Pat and I watched a groovy movie over the holidays. The title: Bachelor Mother. It is from the late 30s early 40s. The stars were David Niven and Betty Grable. It is a sweet little movie. Whenever I see a movie from this time period I imagine mother and dad seeing the movie and I wonder what they thought about it and how it influenced them.
This particular movie included bringing in the New Year at Times Square in New York City. We probably can all relate to what that looks like because we've seen it more than a few times on TV. Well, as I was thinking about it, I realized that mother and dad never would have seen it on TV because TV didn't exist -- at least it wasn't available to them. They probably knew about the celebrating in Times Square from radio and newspaper and possibly magazine reports but TV's visual experience of seeing the ball fall and seeing the crowds celebrating would have existed only in their imagination. So seeing the celebration documented in a film would have been pretty captivating and truly informative. Can't you just see them, young things that they were, watching and enjoying a movie together?
Friday, January 14, 2011
Happy New Year Tradition
How did you usher in the New Year? It was pretty quiet at our house. I don't think either Pat nor I stayed up for the official bringing in of the new year. Now, our neighbors couldn't miss the chance to sound off a whole lot of fireworks and, of course, we are happy to allow them this indulgence.
What traditions did we have as a family for the New Year? The only thing I remember doing with some consistency on New Year's Eve was eating a shrimp dip that mother made. It was pretty exotic for little ole Idaho and the possible ingredients that we could get in our grocery store. I'm not sure where she got the recipe but I think she started making it sometime about the mid 60s. Maybe someone else will remember the origins of this little speciality. I LOVED it! We'd eat it with rippled potato chips -- another NeW and pretty amazing treat. Recipe for dip is as follows:
1 8oz. package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1/3 cup cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon onion juice (mother used to buy this in a little jar, I'd just grate some yellow onion and collect the juice)
dash of Worcestershire sauce
mix until well blended. Add 3/4 cup canned shrimp, chopped. (This was the exotic part to me and they were the tiny little shrimp -- maybe that is the only size you can buy canned).
Enjoy!
Sorry for the very long hiatus with the blog. I've had lots of stuff going on in my head and heart and processing it has zapped me. I hope to be back up and writing and get lots more family stuff onto the blog in 2011. I WeLcOmE your comments, suggestions, input, etc.
Most of all, please know that I LOVE you!
What traditions did we have as a family for the New Year? The only thing I remember doing with some consistency on New Year's Eve was eating a shrimp dip that mother made. It was pretty exotic for little ole Idaho and the possible ingredients that we could get in our grocery store. I'm not sure where she got the recipe but I think she started making it sometime about the mid 60s. Maybe someone else will remember the origins of this little speciality. I LOVED it! We'd eat it with rippled potato chips -- another NeW and pretty amazing treat. Recipe for dip is as follows:
1 8oz. package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1/3 cup cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon onion juice (mother used to buy this in a little jar, I'd just grate some yellow onion and collect the juice)
dash of Worcestershire sauce
mix until well blended. Add 3/4 cup canned shrimp, chopped. (This was the exotic part to me and they were the tiny little shrimp -- maybe that is the only size you can buy canned).
Enjoy!
Sorry for the very long hiatus with the blog. I've had lots of stuff going on in my head and heart and processing it has zapped me. I hope to be back up and writing and get lots more family stuff onto the blog in 2011. I WeLcOmE your comments, suggestions, input, etc.
Most of all, please know that I LOVE you!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Happy Birthday my sweet Dad
Happy 89th birthday Dad. It is interesting to imagine what life would be like for you if you were still with us. It would only be acceptable to have you still be alive if your health were good. It was really hard to have you be so sick right before you died and to know that the quality of your life would have been so different from what you were use to.
I think of you often. Not as often as right after you died. It is hard to believe that it has been 18 years! I know for a long time I thought of you each and every day. But as always, I have questions I want to ask you. It is always, "Oh, I wish I could ask my dad about that." You were always so good to answer my questions and help me understand.
I especially wish I could just get your advice. I need your advice!
I love you so much! I miss you! I am so grateful for what you taught me. I recognize more and more the sacrifices that you and mother made for me. I am sorry I wasn't more appreciative. I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave me you as my earthly father. I so look forward to the day that I can once again hug you and mother and be with you.
I think of you often. Not as often as right after you died. It is hard to believe that it has been 18 years! I know for a long time I thought of you each and every day. But as always, I have questions I want to ask you. It is always, "Oh, I wish I could ask my dad about that." You were always so good to answer my questions and help me understand.
I especially wish I could just get your advice. I need your advice!
I love you so much! I miss you! I am so grateful for what you taught me. I recognize more and more the sacrifices that you and mother made for me. I am sorry I wasn't more appreciative. I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave me you as my earthly father. I so look forward to the day that I can once again hug you and mother and be with you.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Happy Birthday Mother
Today is mother's birthday. She would be 87 years old.
It is hard to believe that she has been gone for 14 years. Time travels far too swiftly.
Much has changed since mother died. I often think how she would have enjoyed her great-grandchildren. She loved babies so much. She also would be so delighted in the growth, change, accomplishments, marriages, etc. of her grandchildren. She adored her grandchildren and had great joy in loving them.
We miss you mother.
It is hard to believe that she has been gone for 14 years. Time travels far too swiftly.
Much has changed since mother died. I often think how she would have enjoyed her great-grandchildren. She loved babies so much. She also would be so delighted in the growth, change, accomplishments, marriages, etc. of her grandchildren. She adored her grandchildren and had great joy in loving them.
We miss you mother.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Armga Cuisine
Pat and I have been challenging ourselves to try and remember our dinner menus growing up. It is interesting how much we DON'T remember! As we've talked, it seems there was a change in what the family ate when mother started outside employment in the 60s. I seem to remember more from before she started working than Pat does, which makes sense because I would have been older, had more years of experience and am just more likely to remember because of my age at the time.
Dad hated pasta (BAD experiences with it in the Army) so we really didn't have much. Salads were generally a wedge of lettuce with bottled dressing -- tossed/chopped salads didn't come into fashion until the 70s. Veggies accompanying the main dish came out of a can: corn, green beans, peas, or beets.
So, what do you remember we ate? I'm counting on the olders -- LuAnn, Charlie and Cherie to help fill in the blanks here.
Frequently ate -- like weekly:
fried hamburgers, Saturday nights during Lawrence Welk
hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes
toastwiches, cheese and/or tuna sands toasted in the frying pan
fried chicken (frequency fell off after mother started work)which started with a whole chicken cut into pieces so someone got the back, two individuals had to make it meal with a wing each, same with the legs. Breasts and thighs only came two to a chicken. I don't ever remember having baked or roasted chicken. Did we?
breakfast for dinner (I remember French toast but did we also have pancakes?)
Pork and beans with hot dogs, or weiners cut up and heated with the beans and served over a slice of white bread
Maybe once a month:
roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and the resulting goulash (I think roast beef was the preferred Sunday dinner so we probably had it more than once a month but I don't think we had it EVERY Sunday.)
fried hamburger patties with tomato gravy
baked spaghetti with meat balls (Charlie's favorite)
scalloped potatoes with ham pieces cooked with them
meatloaf
Swedish meatballs (meatballs with rice incorporated, cooked in a mushroom soup sauce)
creamed tuna over toast
fried pork chops
Swiss Steak
Every once in a while:
pigs-in-a-blanket (cabbage leaves wrapped around little rolls of hamburger, cooked in a watery liquid)
corned beef and cabbage -- Dad loved this, but either mother didn't like to cook it, it was too expensive or kids wouldn't eat it (although I don't know if this is possible)
I definitely remember Chili for Halloween but how often did we have soup? And what kinds of soup did we have besides chili and chicken?
In the fall/winter we frequently had squash -- several different kinds but I most remember Hubbard, which we had to cut with the hatchet to prepare it for cooking.
I must be forgetting. This can't be all we ate!!! Please help -- what do you remember?
Dad hated pasta (BAD experiences with it in the Army) so we really didn't have much. Salads were generally a wedge of lettuce with bottled dressing -- tossed/chopped salads didn't come into fashion until the 70s. Veggies accompanying the main dish came out of a can: corn, green beans, peas, or beets.
So, what do you remember we ate? I'm counting on the olders -- LuAnn, Charlie and Cherie to help fill in the blanks here.
Frequently ate -- like weekly:
fried hamburgers, Saturday nights during Lawrence Welk
hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes
toastwiches, cheese and/or tuna sands toasted in the frying pan
fried chicken (frequency fell off after mother started work)which started with a whole chicken cut into pieces so someone got the back, two individuals had to make it meal with a wing each, same with the legs. Breasts and thighs only came two to a chicken. I don't ever remember having baked or roasted chicken. Did we?
breakfast for dinner (I remember French toast but did we also have pancakes?)
Pork and beans with hot dogs, or weiners cut up and heated with the beans and served over a slice of white bread
Maybe once a month:
roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and the resulting goulash (I think roast beef was the preferred Sunday dinner so we probably had it more than once a month but I don't think we had it EVERY Sunday.)
fried hamburger patties with tomato gravy
baked spaghetti with meat balls (Charlie's favorite)
scalloped potatoes with ham pieces cooked with them
meatloaf
Swedish meatballs (meatballs with rice incorporated, cooked in a mushroom soup sauce)
creamed tuna over toast
fried pork chops
Swiss Steak
Every once in a while:
pigs-in-a-blanket (cabbage leaves wrapped around little rolls of hamburger, cooked in a watery liquid)
corned beef and cabbage -- Dad loved this, but either mother didn't like to cook it, it was too expensive or kids wouldn't eat it (although I don't know if this is possible)
I definitely remember Chili for Halloween but how often did we have soup? And what kinds of soup did we have besides chili and chicken?
In the fall/winter we frequently had squash -- several different kinds but I most remember Hubbard, which we had to cut with the hatchet to prepare it for cooking.
I must be forgetting. This can't be all we ate!!! Please help -- what do you remember?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Remember when we would go sledding?
Significant snowfalls in Twin Falls were a special thing. They didn't happen often and Dad LOVED them. We have many photos of piled up snow. He loved to document how beautiful the world appeared after a heavy snowfall. One way the family celebrated snow was to go sledding. There really aren't any hills in Twin Falls so we grew up believing that a good sleigh ride involved an isolated country road, some rope and our trusty little family car.
I think we only had one sled or at least only pulled one sled at a time behind the car. I don't remember the preparation part where the rope had to be tied to the bumper or body of the car. I do remember that we usually did our sleigh rides on the rode that is near the canyon and now leads you to the mall. It is right by the new temple.
I remember being in the car while someone else had their turn on the sled. Oh, it was maddening how slowly Dad would drive. We barely moved and it seemed it would be such a very long time until my turn.
When my turn did come it was scary being on the sled. I always felt dangerously close to the road. And fast! Dad would go so fast that I was sure I would fly off the sled. I think I probably repeatedly screamed "slow down" while I was flying along behind the car. It was a thrilling ride but pretty much maxed out my need for a thrill. I would be so cold from the ride that it felt wonderful to get back into the steamy warm car and wait again while we crawled along for someone else to have their thrilling ride.
Oh, what memories!
I think we only had one sled or at least only pulled one sled at a time behind the car. I don't remember the preparation part where the rope had to be tied to the bumper or body of the car. I do remember that we usually did our sleigh rides on the rode that is near the canyon and now leads you to the mall. It is right by the new temple.
I remember being in the car while someone else had their turn on the sled. Oh, it was maddening how slowly Dad would drive. We barely moved and it seemed it would be such a very long time until my turn.
When my turn did come it was scary being on the sled. I always felt dangerously close to the road. And fast! Dad would go so fast that I was sure I would fly off the sled. I think I probably repeatedly screamed "slow down" while I was flying along behind the car. It was a thrilling ride but pretty much maxed out my need for a thrill. I would be so cold from the ride that it felt wonderful to get back into the steamy warm car and wait again while we crawled along for someone else to have their thrilling ride.
Oh, what memories!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Happy Birthday Charlie!
The big day was a Monday. It was December 16, 1946. Charles Richard joined the Armga family. Dad [Larry H.] was in the hallway while mother [Betty Ruth] gave birth. At home, (probably with Grandma and Papa, or perhaps Aunt Lu came to sit with the children) were LuAnn, age 4 and Lawrence, age 3. I don't know of any special connection to the name that he was given except I imagine this was the first "musical" name that mother prided herself on giving to her children (LuAnn's name was decided by Grandma [Emma] and Larry Jr. was simply named after Dad).
From the beginning this third child was unique. First of all, he was beautiful. He had a round cherubic face and startling blue eyes (think Paul Newman blue). LuAnn also remembers that his lashes were beautifully long and dark and framed his eyes in a way that made them especially striking. His hair grew in blond and with a soft curl. His complexion was perfect and he tanned beautifully when exposed to the sun.
Most unique about this child was his boundless energy and curiosity. And it was tinged with an impish mischievousness. He was always moving, always touching, always exploring and absolutely exhausting! One of mother's solutions to the challenge of having 3 children under the age of 4 -- with one who could perhaps have been labeled ADHD in today's diagnosis happy world -- was to tether toddler Charles Richard to a tree in the yard. When I first heard this I was absolutely shocked and scandilized! I could not believe that mother would have treated her child like a dog. And, apparently the harness and leash were also used whenever they had to go somewhere (this was pre-car years. Imagine that those of you with young children -- you had to WALK to go shopping, go to church, go to the doctor, etc.) Of course years later I met children who were so insensitive to risk that I totally understood how a parent would have to restrain the child just for the child's safety.
This child number 3 was called "Dick" through his growing up years. When he joined the Navy at a tender young age and married, he choose to become "Charles" or "Charlie". While it was so very very difficult to make that mental change in what to call my brother I never do now think of him as "Dick".
In my memories, Charlie is famous for practicing all his 'torture' techniques on me, being the one who Dad trusted to climb up into the attic to bring down the Christmas ornaments (I think he was the only one who ever went up into the attic), being gutsy and always taking risks, and being bright and curious and able to tinker to figure out how things work. In the summers he was brown as a nut with his hair bleached white. As an adult in was in his white Navy dress uniform and Dad was always so proud of him.
In the spirit of our recent survey questions of Mom and Dad I guess the following about Charlie:
favorite color: blue
favorite food: anything Satski makes
favorite place to live: Hawaii
favorite place to vacation: Japan
favorite movie: anything John Wayne
favorite sport: crawling around under houses
favorite vocation: moving irrigation pipe on farms as an adolescent
favorite memory: spending time on Jean and Walker's farm
biggest accomplishment: becoming a non-commissioned officer in the Navy
Okay Charlie, how did I do?
Have a Happy 63rd Birthday! We love you and are grateful to have you in our family!
From the beginning this third child was unique. First of all, he was beautiful. He had a round cherubic face and startling blue eyes (think Paul Newman blue). LuAnn also remembers that his lashes were beautifully long and dark and framed his eyes in a way that made them especially striking. His hair grew in blond and with a soft curl. His complexion was perfect and he tanned beautifully when exposed to the sun.
Most unique about this child was his boundless energy and curiosity. And it was tinged with an impish mischievousness. He was always moving, always touching, always exploring and absolutely exhausting! One of mother's solutions to the challenge of having 3 children under the age of 4 -- with one who could perhaps have been labeled ADHD in today's diagnosis happy world -- was to tether toddler Charles Richard to a tree in the yard. When I first heard this I was absolutely shocked and scandilized! I could not believe that mother would have treated her child like a dog. And, apparently the harness and leash were also used whenever they had to go somewhere (this was pre-car years. Imagine that those of you with young children -- you had to WALK to go shopping, go to church, go to the doctor, etc.) Of course years later I met children who were so insensitive to risk that I totally understood how a parent would have to restrain the child just for the child's safety.
This child number 3 was called "Dick" through his growing up years. When he joined the Navy at a tender young age and married, he choose to become "Charles" or "Charlie". While it was so very very difficult to make that mental change in what to call my brother I never do now think of him as "Dick".
In my memories, Charlie is famous for practicing all his 'torture' techniques on me, being the one who Dad trusted to climb up into the attic to bring down the Christmas ornaments (I think he was the only one who ever went up into the attic), being gutsy and always taking risks, and being bright and curious and able to tinker to figure out how things work. In the summers he was brown as a nut with his hair bleached white. As an adult in was in his white Navy dress uniform and Dad was always so proud of him.
In the spirit of our recent survey questions of Mom and Dad I guess the following about Charlie:
favorite color: blue
favorite food: anything Satski makes
favorite place to live: Hawaii
favorite place to vacation: Japan
favorite movie: anything John Wayne
favorite sport: crawling around under houses
favorite vocation: moving irrigation pipe on farms as an adolescent
favorite memory: spending time on Jean and Walker's farm
biggest accomplishment: becoming a non-commissioned officer in the Navy
Okay Charlie, how did I do?
Have a Happy 63rd Birthday! We love you and are grateful to have you in our family!
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