Auntie Ruth's Cottage

 September 7, 2021

When I was a child I spent many summers undergoing plastic surgery for my cleft lip and palate.  As I healed I couldn't play sports or go swimming.  But I have some special non surgical memories of wonderful weeks spent in Stone Harbor, N.J.

My Auntie Ruth had a cottage down the shore (that's how we say it up there).  It was a small, cute cottage with a beautiful screened porch overlooking the bay.  We weren't too far from the Yacht Club and on Sundays there would be sailboat races that were fun to watch. It seemed that the adults got to sleep on the porch and I was envious.  Since then I've always wanted to live in houses with a screened porch.

In the kitchen, instead of a refrigerator there was an ice box and the ice man would deliver a big block of ice - how often I don't remember.  This was back in the 1940s. Looking back I can't imagine how they kept perishables safely. But we never got sick. The ice box looked something like this.

I spent many hours on the dock. Small stairs led down into the bay.  I used to be scared that one of the relatives of the crabs we caught and ate was going to bite my toes. I didn't like swimming in the bay much but it was nice to cool off.

Me on the dock

Me in the ocean

Often the Maryland cousins would come down and we'd have lots of fun together.   

I've been collecting pictures of Stone Harbor on Pinterest just for the happy memories.  I used to wonder what it would be like in the winter.  Actually I never wanted to leave. 

Later when I was a teenager we moved to Florida and I felt at home. It was like being down the shore with my soul at the beach.

http://effywild.com

Thank you for reading.

Wonderful 4th of July as a child

Besides Christmas and my birthday, 4th of July was my 3rd favorite holiday.   I was raised in a small town who celebrated the day in all kinds of wonderful ways.

First we had the parade.  I marched in it when I was a Brownie. 

Another time I was in the parade with my bicycle advertising my father's gas station. 

Advertising my father's gas station is open now

Jack's gas station is open now

After the parade we went up to the park for games and races. 



Later in the afternoon we got to go to the lake where we participated in swimming races. I won once for the back crawl. 

The single men and married ones played a baseball game.  I don't know if they still do.

One of my favorite memories was the street dance.  I was a child then. It was in the 1940s and I loved hanging out near the band.  They played Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman music and I loved watching the piano and bass players.   



My father was a fireman in town and one year I got to ride in the firetruck with him and ring the bell. Boy did I think I was hot stuff.  Ha ha.   Back then they let children ride around town in a fire truck.  It was fun.

We moved a couple years after Dad died and the Fourth of July was never the same.   I always wished I was back in my hometown on that special day.

In 1989 we went back for mother's funeral and we were there on July 4th staying at an aunt's house.  Waiting and watching the parade was so nostalgic.  It felt like nothing had changed except the people.   I was quite emotional for many reasons.

Today I watched a live Facebook video of the parade and many emotions came up again. I remembered the good times, my friends, parents, and what fun we had on this special holiday in my old home town.   It was both fun and bittersweet.   As someone told me, the children today are making the same memories because the town itself hasn't changed all that much.  

I Felt Weird so I cooked - 24

This morning I started feeling weird.  Kind of restless, not knowing what I wanted to do.  I allowed myself to sit with it and tapped on feeling odd.  It wasn't a scary type of feeling like something was wrong, just uncomfortable.   It could have been because hubby was outside trimming bushes and a part of me felt like I "should" be out there helping him, although he didn't ask me to.  Before we moved, as we were discussing where we wanted to live, I told him that I did not want to be doing yard work.   I started feeling a tad better when he was finished.  After nearly  61 years of marriage and me having tried to be the "best wife", it is still a bit difficult to be doing my thing while he is doing stuff that might need help.  Being raised in the 40s and 50s I learned well the duties of a good wife. But I'll leave that for another blog.  

1940s housewife

What was I feeling?  Why so restless?  I didn't want to go out, I knew I "shouldn't" sit at my computer all day scrolling Facebook and playing games.  I wandered around the house aimlessly until I reached the kitchen.  Ah, soup!  I love soup and could eat it 4 times a week at least.   I had the ingredients.  First I cooked hard boiled eggs in my Instant Pot.  10 eggs in 5 minutes, quick release five minute natural release, then plunge them into cold water with ice.  They peel so easily too.

While the eggs were building up the pressure,  I chopped onions, garlic, celery and cabbage.  Then cleaned out the Instant Pot bowl and dried it. Then I put it on saute and added some butter and olive oil.  As it was heating, I chopped up a lot of zucchini squash and some more cabbage.  I threw in the onions, cabbage and celery and let them saute a few minutes, then I added the garlic.  I tossed in some garlic powder, Italian seasonings and some other spices I pulled out of the cabinet.   I added a big box of chicken broth and let it heat up for a bit, then I dumped in the squash and cabbage, put the lid on, locked it and pushed the manual button to 6 minutes.

Soup counting down in Instant Pot

After the little silver pin on the top of the lid popped down, I knew it was safe to open.   It looked like this.

soup before blending

I got out my immersion blender so the soup would be creamier.

Soup after blending

Then I added some half and half and a couple handfuls of Mexican Blend cheese.  I tasted it and it needed something more.  Ah yes, a pinch of salt.  Another taste test and the soup was ready to eat.

Out came my favorite love cup that I filled with the finished soup and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

I'm not restless anymore, just FULL!