My grandmother's special Christmas traditions included making popcorn balls.
She boiled sugar and water to make a binder, sometimes colored part of it
with food coloring, and then we stirred up a huge pot of popcorn and syrup
and quickly*** made balls with buttered hands and put them on buttered wax
paper. Sometimes the syrup was like crackerjack syrup, and other times it
was clear.
Of course, we also strung popcorn chains with embroidery needles and
buttonhole thread for the Christmas tree. After Christmas, the chains went
outdoors onto evergreens for the birds' celebration.
We can't forget the flour and water paste we used to stick colored paper
strips together to build chains for the tree and to hang from the
chandeliers. Wouldn't we have loved a glue stick!
This was Christmas in the early 1940's -- when sugar had to be saved from
the ration for special times like this. I don't remember, but I imagine we
must have used sorghum molasses, too -- that could account for the dark
brown popcorn balls.
----- Original Message -----
From: <inowen-request(a)rootsweb.com>
To: <inowen(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:00 AM
Subject: INOWEN Digest, Vol 3, Issue 66
Today's Topics:
1. Christmas of Yesterday (Debbie Jennings)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 00:04:36 -0600
From: "Debbie Jennings" <debjennings(a)dtccom.net>
Subject: [INOWEN] Christmas of Yesterday
To: "Owen County Mailing List" <INOWEN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <ABF2D00AC88D4EB19D931AE1E344FDFB@debbiePC>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
List Members
In keeping with the season as well as genealogy, I would like to invite
some of our older list members to submit to me any memories that they
might have of just how Christmas was spent when they were children.
I don't know exactly how old any of the members are, but I am sure that
there are some who remember some Christmases before it became so
commericalized.
Perhaps some spent at their grandparents, etc.
I will post these in a section on the website for all to view.
This is not strictly restricted to the older members though--
Perhaps some of you have a recipe or special memory or tradition handed
down through your grandparents.
Any recipes will additionally be posted in the section on Grandma's
Cooking.
Please address these postings to me personally so that posters won't be
reading them here and then on the website as well.
Debbie Jennings
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End of INOWEN Digest, Vol 3, Issue 66
*************************************