{"id":6477,"date":"2023-06-25T07:16:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T11:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=6477"},"modified":"2023-06-25T07:16:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T11:16:15","slug":"end-of-an-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2023\/06\/25\/end-of-an-era\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an Era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a Sunday Story \u2013 no politics here.  Just a story of Mom and growing up half-English.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

War Bride<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My mother was born on June 25th<\/sup>, 1918 in London, England.  Today would be her 105th<\/sup> birthday, and while she passed away in 2011 at ninety-three years, little things still remind me of her all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom came to the United States after World War II.  She and Dad got married in England in the middle of the war, both serving their nations (Dad in the US Army, Mom in the British Special Operations Executive).  They were lucky.  They survived to celebrate victory, and faced a whole new future in Dad\u2019s hometown; Cincinnati, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom was a \u201cwar bride\u201d. She even made the local newspaper (probably helped that my Grandfather was the Sports Editor).  There was a picture of her eating ice cream, something still unavailable in war-rationed England. But, Mom wasn\u2019t the \u201ctypical\u201d English bride.  She really didn\u2019t know much about cooking, or setting up a home (but she could deliver secret messages, and probably kill someone in multiple silent ways).  She learned though.  People expected that Mom would make \u201cEnglish\u201d dishes, so she got the recipes and taught herself how to do them, here in the US, in Cincinnati.  Her cooking \u201cBible\u201d was the Settlement Cookbook<\/em> (first published in 1905, my edition is 1976). It had the basics on cooking everything from soup to nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing Up English<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So my sisters and I grew up in Cincinnati, but we grew up in a kind-of English home.  We all failed spelling tests, over and over again.  Theater wasn\u2019t theatre<\/em>, color wasn\u2019t colour<\/em>, airplane wasn\u2019t aeroplane<\/em>, and I can\u2019t even remember what aluminum foil was (I looked \u2013 aluminium<\/em>, \u2018Al-You-Min-E-um\u2019  – foil).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we had certain English traditions.  While other kids came home to afternoon snacks of milk and cookies, we absolutely had \u201ctea and biscuits\u201d.  Our tea was tea, milk, and sugar (lots of sugar for me) and our \u201cbiscuits\u201d were cookies. The tea was in a pot (no bags in a cup), and while Mom eventually used tea bags, they were always (always) Lipton\u2019s Tea.   And on Sunday, our big meal was a brunch, breakfast at lunchtime really; with eggs and bacon and sausage and toast and coffee cakes; and well, you get the idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom learned how to make traditional British dishes.  Roast beef was big in our house, as was lamb.  We had lamb chops and lamb shoulders and lamb roasts.  And lamb was served with mint sauce (not mint jelly).  In fact, it wasn\u2019t just Mint Sauce, it was Crosse and Blackwell\u2019s Egyptian Mint Sauce, a vinegary mix of mint leaves and \u201csauce\u201d.  It was a \u201cthing\u201d, like strawberry preserves rather than jelly, or Shepard\u2019s Pie (more lamb).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Queen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mom lived in the United States from 1945 until her death in 2011.  That\u2019s sixty-six years.  But she never lost her English accent.  I always thought that was one of the reasons Mom went \u201chome\u201d every few years was to \u201crenew the lease\u201d on her distinctive speech.  Mom\u2019s accent was, well, like the Queen\u2019s.  I suspect that was developed in the private boarding schools she went to as a child.  I didn\u2019t know my Mom\u2019s parents much, but looking back, I know they weren\u2019t wealthy.  They must have sacrificed a lot to put Mom and her brothers and sisters (two of each) into private schooling.  But in the early 20th<\/sup> Century, that was the path to success in England, and Mom was in boarding schools from a relatively young age.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So especially when we were young, we had a slight English accent as well.  And we all were expert mimics of Mom\u2019s accent (at the risk of a bop on the head).  And when my nephew spent a lot time in his first few years with us in Cincinnati, he got the accent too.  I remember well two year-old Chris whining, \u201cI don\u2019t want to take a \u2018ba-aa-th\u2019!\u201d in perfect British diction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The End<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been \u201cbach-ing\u201d it this week, as Jenn and our son head to California. It\u2019s just me and the dogs.  And while Jenn\u2019s away, I decided to have lamb for dinner (not her \u201ccup of tea\u2019).  While lamb chops are crazy expensive these days, lamb shoulder is still relatively cheap. Our local Kroger\u2019s carries small amounts of lamb, even when it\u2019s not Easter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I dropped by to pick up lamb for dinner.  And while I could find the lamb, I couldn\u2019t find Crosse and Blackwell\u2019s Egyptian Mint Sauce.  I couldn\u2019t even find a \u201cfall back\u201d mint jelly.  In fact, I searched the local Kroger\u2019s for half an hour, and there was nothing that I could even consider serving lamb with.  And then, wonder of modern technology, I pulled up a recipe for mint sauce on my phone.  I bought mint leaves, finely diced them, boiled water, added sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.  I grilled the lamb, boiled red potatoes and opened a can of peas.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a typical English dinner.  My concoction was \u201cgood enough\u201d to get my through, though not anywhere near as good as Crosse and Blackwell\u2019s. I woke up early this morning, and searched the internet.  My thought was to lay in a supply for the next time.  And then I discovered:  Crosse and Blackwell\u2019s stopped making Egyptian Mint Sauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s probably been more than a century since they started making \u201cmy\u201d sauce.  I\u2019m sure tastes have changed, both here and in the United Kingdom.  But my taste hasn\u2019t changed; and Mom would be dismayed.  I ordered a substitute (from Amazon), another \u201cEnglish Mint Sauce\u201d, but I\u2019m not getting my hopes up.  If it\u2019s not good enough, I\u2019ll go back to my recipe and try to tweak it to my memories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Birthday Mom.  You\u2019re never far away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n