I was such a little thing when Uncle picked me up and sat me down on a red leather stool that swiveled. Honestly, I remember clutching the counter in front of me because of any movement on my part, I would be going “down.”
It must have been around 9 o’clock on a Saturday night, just after the Moose Lodge dances ended, and Uncle and Aunt were hungry, having danced the evening away. That particular evening stands out in my memory bank.
In the 1940s, babysitters were unheard of. No family member to leave you with, the kid went with you, and me as a 5-year-old, I went to many strange and unusual places.
Hamburger Stands, as they were called, were one of the places a family during the 1930s and ’40s a family might afford. Hamburgers then were handmade along with a side of potato salad or potato chips. Cost of those burgers—$.13 and a milkshake was an additional $.05.
During those years, going “out” for dinner meant going into the dining room of one of our two hotels in town. I can’t recall the year when “Billy’s,” our first stand-alone restaurant, opened. But I do remember mostly millworkers and fishermen sitting at its long counter, many with a drink of alcohol of the same kind in front of them and families were seated at the cloth-covered tables with women wearing hats and clutching their purses on their laps. Men had placed their hats on the coat rack by the door.
Going “out” for dinner was almost a religious experience. Adults spoke in whispers and if I made any noise of any kind, I was given a stern look by Aunt.
Menus didn’t exist at Billy’s. The waitress announced the menu for that night’s dinner over and over as each guest was seated. It was at Billy’s that I had my first steak—the waitress announced that Cubed Minute Steak was the main course for that evening, and when it arrived, covered in gravy, I was happy. I was having steak for dinner. My minute steak dinner was $.15, which included milk. I believe our dinner that night was less than one dollar.
Waiting at home was dessert, which could be any one of Aunt’s specialties—apple pie, pineapple upside-down cake or my all-time favorite, bread pudding. None of those included a scoop of ice cream as refrigeration at our home were large blocks of ice, delivered by the iceman once a week, not cold enough to store ice cream.
Aunt’s bread pudding always had plump raisins and a splash of whisky added. Oh, the smells of her kitchen were heavenly. If I close my eyes, I can remember those smells and the taste as if I were there.
During those war years and shortly after, food was rationed, but Uncle and Aunt made do by growing almost everything we had on our dinner table with the exception of beef and sugar. But, if you were lucky as we were, you had a relative or friend who had a small farm or ranch and would share their beef or pork when it was time for butchering.
Freezers had yet to be invented, but that didn’t stop Aunt. She canned meats, pickled vegetables, even extra eggs, and salted and smoked pork from that rancher relative and fish that Uncle had caught from the Chehalis River just north of Aberdeen. Uncle’s job was to make vinegar from the apples gleaned from the farmer’s orchard and to grind the horseradish roots from his garden.
Friday evenings Aunt and Uncle would sit at the kitchen table with paper and pencil, deciding what they would buy the next morning in town. Aunt would take down the cookie jar where household money was kept. Addition and subtraction would take place, money divided between the two of them, and Uncle would call me in and hand me my allowance—a nickel and a dime. How I loved Friday nights.
I never remember seeing a checkbook. All utility and other bills were paid in cash. Credit cards did not exist. If money was needed to pay property taxes, Uncle would take me with him to the bank and then to Montesano, where our county courthouse sat on the edge of the city, 15 miles from Aberdeen, and he would count out the cash carefully to the clerk. Taxes paid, Uncle would buy us an ice cream cone to eat on our way home.
Below is Aunt’s recipe for the best bread pudding I have yet to encounter. I believe it’s the extra egg yolk and heavy whipping cream that makes it so creamy with the top, so buttery and crunchy. I’m sure you will enjoy this as I have over ohh so many years.
Aunt Betty’s Bread Pudding
Butter a 9”x12” baking pan
• Soak 1/4 cup raisins in brandy 1 hour (optional)
• 12 ounces (1-1/2 cups) dried 1 in. bread cubes
• 2 cups whole milk
• 3 cups heavy cream
Heat to a simmer, do NOT boil.
Whisk together:
• 4 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk.
• 1 cup gran. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Pour slowly while briskly whisking the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture.
Add the raisins.
Pour over breadcrumbs. Let sit 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally.
Transfer to buttered pan. Drizzle 3-4 Tbsp. of melted butter over top.
Put dish into a roasting pan and pour boiling water 1/2 way up dish.
Bake 50 minutes until golden brown.
Almost Heaven!
Colly Gruczelak, a Ben Lomond resident, loves people and loves to cook. Contact her at cz****@co*****.net.
