get a figure made he would take it to her home on Cherrywood Drive, Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Ms Alberta would design and dress each figure.

 The land for The Mammoth Cave Wax Museum as seen before construction was started.

 

 Picture by J. C. Jennings

After The Mammoth Cave Wax Museum was finished, J. C, Jennings had a helicopter fly him over it so he could take a picture. The picture was in about all the newspapers from Bowling Green to Louisville.

This is a picture of Herbert Allen Moore working on Grant; each hair was inserted by hand and then the wax figure was given a haircut and style.