Tradition!

Tradition in our family boils down these days to soup. Many of the old traditions have gone by the wayside and new ones are being formed among the extended family. But one of the oldest still survives - the Christmas Mushroom Soup.
For over 100 years in this country, and who knows how long in Slovakia, this recipe has been served at Christmastime. Originally it was served only on Christmas Eve, but now it’s served on whatever day the Slovak clan gets together for the holidays.
Years ago, I followed my mother-in-law around the kitchen as she prepared the soup and wrote down everything she did. So, here it is: THE RECIPE for THE SOUP.

8 quarts water

3 cups sliced carrots
1 ½ cups sliced celery
2 small cans sauerkraut juice (7.5 ounces) or same amount of juice drained from kraut
3 Tbsp salt,
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp thyme
2 med potatoes, cubed
1 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 ½ sticks butter (¾ cup)
½ cup flour
1 box barley cooked separately according to package directions.

Put water, carrots, celery, kraut juice, salt, pepper, and thyme into a large kettle. Cook until vegetables are almost done. Add potatoes and continue cooking. Sautee onion and mushrooms in butter until tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove onions and mushrooms from butter and put in soup. Add flour to butter and stir constantly until flour browns. Quickly add 2 cups soup to thin the flour mixture. Stir until smooth. Add this mixture to soup pot and cook until soup thickens slightly.

To serve, we put a spoonful of barley into the soup bowl and ladle the soup on top.

Our Family Tradition of a St. Nicholas Tea

(This is a re-post from Dec 4, 2007)

When you use the word 'Tea' today it conjures up elegant parties. Well, in our case, it was mostly cocoa and cookies and conversation. We started in 1966 or 1967 and sometimes through the years we did get spiffy now and then.

You might ask "Why a 'St. Nicholas Day' Tea?" I'm glad you asked! Why, to combat heresy, secularism, and commercialism and have fun at the same time. That's why!

St. Nicolas was a real man - a Bishop who lived in the 300's. He was a wealthy man who came to love Jesus and wanted to follow him closely. So he took Jesus' advice to the rich young ruler: "go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." He also took to his heart Jesus' teaching about how to give : "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." Many people benefited from his secret giving and because they were curious about who was being so kind, they found him out!

He went to be part of the council of Nicea and helped formulate the beautiful Nicean Creed and died shortly after. That's the basic story. He made such an impression on people and was loved so greatly and for so long, that many legends have been added and it's hard to sort all that out. It's also hard to sort out how that good man has been morphed by America into Santa Claus! Secularists have such glee in the fact that Santa has eclipsed the real reason for the season. But if you look deeply you can still see a glimmer of 'Santa's' roots - giving in secret without expecting to get anything in return. Which of course is a teaching of Jesus. It's really all quite amusing.


Back to the tea party. The centerpiece was always our angel chimes. With the lights off, the spinning angels made beautiful twirling patterns on the ceiling. Very atmospheric! We would talk about Christmas things and use this as an opportunity to correct any misconceptions.


As some of the children became older, we expanded our horizons. Sometimes we would invite cousins for a more formal tea, and they would put on a hilarious puppet show for the younger ones. The puppets were mostly handmade and so was the scenery and even the script. We only had one play - Little Red Riding Hood. It became funnier with every performance.


The photos here are all from the 1980's. The little girls pictured grew up and did the show for the children of the original puppeteers!

We always ended the party with choosing names for 'Kris Kringle'. It was sort of a game we played for the rest of Advent. More on that in the next post.

Manly Sentiments from Generations Past

Do men still think this way?

Happiness by Carl Sandburg

I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
    me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
    thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
    I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
    the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
    their women and children and a keg of beer and an
    accordion.

Slovak Day, June 9, 2013

Woman at Prayer - 8, Wisdom

Eighth in a series from the booklet "A Woman at Prayer" by the Rev. Conleth Overman.

WHO MAKES THE RULES? 

There is great wisdom in knowing how a thing works best. 

One might say that God's rules for us are the "Directions" that come with the human appliance. Wise housewives are scrupulous in observing the set of directions which come with the new washing machine. They know from past experience that wrong use of a deli­cate machine results in repair bills and inconvenience.  Now, since God has been good enough to set down the directions we must observe for the use of the human machine, is it not wise to observe them?

The manufacturer is trying to help the purchaser with the directions he includes in the package with the appliance.  And God is being kind to us when He makes the rules for us.  The human being is so complicated, so delicately adjusted, so intricately related to other beings, that only the wisdom of God Himself is adequate to make rules for us.   It is sheer madness to make our own.

There is nothing that gets us into more trouble than our attempt to make our own rules.  Eve attempted to make rules for her­self and look what happened to her.  God had made the rule she was to observe in regard to the fruit of the Tree of Life.  But she knew better and thus opened the Pandora Box of Original Sin.

What motivates women to make their own rules is their unwillingness to face reality.  It takes humility and great good will to say:  "This is what God wants, and this I will do."   There is in each of us a fatal attraction to do our own will.  Was it not Queen Elizabeth, the illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, who said:  "Rather to rule in hell than to serve in heaven"?

And trouble, trouble, trouble is the result of making our own rules.  The ideas we have in our own heads do not change what is outside us.  A person may decide to abolish the law of gravity.  But the law of gravity does not thereby cease to exist, even for that individual.  Behold her climbing out on the ledge of a 20-story window; behold her muttering with determination,  "I refuse to be bound by the law of gravity;" and now behold her smashed to jelly on the pavement below.  And what happens in the physical order from making our own rules in defiance of God's rules, hap­pens as well in the moral order.

Why is it that we grow hostile to God for giving us the rules we must follow?  We ought to be eternally grateful that He thought enough of us to set the pattern for us.  It is easy to lead a useful, contented, happy life on earth if we tailor ourselves to God's ideas for us.  God is our Heavenly Father; God knows what will hurt us, and what is best for us both in time and in eternity.  Fortun­ately  for us God has revealed His Will for us and continues to guide us safely in the vital teaching of His word and of the Church.  How foolish to resist the restraining Hand of God and to jump off the deep end!

Much of our success in being women lies in accepting God's Will for us.  Humility to dis­trust our own will  and obedience to do what God wants of us are the two great feminine needs.  With all our heart the question in our title must be answered: "God makes the rules!"

Remembering Citizen Soldiers

There is a famous Roman General, Cincinnatus, who was asked to serve by the Senate while he was plowing in his fields.  He agreed to take charge of the army and country for as long as he was needed and walked away leaving his plow standing in field.  He was very successful in war and was honored and acclaimed by all the people.  They wanted him to remain as dictator.  But, he was a man of his word, and left the adulation and walked back to his plow where it stood and began right there his old way of life.

He was the ideal of the founding fathers of our country.  Many of the Revolutionary War soldiers were given frontier land for serving.  They named a new city in the  frontier after themselves:  Cincinnati.

Here are the Cincinnati from our family: 

Pre-World War I:

Edward Schuster :  Captain in the U.S. Calvary.   Just prior to WWI he was a riding instructor in Melrose Park.  Edward was my Grandfather Schuster's brother.

World War I - Army:

Edward Schuster:  He entered the war with the rank of Captain.  He was sent to France and was in trench warfare where he was a victim of mustard gas.  He returned home sick and "shell shock".  His father bought a farm in Wheatfield, Indiana, for him hoping quiet and clean air would help his recovery.  Must have done the job, because he ended up living  to 1970.

Sylvester Schuster: He was inducted into the army during the war and was waiting to be shipped from Norfolk, Virginia, when Armistice was declared. After the war he went back to work for Western Electric as an electrical engineer. Sylvester was Edward's younger brother and my grandfather.

Frank Rozanski: I found on his grave-marker that he was a machine-gunner in the famous 1st Illinois Division of the U.S. Army - the first to be sent to France.  He survived, but tragically died in an accident a few years after the war.  Frank was my Grandmother Schuster's brother.

World War II - Navy:

Donn, Bob, and Vernon Gros

Bob Gros:  Seaman First Class Signal Man, he did his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station.  Then he went to Farragut, Idaho, for training in the Naval Armed Guard and to code school. From there he went to Treasure Island in San Francisco where he was shipped out.  The Naval Armed Guard was a group of about 20 men who were assigned to a Merchant Marine or Liberty Ship that carried cargo or troops.  His carried oil and airplane parts.  They had at least one 5 inch gun, but were really sitting ducks.

Bob was at the Battle for Leyte Gulf where he witnessed the Kamikazes and was part of the Invasion of the Philippines.  He was in New Guinea, but I don't think that there was action there then.  When the war ended, Bob was aboard ship out in the Pacific and had a choice to go to Japan to be part of the occupation or to go home.  He chose home.  Before the war he had a job as tool and die maker.  While on board ship, he learned carpentry to pass the time and it became his trade for the rest of his life. Bob was my Dad.

Vernon Gros:  Bob Gros' older brother.  He served stateside. Vern was the head of purchasing for the jewelry department at Montgomery Ward.

Donn (Adolph) Gros:  Bob Gros' younger brother.  He also served stateside. Donn had a varied career after the war - from resort owner to a concrete business.

Rudy Kaiser:  A mechanic, Rudy served both stateside and aboard ship.  After the war, Rudy worked as a machinist at Chicago Screw Company.  He was married to Bertha Nemcek, my mother-in-law's sister.

James Schuster:  Towards the end of the war when Jim graduated High School, he joined the Navy.  As far as I know he served Stateside. Afterwards he worked for the Elgin watch company and later as a financial officer for a corporation.  He met his wife Shirley at Elgin and they grew a large family - nine children!   Jim was my mother's brother.

World War II - Army:

Edward Nemcek:  "Jungle-Fighter" was the designation that was given to the men who fought in New Guinea.  Unfortunately, if these men survived, they were plagued for the rest of their lives with malaria.  This was the case for Ed.  He worked as a printer after the war, both for large printing houses and later for his own small firm.  Edward was the brother of my mother-in-law.

Donald Ricker:  Another man who fought in the jungles of New Guinea.  He too, had malaria that complicated surgery for a hip replacement.  It never healed and he passed away.  "Rick" worked as a finish carpenter and was married to my mother's sister Georgette.

Frank Sensendorf:  I believe that he was a weather man and was stationed first in the Aleutian Islands and later in Panama.  He too, contracted malaria in Panama.  We lived with him and my Aunt Ruth for a while after the war and I witnessed how sick he was.  Frank worked the rest of his life for Wyeth Laboratories.

Billy, Uncle Syl & Joanne

World War II - Air Force:

Syl Nemcek:  17 years old, he graduated from high school one day and reported for duty the next.  Syl became a tail-gunner for B-27 (24?)  Liberator bombers (259th Squadron) and participated in bombing raids over Tokyo. He miraculously lived to tell the tale - only 1 in 4 tail-gunners made it.  After the war he worked for Eastman Kodak until he retired.  He took part in many reunions with the 380th Bomb Group.  Syl was another of my mother-in-law's brothers.

A little WWII Patriot

Whenever Memorial Day comes around, I have remembrances that can't be easily talked about or be explained.  The flags, the ceremonies, the playing of Taps connects me to my childhood and to many people who are no longer alive.  Having been an infant and small child during World War II, I don't have many direct memories - just impressions.  But I have very vivid memories of the immediate aftermath and the struggle for normalcy in the years that followed.

Since WWII there have been others who have served and are serving today.  My cousin David Malmberg served in Vietnam;  my niece's husband, Dave Hoeks was in the Air Force and served with the Stragetic Air Command and in the First Gulf War.  Since they are still alive, I will let them tell their own stories!  As to those serving today as we celebrate Memorial Day, we ask God's protection and blessing.

Woman at Prayer - 7, "Happiness"

Seventh in a series of articles from the booklet A Woman at Prayer by Rev. Conlith Overman, (1962)

ON PEACE OF MIND

There is a pearl of great price to be had.

Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch

Two eminent scholars in a book* make  much of the unhappiness of contemporary women. " Never before in the history of the world" say the writers, has there been more unhappiness among women. And this, they go on to state in an age when women's rights, freedom, the fem­inine suffrage have won the day. 

We shall not quarrel with these eminent schol­ars nor question their statistics, nor object to their solution of the problem. We mention the book to point up the fact that there are unhappy women  in the world today. 

What can be done about unhappiness?  Well, first we can understand whence comes unhappi­ness. In every case we find that the unhappy person is the victim of wrong emphasis. The person assigns too great a value to some one factor of human living; or undervalues some other factor that ought to be highly regarded. 

We can say that the unhappy person is out of touch with reality. She lives in a dream world, and the dreams turn out to be all nightmares. 

By way of illustration, suppose that a person feels that it is absolutely essential always to have her own way.  That is what she lives for.   She will not, as she boasts, play second fiddle to anybody. Can you imagine a more unhappy per­son?  To have one's way always is to want to be God; and that is impossible. 

We have said that unhappiness is the product of placing the wrong emphasis.  We can enum­erate several possibilities for this wrong em­phasis:  Material possessions,  power over our fel­lowmen, unlimited pleasures, worldly success, peace at the expense of principle.  Anybody who places too high a value on the items in this list   is courting unhappiness. 

Our Savior came into this world to show us the way to happiness, both in this life and in the life to come.  And thus at the beginning of his public ministry he gave us His 'formula for happiness.'  This formula is found in the fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. It is com­monly known as the Eight Beatitudes. 

Instead of the colorless word "blessed," the original Greek text uses "makairos" which means happy.   So Christ actually said: "Happy are the poor of spirit ... Happy are the meek ... Happy are they that mourn . . . Happy are they who hunger and thirst after justice . . . Happy are the merciful ... Happy are the clean of heart... Happy are the peacemakers ... Happy are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake . . ." 

The Beatitudes are Christian points of empha­sis.  If we stress in our lives what Christ men­tions in the Beatitudes we will enjoy happiness.  There will be no confusion of mind for us.  We will know with the greater certitude of Faith what is best for us. 

*  There may have only been one book in 1960, but since then there have been thousands and after all the uproar of the feminist movement since then, nobody seems any happier.