It was a Palm Sunday no different than any other. The young ones meandered the aisles of the sanctuary waving their green fronds, followed by a not-real donkey and a not-real Jesus. I wondered how many palms from the South sacrificed their boughs for a Northern Indiana ritual.
The reward for making it through Sunday morning was dinner at Sam and Anna's. Grandpa Sam had caught a boat-load of perch at the marl pit and Grandma Anna fried them up in butter along with thinly sliced potatoes. She also had her standards - beans cooked with bacon and strawberry rhubarb pie.
The afternoon light suddenly turned dark. A storm was moving southwest to northeast. The thick low clouds were angry, swirling like an eddy in Turkey Creek and colored like a rainbow gone bad. Johnny and I stared at the sky, oblivious to the dangers. Then a siren went - and then another - and another until they were continuous. For hours. Slowly we learned that one of several tornadoes was a double funnel that touched down for miles. For over 200 souls, it was their last Palm Sunday.
8 comments:
Are you sure Grandma Anna fried them perch in butter? Back then, every stovetop had a container with bacon grease leftover from frying bacon, which was then used to fry other stuff, like fish and potatoes. Anna's daughter, Ada, used to say, "Lard made the best fried potatoes."
Cuz, you might be correct. I certainly remember that they were rich and tasty
I found Ada’s fish frying recipe. She breaded them with a mixture of pancake mix, corn muffin mix (Jiffy), and corn flake crumbs, with the pancake mix being the main ingredient. She added Lowry’s seasoned salt and pepper, then fried them in Puritan Oil and bacon grease. Don’t know if that recipe came from Anna or not.
Great recipe, but I remember something much simpler; just fried up in the butter or lard.
You are most likely correct on the simplicity. Ada developed her recipe over time and am sure Grandma Anna was not mashing corn flakes into crumbs.
I think you've got that right Cuz!
April 14th will mark the 61st anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson's visit to the tornado area in Indiana. It was not a good time to be living in a trailer, er, “mobile home estate” as they call them now. About 80% of the trailers got wiped out in Midway, IN, northwest of Goshen.
I remember when LBJ showed up. It was a big ta-do that a President was visiting. There is a picture of him standing on the rubble at Midway, and it turns out, there were still some victims buried there.
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