Things Consumed

 

Unlike Mom Used to Make, Part IX: My Maternal Grandparents

After the very extensive reporting that my mother provided in her entry about what she ate in childhood (see Unlike Mom Used to Make, Part VI: My Mom), I became very interested in what HER parents ate while they were growing up. It’s likely that my Grandma’s meals were similar - after all, my mother grew up on HER grandmother’s farm, where Grandma was raised, and so the odds are good.

So, I asked Grandma directly, several times, to have her tell me about what she ate. I provided a printout of my mother’s report, plus output from Wikipeda about Polish Cuisine, so she could use that to compare and contrast.

My grandmother, who is also my most frequent correspondent, provided this report:

I will get to giving you a food list - the one your mom gave you is kinda like what we ate - [it does] say something about being a child of the depression - but that did not mean farm folks. It was a busy life - the food was great! I never made a casserole! Yes - once I had scalloped potatoes explode in the oven. Was a sorry mess! Haven’t made one since.

[Promise of additional food writing on vacation.]

Walt [my grandfather] shops, and he will get stuff that he does not usually get if I make a list. He likes a roast chicken, turkey or half cow. Only kidding! That is his style - [he] does not mind the same all week.

When your mom was small and before Carol became a Mrs. [ ], we did buy stuff like Ragu. Polish people are not much for pasta - egg noodles, yes, but not the good stuff Italians eat. My mom just jazzed up tomato paste for us. All kinds of potatoes - especially potato pancakes. Jewish people make their pancakes with egg and onions. Jewish dishes are like many of our Polish type because there were very many Polish Jews! (In Poland.)

I’ve been waiting for the promised additional food list since March, but it hasn’t come yet, so I think I’ll instead supplement this with a report from my mother.

[I’m not being very consistent, but I will try only capitalizing Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa, and leaving the other words as they are.]

*

My mother was in Florida last week visiting my grandparents and helping care for my grandfather, who has been in and out of the hospital recently with a wide range of systemic health problems. He has lung cancer, an enlarged prostate (8 times normal size), blood pressure problems, heart trouble... Grandpa is 89 years old, and is in great discomfort. Mom, a retired registered nurse, was especially good to have present during a tough time like this because my grandparents aren’t especially interested in modern medicine for prevention or ongoing care - just for emergencies. So, if Grandpa has a crisis, he will go in and have doctors work on him, but he is a non-compliant patient as soon as he leaves the hospital, and goes back to doing whatever he likes - he won’t take medicine according to a schedule, or change his habits, or go to follow-up appointments unless he wants something from them. Since he has been in extreme pain and so has been willing to deal with doctors, though not necessarily to listen to them, my mother went to assist in translating helpful medical-ese into something her folks can hear.

My mother also helped out with cooking and shopping, and so she had a food report.

The first thing Mom told me is that, for a variety of reasons, my grandfather has primarily been on a “pastry and coffee” diet for the past year. I’m not quite clear on why he started, but just about all he’s been eating regularly is pie, various pastries (including apple turnovers), and coffee. Seriously. When you’re 89, you can do as you please, and that’s what he’s been doing. However, his intestines are not amused.

Mom’s summary of what grandpa is willing to eat is as follows:

-pie, pastry, and coffee (obviously)
-3 minute eggs. Grandpa would rant and refuse to eat if the eggs appeared to have been cooked a moment more or less. My mother timed them at exactly 3 minutes, but that didn’t stop the refusals, which makes me suspect that Grandpa just enjoys being fussy (and being waited on).
-square-cut canned peaches. Not halves. Not any other fruit or fruit cocktail.
-one particular brand of yogurt with fruit on the bottom. No others, and not any of the pre-mixed yogurts.
-mashed white potatoes. He had a fit because Mom mashed red potatoes for him: she left some of the skin on, which tipped him off, and she had to argue that the inside of the red potatoes is the same color as the inside of the white potatoes, and so there is really not enough difference for him to refuse them completely.

My mother also learned that Grandpa is the only member of the household to do grocery shopping - not just generally, but exclusively. (Grandma: “I don’t shop.”)

The foods that Grandpa buys for Grandma are generally as follows:
-tuna fish
-hot dogs
-potatoes

and for himself:
-eggs
-bacon
-cottage cheese
-Gatorade
-coffee
-diced canned peaches.

When Mom arrived, the refrigerator contained mayonnaise, mustard, and pickles, which begged the question: what do these condiments go with? Mayo and Gatorade? Bacon and pickles? What?

Yes, all you nutritionists are flinching right now. I know. It’s not good. Mom said that her folks were very concerned about the cost of food, and I know that Grandma has specifically complained about the cost of fresh greens and different times of year, but veggies tend to be cheaper than bacon and eggs, so that’s not the full story. Grandpa has a long history of being frugal in strange extremes, and so this is likely more a function of that habit than of any actual economic necessity.

I recall visiting my grandparents in 1982 or so, and all they had in the house were hot dogs (in huge, 16+ packs), potatoes, margarine, and tangerine juice Grandma had made from their trees out back. So this shouldn’t really surprise me. And, my grandparents are Polish, and so you’d expect that their diets would involve Polish sausages, potatoes, cabbage, and dark breads with butter, but this isn’t quite that, either.

My mother tried to diversity their diets a bit while she was shopping and cooking for them. She bought:
-eggplant, which Grandma likes to fry or to pickle (!)
-frozen broccoli
-cucumbers, sour cream, and vinegar, to make a little side salad
-Kielbasa, the famous Polish sausage
-bananas
-grapes
-prunes
-peaches
-chicken for sandwiches (and an unspecified bread)
-prepared Cuban sandwiches with lettuce and tomato. I don’t know what a Cuban sandwich is, though I suspect it’s like a torta.
-tapioca pudding
-frozen yogurt with fruit

and she bought the ingredients for and prepared beef stroganoff (ground beef, mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, onions, garlic, and elbow noodles) and Texas hash (salty, canned corn beef fried in butter with cooked potatoes).

*

I got some other reports from my Mom. You probably recall that I inventoried her cupboards and revealed her to be the survivalist that she was unconsciously becoming. She was thinking along those lines, and so she observed a few things. She also made some general remarks about what's going on there.

Her mother has more than 200 drinking glasses.

Grandpa will only uses the dishes that are left on the counter, so they eat from the same few dishes over and over.

My Grandma had 21 year old baby food in her cupboard. (When my mother pulled it out, my Grandmother named the grandchild it was for: he is now 23.)

Grandpa is on anti-coagulants, which induce what is basically hemophilia - he could easily bleed to death from any minor injury while on this medication. Despite this, my youngest aunt believed it appropriate for Grandpa to work a tractor and handle sharp objects in the yard. Also, there are a variety of foods which are temporarily off-limits to my grandfather, because of the drug. He has to avoid vitamin K in particular, and his list of prohibited foods includes green vegetables, cranberry juice, and aspirin.

On a nearly related note, one of my nephews, from whom my grandparents periodically take advice, was quoted as saying "vitamins kill." No, actually, vitamins are compounds required for our bodies to function. In this particular instance, Grandpa needs to avoid a few vitamins, but this isn't the context this advice came from, and you could see how advice like that could lead to the sort of diet my grandparents currently have.

My grandparents won't throw out extremely outdated medicine, on the grounds that it cost good money.

My grandfather has been raising and racing pigeons as a hobby since he was 12 years old.

Wildlife in the area include: giant turtles, big horned steers (well, not very wild), sand hill cranes, and egrets.

The town of Land O' Lakes, which is vaguely where my grandparents live for postal purposes, was a historically black town, and the cemetery dates to the 1700s. Evidence of voodoo rituals in recent times keeps many visitors away from the cemetery. Especially at odd hours. Though not all visitors, apparently.

*

So, that's my Mom's report on what my grandparents actually eat, current to this month.

Labels: family dinners

posted by Arlene (Beth)10:22 AM

Thursday, September 13, 2007