NYNIAGAR-FOLKS-L Archives

From: "Vee L. Housman" <>
Subject: Mother, Tuna fish and macaroni salad, and me
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 23:10:09 -0500

Dear Folks,



This is something I wrote 7 years ago. I just came across it this evening
and I wanted to share a very warm memory with you.

vee



MOTHER, TUNA FISH AND MACARONI SALAD, AND ME

January 18, 1998

I just had to share this with someone this evening or I was gonna bust! All
of a sudden I remembered Mother, tuna fish and macaroni salad and me. It
was a sweet memory--just Mother and me and tuna fish and macaroni salad.

Back in the mid 1940s on a Sunday afternoon or two, my older sister would be
off with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, Daddy would be superintending the
plant (or playing pinochle at the local saloon with the blue collar workers)
and that left Mother, me and little baby brother at home. I was in my
mid-teens.

Somehow, it seemed that it was always a gray rainy, drizzly Sunday or a bit
of a gray snowy Sunday when Mother would prepare tuna fish and macaroni
salad for just the two of us. It seemed that BECAUSE of the dismal weather
we especially enjoyed sitting down at the dining room table and enjoyed our
simple intimate dinner and enjoyed talking with each other.

Well, what made it VERY special, is what we enjoyed talking about. Mother
loved Strauss waltzes and so did I. She had bought an album of large 78 rpm
records of Strauss waltzes and as we ate our tuna fish and macaroni salad,
we played them on the phonograph. I don't know how many times we played
them over and over again. And each time, we would try to figure out the
best way to identify each one by name by hearing only the first opening
strains--the Emperor Waltz, the Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods,
etc. And we would compliment the one who recognized the waltz first. Such
a precious memory that Mother and I enjoyed reminiscing about on numerous
occasions during the years afterward.

And now that I've shared that memory with you, I'm going to print it out and
give it to my niece so that she can give it to her children. You see, I was
just describing a scene where the children's grandmother (my sister Norma)
was enjoying the afternoon with a girlfriend or off on a date with a
boyfriend, and her sister (me) was sitting at home enjoying the closeness
with their great-grandmother who loved Strauss waltzes and who fixed a mean
dish of tuna fish and macaroni salad on gray Sundays.

And, BTW, play any Strauss Waltz and I can still name it within the first
three bars!

This thread:

• Mother, Tuna fish and macaroni salad, and me by "Vee L. Housman" <>