It isn't so much that our friends help us as much as the knowledge that they will!
Epicurus 341-270 BC Greek philosopher
Norm's Daily Ramblins
FIBBER McGEE and MOLLIE - Old Time Radio
Jim and Marion Jordan in costume as Molly and Fibber
An old Fibber McGee and Molly table game
Jim and Marion Jordan at their peak
Water Commissioner, Gildersleve was a spin-off program - Willis Waterman
The Fibber McGee and Molly Radio Program aired on radio from April 1935 to September 1959 on Blue Network of NBC.
We have a nice Fibber McGee and Molly Christmas program from 1942 for you. Click the link at the end of this article to start the program right now, then you can read the rest of Norm's Ramblins while you listen... or finishing those emails you intended to get out yesterday.
Fibber McGee and Molly, one of the most popular radio programs of all time, first premiered in 1935, but its origins can be traced farther back into the lives of the show's two lead actors. The program was the creation of the husband and wife comedy team of Jim and Marian Jordan. The singing and comedy duo hailed from Peoria, Illinois, where the two grew up, met, and married in 1918.
From an early age both had dreams of a life in entertainment, but before becoming one of America's best known celebrity couples the two would spend decades paying their 'showbiz dues' with seven years fruitless effort traveling the vaudeville circuit and another ten singing and acting in numerous small-time radio shows in the Chicago area.
It was in Chicago in 1929 that the pair became friends with a Don Quinn, who began writing an occasional joke or humor sketch for the Jordans to use in their act on The Farmer Rusk Hour. The material that Quinn wrote was superior to anything the Farmer Rusk writers were producing, and thus began a partnership between the three that would carry them to fame and fortune on Fibber McGee and Molly.
In the early 1930's the trio from Farmer Rusk to a comedy show of their own creation called Smackout, named after a well stocked country store which somehow was 'smack outa'anything you wanted to buy. It was on this program that many character ideas were created which would be continued on Fibber McGee and Molly. At the time, the Jordans also remained active on many other radio shows including various musical dramas, quiz shows, variety shows, other comedies, and children's programs.
When Fibber McGee and Molly began in 1935 under sponsorship of Johnson Wax, the program was a simple continuation of the vaudeville style format that the duo had practiced for years. The pair were cast as traveling vagabonds who stopped in towns along route 42 for gas and conversation. Fibber was the happily inept braggart whose vivid imagination leads him to telling the most outlandish stories about himself. Molly was cast as his constant companion and severest critic, whose shrill "McGee" would bring him back to earth in an instant.
In the next several months Quinn's scriptwriting began to really excel, which was reflected in turn by the Jordans' seamless performances and impeccable comedic timing. The show's character also began taking on more of a connected storyline rather than a series of distended vaudeville skits.
The McGees moved into a home in the town of "Wistful Vista" where the show then revolved around Fibber bungling his chores around the house, or his various occupations at the public library, post office, and antique store. Molly became more of a sympathetic, tolerant, easy-going character and audiences responded immediately to the changes. In 1940 it became the top show in the nation and throughout the 1940's remained a tight contender for the honor with Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Edgar Bergen.
Throughout the run of the show a whole series of guest characters came and went. Among these included Fibber's feuding neighbor Gildersleeves, who went on to be the star character in the spin-off The Great Gildersleeve. It was Gildersleeves who had the patent line. "You're a haaaa-hard man, McGee!" Other famous lines from the show came from Fibbers wife Molly including, "Taint funny McGee!" and "Heavenly Days!" Also on the show was the ever-timid Wallace Whimple, who was terrified of his wife, the ferocious, often discussed, but never present "Sweetie Face." Fibber gave Wallace the nickname "wimp"and thus coined the meaning for the word to this very day.
Perhaps the most well remembered character from the show was Fibber McGees cluttered closet. Whenever Fibber, or someone else, made the mistake of opening the closed door of the front closet, a tremendous mountain of junk would come crashing down. The closet was the work of sound effects engineers who would assemble the assorted closet pieces (which sometimes included golf clubs, guitars, pith helmets, roller skates, a sword, a spear-gun, shoes, a suitcase and a broken clock) perching them precariously atop a short stairway during the half-hour live broadcasts until it was time for the closet to open.
On the 128 occasions the closet gag was used, not once did the props tumble down off cue. Fibber McGee and Molly is still quite popular among old time radio fans to this day, with over 700 episodes still existing in their entirety. After the death of Jim Jordan in 1988, members of his family donated the bound volumes of Fibber McGee and Molly scripts to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, where there is also a Fibber McGee's Closet” exhibit. -Chris Plunkett (Now hydrologist for Flaming Gorge Resevoir and the Unita and Vernal Basin in NE Utah.)
For today's featured Sound From the Past we've selected a Christmas episode which first aired on December 15th 1942.
CLICK the LINKS at the bottom of the article to hear the commercials!
I enjoy hearing any audio from the Golden Age of Radio. I enjoy the commercials from the 1930's, 40's, and 50's as much as I do the radio programs. In the 1970's I listened regularly to WHO-AM from DesMoines, Iowa on Sunday night. The signal was so clear here in Atlanta. They had two hours of Old Time Radio back then but had to take out the commercials. I used to get so ticked at that even though I knew why that was done.
Often commercials were two and three minutes long and were used to not only talk about the product and why you needed it, but also focused on spending time educating the listener as to how to use it. Some commercials are hilarious and would be totally rejected by audiences and broadcasters today.
I've chosen two old Lifebuoy soap commercials to illustrate the unique character of early commercials -- as if there would be a new Lifebuoy commercial. I've chosen them specifically in honor of Ralphie and Jean Shepherd's "The Christmas Story."
Notice how the Lifebuoy commercials are so educational. After a creative way to segway into the subject of washing one's hands, they moved into the purpose of the commercial -- to teach "why" you needed Lifebuoy and "the how" of using the product being sold.
The selection with music is from the Al Jolson Show and you will hear his voice. Both samples are 1945 and 1948.
I'm tellin ya, that sure was a different time -- we all smelled. You know what I mean. We had to have been a bunch of naive dummies back then who really needed an education about consumerism and product use -- especially when it came to personal hygiene.
Lifebuoy was the soap of choice for my mother as part of her quest to clean up four very dirty boys -- and if that didn't do it we were all required to use Lava soap. L - A - V - A! If you ever used that rough volcanic pumice soap you will remember. Lifebuoy was orange and very bad tasting (Ask Ralphie -- the Christmas Story) and Lava was a gray/black. Those two bars were a very nice combination of color during the week of Halloween. Memories! What would we do without them? What a great gift from God.
Bing Crosby ~ Kraft Music Hall and Philco Music Hall Sounds From The Past
The Kraft Music Hall musical-variety show, radio broadcasts from 1934 to 1949 on NBC.
The Kraft Music Hall began its 15-year broadcast life under band leader Paul Whiteman and singer/actor Al Jolson, but it's Bing Crosby for whom the show is best known. Crosby took over as program-host late in 1935, and it was during his decade-long reign on the show that Bing enjoyed the peak of his film, radio, and popular music fame. The sample program we have chosen for you is a Christmas program that originally aired December 14, 1944!
Bing was born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington in 1903. In the 1920's he abandoned law school at Gonzaga University to become a singing-drummer on the vaudeville circuit! By 1925 he'd moved to Los Angeles and began performing in theaters and nightclubs with old college pal Al Rinker. Both friends would sing while Rinker played piano and Crosby accompanied on drums.
In 1927 Paul Whiteman saw them perform and immediately signed them up to tour with his band. Later Crosby left the orchestra to work with Gus Arnaheim back in Los Angeles. In 1931 Crosby signed a recording contract with CBS and the following year began his acting career with Paramount Pictures.
As a part of Crosby's deal with CBS, he was given his own daily radio program, Fifteen Minutes with Bing Crosby, which showcased the crooner's musical talents. From 1931-35 Bing worked several other variety programs on CBS, for sponsors such as Chesterfield cigarettes and Woodbury soap. By this time Crosby had become a major star and late in 1935 he decided to switch over to NBC and host The Kraft Music Hall .
The Music Hall's two-hour format (then one-hour) was a perfect match for Crosby's warm and relaxed stage presence. The show featured a mixture of music, jokes, and casual conversation. One of the regular cast members included Bob Burns, the "Arkansas Traveler", a teller of tall-tales, and player of a comical bass-instrument of his own invention that he called a bazooka. This glorified whisky jug of a bass consisted of two pieces of pipe that were slid one over the other in a trombone-like manner when played. The bazooka moniker would soon be adopted by our troops in the coming war, who affectionately referred to their anti-tank rocket guns by the same name as Burns' crude pipe instrument.
Other Music Hall cast-members featured over the years included: bandleader Jimmy Dorsey, drummer Spike Jones, trombonist Jerry Colonna, vocalist Mary Martin, and pianist-comedian Victor Borge.
The Music Hall had a low-key distinctive sound that Crosby carefully cultivated. Oddly enough, he discouraged applause between performances, feeling this slowed the pace of the program. Numerous big-name musicians, artists, and entertainers became regular guests. It was said they appreciated Crosby's charm and gracious informality, which Bing masterfully employed to make them feel as if they were stars of the show. The long list of illustrious guests included the likes of: Duke Ellington, Jack Teagarten, Lionel Barrymore, Humphery Bogart, Robert Benchley, Pat O'Brien, and Bob Hope.
Late in 1945 a disagreement arose between Crosby and NBC. Bing had heard of a new method of sound recording developed in Germany which used plastic-backed tape that could reproduce sounds of superior quality. Crosby immediately saw the advantages of using these tapes to pre-record his radio programs producing four shows in a week and then taking the rest of the month off.
The network and sponsors had long opposed pre-recorded programs, fearing the public's reaction to a "canned" show. Crosby insisted on taping and in the end, walked out on Kraft and NBC. The Music Hall continued broadcasts until 1949, first under the leadership of Edward Horton and later by the show's old host and singing star, Al Jolson.
In 1946 Crosby started Philco Radio-Time on ABC and made history with radio's first taped program. The show had a very similar format to Kraft Music Hall and pulled respectable ratings in its three years on the air. By doing this Crosby demonstrated to everyone the high quality of audiotape recordings and the fact that the public could accept non-live broadcasts. These discoveries would soon have a tremendous influence on both the music industry and the infant medium of television.
Of course we know who took over the Kraft Music Hall on television, don't we? Perry Como was the King Krooner on Kraft until he retired.
-Chris Plunkett
Today's featured Sounds from the Past are four programs from the past. The first is a Philco Music Hall show from 1947, which has some excellent audio, and a Bing Crosby Christmas show from 1945 sponsored by Chesterfield as Bing was in between the move from Kraft to Philco. We have also posted an April 1945 Kraft Music Hall that has superb audio and introduced "Don't Fence Me In" for the first time. Just click the link below to have a listen!
Here's an old favorite article I always post at Thanksgiving or Christmas Enjoy! if you've never seen it before it will be a fun read. If you've read it before -- read it again! It's likely your memory is not that great. I put a great "Sweet Potato Souffle" receipe at the end. Holidays would not be the same for the Plunkett's without it!
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a tuberous plant in the same genus as the morning glory. It is a long tapered tuber with a smooth skin. The flesh of the tuber ranges from white to yellow, orange and purple. It is often confused with the potato, which is in the same order but not the same family. The soft, sweet, orange variety is called a "yam" in most of the United States but should not be confused with the true yam.
I'll tell you one thing, the best sweet potato I ever ate in my 70 years on this planet was grown in South Carolina. We were on our way home from Myrtle Beach in the middle of September and saw all these huge wooden containers at the side of the road with a farmer sitting in a lawn chair. We stopped and bought a bushel of the greatest sweets I ever tasted. The texture was also superb. I understand that North Carolina sweet taters is (I know it's "are") just as good.
Sweet potatos are rich in dietary fiber, vitamin C and vitamin B6. In tropical areas they are a staple food crop. The tubers, leaves and shoots are all edible. The tubers are most frequently boiled, fried or baked. Tubers can also be processed to make starch and a partial flour substitute. The plants and tubers are frequently used for animal feed. Industrial uses include the production of starch and industrial alcohol.
The plant is a tropical annual vine that does not tolerate frost. Depending on the variety and conditions tubers mature in 3-9 months. Sweet potatoes rarely flower outside of the tropics and are primarily propagated by cuttings and tubers. Some variants are sold as house plants.
Sweet potatoes are believed to have originated in South America and spread throughout the tropical Americas into the Caribbean and across the South Pacific to Easter Island. Very likely the tuber drifted across the sea in a manner coconuts still do today.
Because the general Polynesian word for the sweet potato is kumara, and the South American word is kumar, it was originally thought that this was evidence of cross-Pacific contact between South America and Polynesia. However, linguists have determined that kumara and kumar are totally unrelated and have nothing to do with each other. This therefore cannot be considered as evidence of pre-Magellan trans-Pacific crossings.
Farmers in the Southern United States started using the term "yam" to distinguish between the softer orange variety and the drier white varitey. The true yam is rarely found in the United States except as an import and the orange variety must be labeled "yam sweetpotato". Taken from the Wikepedia Free Encylopedia.
Sweet Potato is also a nickname for the Ocarina which all us old people played when we were kids along with the Jew's Harp or "Juice Harp."
Old-fashioned Sweet Potato Souffle
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups sweet potatoes, cooked, mashed
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped pecans (Yankees may use walnuts)
A lot of folks use marshmellows. Don't. It's sweet enough.
PREPARATION:
In large mixing bowl, beat together hot mashed sweet potatoes, butter, sugar, eggs, and salt until fluffy. Turn into a 1 1/2-quart baking dish and sprinkle with pecans (or walnuts).
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Serves 6 (or fewer very hungry people).
OUR CULTURE OBSERVES A WINTER FESTIVAL -- BUT THIS IS "CHRISTMAS!"
JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO THE WORLD, NOT TO CONDEMN THE WORLD -- BUT THAT THROUGH HIM, THOSE IN THE WORLD MIGHT BE SAVED -- FROM THEIR SIN NATURE AND ALIENATION FROM CREATOR GOD.
Jesus would be called Emanuel, which means "God with us." This was predicted by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14). Jesus was God in the flesh, thus God was literally among us. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ is present today in the life of every believer. Perhaps, not even Isaiah understood how far-reaching the meaning of Emanuel would be.
One of the most memorable moments of "new understanding for me at seminary (back in 1961) occurred in the classroom of Dr. William Hendricks, my Systematic Theology professor.
One morning at the beginning of class, he drew a horizontal line starting at the middle of the chalkboard and then going left as far as he could.
Imagine this chalk line leaving our room and going on out into space to the point where it penetrates another galaxy, like M-1, and travels for millions (trillions?) of light-years until you get tired of drawing the line in your mind. Then circle back all those millions (trillions?) of light-years and bring the imaginary chalk line back into our room to the right side of the chalkboard --connecting it with the original line.
Imagine the immensity of the orbital line we've just drawn in our minds. Now, I'm going to erase a small portion of the horizontal line and make a quarter inch 45 degree angled line and then bring it back up to connect with the line I erased.
He made the angled lines as he spoke.
Now, I've just made a little half-inch jog in the enormous imaginary time line we have all drawn in our minds. This little minute blip represents the moment God came to earth as a baby human being, lived and worked for 30 years with the limitation of being in a human body and then conducted a three-year ministry of love and redemption.
Let's look at that line again. Most of us view and understand the Trinity from this 33-year period of time when Christ was on the earth. Look how miniscule this moment of history is when compared with the circle we've drawn in our minds! And all our understanding of the Trinity is from this perspective -- when the Trinity was in an abnormal relationship.
We must realize that the Trinity "has always been!" Christ, as a member of the Godhead was present at and participated in Creation.
When Christ was on earth, the Trinity was in an abnormal condition and it was a "tiny blip" on God's eternal calendar.
God came to earth and entered history as one of us because He loved us so much. It was the only way those, whom He loved so much, could be reconciled to him. God reached down to us and has been ever since.
Thank you, Dr. Hendricks. I've tried my best to pass your teaching on to others ever since that moment in 1961. How wonderful it is to get a glimpse of God's love and grace as we constantly seek to grow in our understanding of "God's Big Picture" for us and for our world. -N Plunkett
OLD FASHIONED SPICED TEA (SOME CALL IT RUSSIAN TEA) MADE THE NEW FASHIONED WAY
Four years ago, my son NJ had his mind set for spiced tea. He called me after he'd been to Kroger to get the basics. To help him close the loop on his Christmas project I gave him this receipe over the telephone from Denver, two thousand miles away. NJ got a bowl and combined the following ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups instant tea powder
2 cups orange flavored instant breakfast powder (Tang or ?)
1 (3-ounce) package lemonade mix (Wylers or Crystal Light)
3/4 cup sugar (NJ omitted this and uses Splenda when he makes a cup of hot spiced tea.)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Some also add 1/2 teaspoon of allspice, while others use two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice that is a mixture of four of these spices.
Mix all the dry ingredients together until throughly blended. Put the mix in an airtight container. A Bail-top Ball Jar looks nice on the counter and really makes a nice presentation.
To make your cup of delicious spiced tea put 2 teaspoons or more of the tea in a cup. Add artifical sweetener if you omitted the sugar, then add boiling water, stir and you got yourself a tasteful cup of enjoyment. It goes so very well with good conversation, a good book or an Old Time Radio program.
Double or triple your batch when you make the "fixun's" and use the extra as thoughtful Christmas gifts.
Some time ago, Mary and I were talking about Christmas trees with Norm Jr. and were discussing as to when Christians began using the Christmas tree as a symbol of Jesus Christ and eternal life.
We were reminding ourselves that the use of a "winter tree" had long been a pagan practice and part of the observance of the sacred "Winter Solstice". At some point, Christianity adopted the tradition. I really wasn't sure how that happened but I remembered that Martin Luther was connected with starting the tradition of putting candles on Christmas trees to represent "the light of the world," which by that time had become a regular part of home decoration in Germany.
I was embarrassed that I really didnt have a clear idea of how the use of a Christmas tree had come into common practice for the celebration of Christ's birth, so I went to William J. Fedder's book to find an entry, "There Really is a Santa Claus," It's The History of St. Nicholas and the Christmas Holiday. It's an outstanding collection of the traditions and observances of Christmas throughout the centuries. I found this passage that answered some of my questions:
In the year 200 AD, the early church Father, Tertullian wrote:
You are the light of the world, a tree ever green, if you have renounced the heathen temple.
In the 400s AD, St Boniface was sent by Pope Gregory II as a missionary to heathen Germany. One of the first things he did was to confront the Chieftain Gundhar, who was about to offer little Prince Asulf as a bloody sacrifice to Thor, their pagan God who supposedly lived in the huge oak tree at Geismar.
St. Boniface boldly took an axe and after many swings at the mighty Blood Oak tree, an enormous wind arrived and blew the tree over! The heathen throng was in total awe. Then pointing to an evergreen tree that was next to where the mighty oak had stood, St. Boniface stated:
This is the word, and this is the counsel. Not a drop of blood shall fall tonight for this is the birth night of St. Christ, Son of the t All-Father and Savior of the world. This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be a home tree tonight. It is the wood of peace for you houses are built of fir. It is the sign of endless life for it's branches are ever green. See how the tree points toward Heaven? Let this little tree be called the tree of the Christ Child; gather about it, not in the wild woods but in your warm homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood but loving gifts and lights of kindness.
I missed it again! When I woke up Saturday morning, December 6, I didn't find anything at the foot of my bed again! Nothing was in my shoes (thank goodness) or in a bowl. Maybe it's because I've lived in the South for the past 46 years! What happened to St. Nicholas Night? Nobody says a word about it down here.
That's the story of my life. The Plunkett kids on Cedar Street always got cheated back in the 1930's and 40's. We would not be reminded about St. Nicholas night until we arrived at school the next morning and would hear the kids talking about it. The German and Polish kids got fruit, nuts, hard candy, small toys, crayons and stuff like that. How lucky can you get?
"How come you get all that stuff?"
"St. Nicholas brought it," was always the reply. "He put it in our shoes." Others would tell me, "I found it in a bowl at the foot of my bed.
There were comments about not getting coal or a switch -- and the rest of the day I would wonder why St. Nicholas didn't come down Cedar Street. When I asked my mother one time I remember her telling me it was a German custom and we were part German we were not "old country German" like so many other neighbors.
Interesingly enough, Mom (who is 102 this Christmas 2008) was a Godel. The Godels came over from the Stuttgart area in the 1880's to the little town of Wimber near Johnstown, PA and built the hotel, brewery, general store and iron works plant. My grandmother was disowned by the family when Uncle Tommy joined the army as an engineer in Pershing's. His training was along the Rio Grande chasing Poncho Villa but soon was in France building briges and other structures. My grandmother, Mary Godel, was disowned by her father Adolph because she allowed her son, Tommy, to go to France and kill relatives.
But we wern't German enough to observe St. Nicholas Night in Wauwatosa, and that a good enough explanation for me!
It was a European tradition that on the night before St. Nicholas feast day December 6, miraculously St. Nick would ride into town on a white horse from Heaven carrying a white book that had a record of each child's deeds. He would reward good children with sweets and punish the wicked with switches. In Sweden and Norway he rode a reindeer. The Dutch are the ones who brought this tradition to the New World. And, in the 1940s in the European city of Milwaukee, many children were visited by St. Nicholas. Our family seemed to have nothing to do with St. Nicholas.
St. Nicholas became Greek Orthodox priest and had an amazing life of ministry and miracles. He was born in Armenia in 280 AD -- Armenia was the first country to become Christian by rejecting Persian Zoroastrianism. After a noteworthy life his influence continued and was chosen as the patron saint of Russia.
In 1087 the Muslims staged a bloody invasion into Turkey and all but wiped out the Christians in the region, which included the seven churches mentioned in Revelation. The remains of St. Nicholas were rescued and taken to Italy for safekeeping and a gigantic basilica was built in his honor. France and then the entire Western world honored his life. 400 churches were named in his honor in England and 1,200 across Europe.
Jumping centuries, in the 1600's, the Pilgrims and the Puritans who came to the shores of America did not celebrate the Feast Day of St. Nicholas or Henry VIII's "Father Christmas" (which we'll write about later). The colonists did not even celebrate Christmas Day. They considered each day as belonging to the Lord and the weekly Sabbath/Lord's Day was their time of celebration.
It wasn't until the Dutch settlers came to America and founded New Amsterdam (later changed to New York) that American children began hearing of the feast of Saint 'Niklass' and observing the celebration of St. Nicholas' night. As the wilderness was cleared, more English immigrants came over, bringing with them the festive traditions surrounding,"Father Christmas." Gradually, over time, the description of Saint Nicholas became transformed and Christmas was emphasized.
My youngest son, Christopher Sean Plunkett, who is now the hydrologist for the Unita Wilderness and Flaming Gorge Reservoir in NE Utah and has always been our "mountain man," wrote this essay on "the Fruitcake" some time ago. Dad thinks it's "one of the best" and it's time to unwrap it again. Chris grew up in a "Claxton Fruitcake home" so we are all partial to that scrumptious little brick that is always found in our home every fall and totally destroys the accepted opinion of our culture regarding "fruitcake."
At one time, let's say 40 years ago, you could only find a Claxton Fruitcake in Georgia. Today, you can find them in your supermarket and drug stores... almost anywhere. The "Claxtons" are delicious, mainly because they are jammed full of Georgia pecans. If you can't find one and want to taste one, let me know. Chris writes about another really good fruit cake -- the Collin Street Bakery premium fruitcake that has been made in Corsicana, Texas since 1989. I just came across a nostalia website that listed the tim for a Collin Street Bakery fruitcake -- they wanted $15.00 for the empty 15 year old tin. Remember that when you purchase one. Collin Street is another favorite fruitcake of ours.
Four or so years ago the FAA made a decision to not permit the "Carry-On" of any fruitcake. It seems like the density of the product resembles gunpowder. Is that why most fruitcakes are stored on pantry shelves?
Now there's something to think about and pass on as one of your Christmas reality jokes. Here's Chris Plunkett's classic essay on Fruitcakes. Chris is now the Hydrologist for the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Unita Wilderness of Northeast Utah and a genuine gourmet and short story writer.
"Tis The Time For Fruitcake!"
Ah yes, tis the season for yet another holiday tradition! Just like good ole Saint Nick himself it's time for that long-lived and oft-maligned gastronomic wonder, the noble fruitcake, to rise from it's darkened celestial cupboard and set out on its holiday "gift given" rounds, spreading joy and good cheer the wide world over.
And to serve as a yuletide warning for all the headstrong and precocious children of the planet to behave themselves, ere the firm hands of justice should force them in punishment to actually eat a piece!
As far back as the gilded Christmas age of Charles Dickens’ England, the fruitcake has suffered the 'slings and arrows of outrageous' culinary reviews. It was Dickens himself who once referred to it as "a geological homemade cake," but it was under Johnny Carson's watch on "The Tonight Show" that fruitcakedom witnessed its public relations low-point with a series of vicious and slanderous chucklers, the best of which was: There's only one fruitcake in the entire U.S. and it's passed around year after year, from family to family!
Not laughing? Well I suppose we lack Ed McMahon's 'Ho-Ho'ing shotgun-backup for the full Carson effect.
There are a few among fruitcake's myriad fans (and those who just pretend to be for "image's sake" that trace its beginnings back to Egyptian times when cakes of dried fruit (in a tasteful dusting of natron) were prepared for the Pharaoh to take with him into the afterlife.
Still others cite the first fruitcakes occurring in Roman times, when a sumptuous m'lange of raisins, pine nuts, and pomegranate were set in a barley mash and baked to produce a dense, durable food stuff that could easily travel on long campaigns with the conquering legions.
During the Middle Ages in Europe honey became an essential ingredient of the cakes, as a flavoring and a preservative. With the advent of cheap sugar, brought by the colonial trade of the 1600's, fruitcake's shelf-life steadily increased as the nuts and fruity bits were soaked in greater and greater concentrations of sugar.
By the 1700's these cakes were used in various religious festivals, harvest celebrations, and weddings. In rural communities the harvest was marked by the baking of special cakes, which were stored until the following year to bring luck to the New Year's crop. Along a similar vein, in some parts of England the upper layer of wedding cakes (the bride's cake) is still made of fruitcake, which the newly wed couple keeps for the coming year(s).
No one seems to be certain why fruitcakes became associated with Christmas time, but one imaginative story involves a late 1700's English custom of handing out slices of cake to impoverished women who traveled door to door at Christmas, singing carols. Another possibility involves another English law from the 1700's, which restricts the use of plum cake (i.e. fruitcake) to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings and funerals. In any case most fruitcakes are eaten (or I should say, 'sold') at holiday time.
Here in America, the modern Christmas fruitcake comes in two basic varieties, typically formed into a dense ring-shaped loaf, often topped in pecans. One variety is the "light fruitcake"-- this uses sugar or corn syrup and a mixture of walnuts, almonds, pecans, golden raisins, pineapple, lemon rind, apricot, and cherry, bound in a sweet heavy dough.
"Dark fruitcakes" employ brown sugar or molasses as the main sweetener, and often use additional fruits such as dark raisins, prunes, and dates. Both varieties are often available with bourbon, brandy, or some other eau de vie as an added flavoring.
Despite all the jokes and their bad image, fruitcakes can be big business. The two largest fruitcake companies hail from the rural South, where traditionally fruit and nutmeats were available at bargain prices. The top-selling fruitcake company is the Claxton Bakery out of Claxton, Georgia -- you've seen it with it's two inch square loaf that is about eight inches long and chucked full of Georgia pecans. The rival to Claxton is the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. The Claxton Bakery does not readily disclose exactly how many of their unusual brick shaped 'beauties' are foisted upon humanity each year, but in one article they mention that a single government commissary once placed an order for 65,000 cakes. Oddly enough, a surprisingly large portion of all fruitcakes produced go to Japan!
For those brave few souls who feel inspired to actually do some fruitcake nibbling this holiday season, I can offer but a scant few tips. Sadly, perhaps I mean happily" - my experience has been limited to only a few mass-produced examples of the fruitcake baker's art. I suppose I should also warn you that my opinion is further handicapped by a hatred of maraschino cherries!
Most of the fruitcakes I've eaten have struck me as quite dry and bland, but find that the Claxton fruitcakes (while still bland compared to fruit breads like German stollen, Italian panetone, and French kougelhof) …the Claxton cakes have a wet dense texture that I find a bit more palatable than other options I've sampled -including the fruit-flavored CLIF and Powerbars that mountainbikers and "outdoorsy types" so often rave about. I've never had a Collin Street fruitcake, but know those who swear by them -- one of them is my Dad. (Or was it "at them?") I hear that the dark variety of fruitcake has a bolder flavor and that all of them are much improved if they've been baked with a little bourbon or some other liqueur.
Fruitcakes also improve with time; a good three months are required for the flavors from the fruits to fully blend and meld into the sweet doughy binder. Carefully stored, a fruitcake can last for years! The first thing to "go" on them will be the nuts.
Though I've never tried them, I hear that Trappist monks can make some pretty good fruitcakes! Two 'orders' renowned for their bourbon-laced cakes are the Abbey of Gethsemane near Louisville, Kentucky and the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia. See the links at the end of the article.
For those curious to have a look at the operations of the top-producing Claxton Bakery see the link at the end of the article. And in the interest of granting equal billing for our "Texas friends" the Collin Street Bakery's site is also listed.
And if, at the end of your holiday, all the fruitcakes you've bought have been "tried and found wanting", they needn't go to waste; you could take a little trip to the town of Manitou Springs, Colorado for their annual 'Fruitcake Toss'. Here participants throw, 'tee-off', and catapult fruitcakes of all varieties and ilks. (I hear for reasons of 'ballistics', the brick shaped Claxton cakes do quite well!) The coming year's toss will be held the first week of January, and if you don't have a fruitcake of your own, one can be rented.
ChrisP (Christopher Sean Plunkett's signature since Second Grade.)
Just before Thanksgiving I drove by Lennx Square on Peachtree Street and the Pink Pig was already in operation bringing joy to kids and parents and making new memories.... but this pig has tires and was running on the asphalt parking lot instead of riding on the old Rich's monorail that was on the ceiling of the downtown store. Rich's is now call Macy's and has restored (partially) the Pink Pig and now operate it at their Lennox Square store since the area is the new "downtown Atlanta." WXIA-TV11, KICK's-FM, also sponsors the retro renewed Christmas ride for children. I understand that a considerable amount of the profits now go to the Children's Egleston Hospitals. I've got to run this article again as it really fits the season, is about a dear friend of mine, Ron Buchanan who is now retired. It's a wonderful Jean Shepherd type story. Enjoy! N.Plunkett
The Pink Pig is a fond memory for every child who grew up in Atlanta in the 1950's through the 1970's.
"Who or what's the Pink Pig?" you ask. It's not the steady girl-friend of Kermit the Frog, or that great barbeque place on just off the expressway that serves great 'pulled' pork on light bread. "The Pink Pig" I'm referring to was once the main Christmas attraction at THE finest department store that once was called Rich's after its founder, Richard Rich and was an Atlanta institution for over a hundred years.
The Pink Pig was a train for children that traveled as a monorail on the ceiling of Rich's toy department and then burst out of the building onto the roof and around the massive Christmas tree that stood so proudly on the bridge over Forsyth Street between the store's two buildings just south of the famous Five Points in downtown Atlanta. It was a small train -- even small and confining for the children who rode the Pig. This incredible memory-maker carried hundreds of thousands of children from 1953 until 1991 when downtown Rich's closed and the building was demolished.
But none of those stories can come close to the one Ron Buchanan told me many years ago. Ron had been hired as a part of the Christmas staff at Rich's while a student in college. He was given the assignment of being one of Santa's Elves who would escort children who were to ride on The Pink Pig. He would walk them down a darkened and beautifully decorated tunnel that led from the parents to the entrance platform for The Pig. The presence of hundreds of black lights illuminated the specially chosen graphics on the wall and enhanced the mood and the fine Christmas decorations.
Ron really enjoyed his job. It was so much fun to see the excitement of the kids. How they responded to him and the other Elves.
One afternoon, everything changed. As he would lead the children down the "blacklight illuminated tunnel," the children would suddenly pull away from him and didn't want him to get anywhere close to them let alone hold their hand. Some of the children would look at his face and express extreme terror in their expressions -- fear even to the point of breaking into tears and screams. The children were having this reaction in the darkened tunnel that led from "the parents" out onto the "Pink Pig platform" train loading area.
The reaction of the children was disturbing Ron. He had never experienced anything like this before and didn't know what to do about it. "What's goin on?" He sure didn't want to be the reason some child would have a trauma they would never forget. Leading more child passengers through the tunnel didn't change anything. One after another, Ron was getting the same reaction.
On one of his Elf trips thought the blacklight lit tunnel he happened to look over at one of the decorations that had a mirror in it.
RON WAS HORRIFIED AT WHAT HE SAW! His eyes were luminous and glowing like a demon from hell! Why his reflection scared him! It was terrifying.
Ron put it all together immediately. He came to work right from an appointment at the optometrist's office where he had an eye checkup. The drops used to dilate his eyes reacted to the black light which filled the darkened tunnel. As Ron walked the children through the tunnel, the black light turned his eyes into glowing orbs of horror terrifying the children!
Needless to say, Ron immediately explained to his boss what was happening and asked to be excused from work for the rest of the evening. I'm sure there were children that night who rode The Pink Pig for the first time -- and then vowed NEVER to ride it again.
I borrowed two of the Atlanta Journal Constitution file photos of the Pink Pig to show 'out of towners' and people born after 1991 what the original "Pink Pig" looked like. Three years ago, The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran some excellent news and human interest articles about the Pig's resurrection.
God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling -- and the warm, personal counsel we find in Scripture to come to characterize us. These two things will keep us alert for whatever God will do next in our life. (As we allow him to control and guide us.)
Then our lives will be a choir -- not just our voices only, but our LIVES singing in harmony! It will be a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
Romans 15:4-6 The Message Bible, Nav Press
This is such a significant passage. It's one of my favorites. Read it a couple of times. It just "sings." (Sorry about that but had to say it.) We need to understand afresh that using Scripture daily in our lives is essential to good spiritual health.
How many read God's word once a week, let alone get into it for a few moments every day. But the morning newspaper and our receipe book or our current reading project seem to get all our "reading time." Scripture, written so long ago, was intended to show us the mind of God and to teach us patience and encourage us to look forward expectantly to the time God conquers sin and death. You know -- helping us get the "Big Picture" and realize that this life is only the beginning. But maybe you have a different view of Scripture and don't see it as speaking to your life today. If that's the case, I wish it were otherwise... you would see such joy and have such peace in the "middle of it all.
Exposing ourselves to Scripture influences our attitude toward our present life and the future. Singing (living) in harmony with God means we are sharing his perspective and values. Just as we take Jesus' view of the authority of Scripture, the nature of heaven and his resurrection, we also have his attitude of love toward others and grow in our faith and knowledge of him. Only by reading Scripture and spending time with God in prayer will we deepen our intimacy with our Lord. Philippians chapter 2 has some wonderful thoughts about Christ's attitude. NP
