Marmalade Memories

My friend Len gave me a bag of oranges and lemons. He likes to shop at Costco as he says the quality of the produce is the best. However, he and his wife Judi can never eat it all, so every time we meet for lunch, Len gives me a bag of stuff. I don't mind.

I decided to make marmalade. As I was slicing the oranges and lemons, I thought about Dick. (I'll explain the connection eventually.)
During my senior year at the University in Minneapolis, my parents and sister moved to Shorewood, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After graduation, I accepted a job in Fond du Lac, a small town in central Wisconsin. Every weekend I took the train to Milwaukee to visit my parents and let my Mother feed me. My sister (Mary Ann) was attending a local college and had made friends. Every weekend Mary Ann and her boyfriend arranged a blind date for me. I can't remember any of them.   But on Friday, September 13th we were to meet my date after the local high school football game. I wore my Minnesota sweatshirt, wool slacks, and my favorite gummy-soled blue suede shoes (really!). During the half-time, we left our seats and started to walk past the bleachers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this handsome fellow wearing a camel hair jacket and red tie. He came up to us and began talking to me. With as nasty a tone as I could muster, I said, "I don't believe we've met," and I walked away. He turned to Mary Ann's boyfriend and said, "That's the girl I'm going to marry." And marry me he did.

It was 1946 and Dick was freshly out of the service. He'd entered the Marines shortly after December 7th, 1942, while still a senior in high school. At seventeen he needed to get his parents permission and the approval of high school to get an early diploma. He did both tasks.

Dick had been an altar boy and an Eagle Scout (at the time, the youngest in the state of Wisconsin).

He was smart, ambitious, and had a wicked sense of humor. Who else but a young man in love would have done this.....

He never lacked for friends. People just loved him. But to get back to the marmalade...It was Fall and I had been canning. Tomatoes, peaches, apricots, and applesauce. I had made apple butter and several kinds of jam. To make all the pickles on my list, I had bought a bag of salt. We --just Dick and me--were going away for the weekend to visit our friend Big John. A big treat for me.

He was Big John (at 6'2" compared to our John) and he loved marmalade. I found a competent baby sitter --not easy for our bunch, as Doug was only 4 months old, Bill one and a half, Mary three, and John five.

I spent the morning slicing oranges and lemons, making sure the rinds were as thin as possible. Dick interrupted me on his way out to the backyard. "Honey, I emptied the sugar and filled the bowl." I was grateful for any kind of help. I got out my speical rectangular pan--it fit over two burners--and dumped in the oranges, lemons, and about 8 cups of sugar and began to stir. Another interruption when John came into the kitchen. He was hungry, but said he could take care of it himself. He put cereal into a bowl, poured in milk, and added sugar. "This cereal tastes funny," he said. I was too busy to be concerned about his personal taste for cereal as I was having a terrible time with my marmalade. No matter how much it bubbled and boiled, nor how long I stirred, I couldn't get the sugar to melt. "Mom," John insisted. "There's something wrong with the cereal." My response was not as sweet or patient as it should have been. I was now really concerned about my marmalade. "Tastes salty," John said.

     Salty? Oh no! I tasted the marmalade. Salty. Dick had never seen salt in a bag. He was so sorry. "It's kind of funny," he said. "Not to me," I replied. "Not now. Give me a little time." He disappeared into the bedroom. I sank into a chair and tried not to cry.

     A short time later, they came slowly walking by, Dick, John, Mary, and Bill. All were wearing coats and hats and looking sad. Dick picked up the rectangular pan and said, "We're having services in the back yard." And they did.

     All of that happened so long ago, but as I stirred my pan of oranges, lemons, and sugar the memories were as yesterday.