Christmas Cookies 2022

 

Christmas 2022

It’s December 24, 2022 and I am making my first Christmas cookies of the season. Not going to have many made this year. This first batch is “Aunt Ernie’s Sour Cream Cookies”. This is my boys’ favorite cookies but not until I stopped calling them Sour Cream Cookies and just said Aunt Ernie’s Cookies. Names make a difference. Each time I make this recipe I’m reminded of my Great Aunt Ernestine Wiedrich. She died several decades before my sons were born and I wish she would be more than a cookie to them. She was very personable and raised a large family in Oakfield, NY. My great   grandmother, Sarah Wiedrich loved visiting her. She would say how enjoyable it was.

Aunt Ernie’s Sour Cream Cookies

By Ernestine Schramm Wiedrich

1 c sugar

½ c shortening (margerine or butter)

½ c sour cream

2 eggs (beat in one at a time)

Mix at medium speed for 2 min.

Add

2¼ c flour            ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp nutmeg    1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt             1 tsp lemon extract

nutmeats (1/2 – 1 c chopped walnuts is good) or coconut opt.

Mix well. Drop by teaspoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle tops with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 min.

Pictured Ernestine and Sarah Wiedrich

#Ernistine Wiedrich, #Sarah Wiedrich, #Christmas 2022, #Christmas Cookies, #Sour Cream Cookies

Veteran's Day in Washington 2022

 

I had an amazing Veterans Day weekend. Reporting to Fort Meyer at 6AM to be Covid tested and go through 2 security checks. Then boarded a bus with others to the White House for breakfast. Another security check before entering.

A military orchestra was playing in the foyer.

A buffet was spread in the State Dining Room with Lincoln’s portrait looking over me. The food was lovely.

I also had a picture taken with Chief of Staff General Milley.

Then I went to the East Room to eat beneath the portraits of George and Martha Washington and hear remarks by the President (taped), First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

I sat next to two charming young Navaho brothers who were in the New Mexico National Guard. I was also so honored to have a picture with Medal of Honor recipient, Thomas Payne. 

Guests were then taken to another room but first another security check and leave our possessions (mine was a wallet and camera). In the next room each of us was introduced individually and had a picture taken with Jill Biden, Kamala Harris and her spouse (Joe Biden was in Egypt for the G20). Don’t know if I’ll ever get the picture – last year’s guests didn’t get theirs. Then it was back to the buses and on to Arlington Cemetery. White House guests were escorted to the rear of the amphitheater to see the Vice President lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was torrential raining and people on both sides of me had umbrellas that they kept aiming their runoff on me.

After that ceremony myself and about twenty t other “VIPs” were escorted to the stage in the amphitheater for the national ceremony. Each of us was introduced to the audience and later when I watched the video of the ceremony on CSPAN my name was scrolled on the screen. It was very exciting. Vice President Harris gave the main address.

Then, as National Commander of the Army and Navy Union I laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

After this we rode busses back to Fort Meyer for my car. I was staying in a hotel in Fairfax with the rest of the Army and Navy Union members. The next day ANU spent the day doing ceremonies and laying wreath at ten monument/memorials throughout Washington and Arlington.  

Great weekend.

#Arlene Baker, #Veterans Day 2022, #Arlington National Cemetery, #Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, #White House Veterans Breakfast, 

Video from Arlington www.facebook.com/ArlingtonNatl/videos/1939139263144596

www.c-span.org/video/?524171-1/vice-president-lady-participate-veterans-day-observance-part-1

www.c-span.org/video/?524171-101/vice-president-harris-veterans-day-remarks-arlington-cemetery

 

The one-room school where my mother, Millicent "Midge" Wiedrich Moore went to school in the 1930s. It was on the Creek Rd just outside of Batavia, NY. My mom is 1st person on the left in the 3rd row up. Her sister, Bonnie Wiedrich Selb is the 1st person on the left in the bottom row. Her other sister, Connie Wiedrich Davis may be the small girl 2nd from the left in the 2nd row up. Later when the school was closed the teacher bought the school and converted into her home.

#Creek Road School, #Batavia, NY, #One Room School, #Millicent Wiedrich, #Millicent Moore, #Midge Moore, #Bonalyn Wiedrich, #Bonalyn Selb, #Constance Wiedrich, #Constance Davis

 Abel Bristol

When Abel Bristol was born in June 1749 in New Haven, Connecticut, his father, Aaron, was 34 and his mother, Ms. Abigail, was 35. (1) He married Mary Norton on January 24, 1775 (some sources say 1774), in Harwinton, Connecticut. Where they resided for a time. (2) About 1776 they moved to Albany, New York. (3) Abel Bristol served in CPT Amos William company  and later COL  Gay’s 2^nd Battalion during the American Revolution when he was 28-yrs-old. Both he and his brother lost their guns in the York Island retreat of 1776.  In later years the DAR records him attaining the rank of CPT with the Columbia NY militia. (3) In 1778, the couple lived in Ontario county, NY. (4) He was elected "Supervisor" at the first town meeting of Lima held in the "Brick School House" on 4 Apr 1809. (4) He had four children: Lois, Miles, Abel and Norton. He died on May 11, 1827, in Lima, New York, having lived a long life of 77 years, and was buried there. (5)

(1)     Ancestry.com, Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006), Ancestry.com, Database online. Record for Abel Bristol. Bristol Genealogy, vol 1 p.27.

(2)     Ancestry.com, Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006), Ancestry.com, Marriage date:  24 Jan 1774  Marriage place:  Harwinton  Residence date:    Residence place:  Harwinton.

(3)     New York in the Revolution as Colony and State,, Vol. I - Extracts; Publication Place: Albany, New York; Publisher: J. B. Lyon Co.; Publication Year: 1904; Page Number: 237. Also listed in the DAR and SAR records.

(4)     History of Livingston County New York

(5)     Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Ancestry.com, Record for Lois Warner. http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=FindAGraveUS&h=12537881&indiv=try. and Bristol Genealogy p.27

#Abel Bristol, #Bristol family, #Lima, NY history, #NY men in the Revolutionary War

Most Unusual Source – Court Martial

 

While researching my great grandfather, Charles S. Moore, I went to the New Egypt, New Jersey city clerk’s office. I asked if they had any wills or deeds for him or his father. They were busy but said they would get back to me after tax season. A few weeks later they called saying someone else was looking for the same person. They gave me that person’s name and phone number. It turned out that the person, Fran Born was also a great granddaughter of Charles. We got together and had a nice visit that started collaboration of our research. They had Charles’ original discharge papers from his service in the 4^th NJ Infantry during the Civil War. They also had a transcript of his court martial for disobeying an order. The order was “ stop shooting the mules with dry corn kernels”, which he was doing for fun. As soon as the sergeant turned his back he shot them again. Thus, his court martial. The transcript was like being there and listening to him speak. Another fact that came out was that he was late for a battle due to bad feet. That explains why my dad and I had feet as flat as pancakes and bunions. The punishment he received was being docked $10 of his $13 a month pay. Another revelation was that he had left his company in Virginia without leave to return to NJ when his father died. Several siblings had died too, and the house was being repossessed. On his return to Virginia, he was arrested as a deserter. But since Abraham Lincoln had made a proclamation that said any deserter who was returning of his own volition would not be prosecuted. All of this told me so much about my great grandfather who died almost eighty years before I was born.

#Court Martial, #Charles S. Moore, #Civil War Court Martial, #New Egypt, NJ, #4th New Jersey Infantry

 

In the Kitchen

 

Every generation probably has its kitchen stories. My story is one of disaster. My kitchen has no cabinets. The floor is in disrepair and the ceiling looks up to the floor above. Someday perhaps I may get a new kitchen.

My mother’s kitchen was large, but it was not always so. The previous owners had made changes. The original kitchen was L shaped with the furnace and washing machine in the L. They added a utility room and moved the furnace and laundry to the utility room. They then opened the center of the L to make a square room but then put a wall to divide the room into two rectangular rooms. The rooms were narrow and if people sat on both sides of the table they were wall to wall. My mom hated it and asked dad to get rid of the wall. Dad kept putting it off. One day when dad was on the 4-12 shift, Mom and I knocked the wall out except for some 2x4s. I was only about 8 or 9 years old. When dad came home was he surprised.

When my mom was little her family would go to the Colby farm and camp out. She made it sound like they were going to a summer camp, but I suspect that my grandfather was really helping on the farm and my grandmother was working in the kitchen tent. I have a picture of her sitting in front of the tent.

This is one of my favorite photos. My granddaughter, Luna meets Santa for the first time. Not yet 1-yrs-old she is fascinated by this strange person.

#Santa and me picture, #52 Ancestors Favorite Picture, #Christmas pictures