FUSCHIAS, AUNTIE LOLA AND UNCLE IKE

          Fuschias are absolutely beautiful and my very most favorite is the one my Great Aunt Lola gave me a start for just about 50 years ago. I planted it in the back corner of my flowerbed and every year it comes back and blossoms beautifully. It always makes me think of her and her husband, Great Uncle Ike. They were probably my most favorite relatives of all time.

          Auntie Lola also gave me a pampas grass, but I moved it one too many times and it finally said enough, laid down and died. That, or John or one of the boys did something to it because they were the ones that had to move it. The last time before it died, they said, this is it, not doing it again. I’ve thought about buying another one, but it wouldn’t be the same at all.

          Anyway, Uncle Ikeee (we hardly ever called him just Ike) was my daddy’s father’s brother. When we first moved to Seattle, Uncle Ike and Aunt Lola owned a tavern somewhere in the south end of Seattle. They lived on Beacon Hill. I don’t think I ever went to the tavern, but I remember my first and only bike came from Uncle Ike and the tavern. Someone had left the bike behind and after it was unclaimed, he gave it to me. It was a boy’s bike, but when you desperately want your own bike, who cares about the bar in the middle…unless you fall on it and then, OUCHIE-ouch.

          Uncle Ike smoked and drank and told funny and off-color jokes. I never got the off-color ones until I grew up quite a bit. John absolutely loved that man and they got along great. I believe they sold the tavern and Uncle Ike went to work as a mechanic some place. I remember he brought home motor oil which Aunt Lola or maybe Uncle Ike would pour in a thin stream at the edge of the grass to keep the grass from invading the flowerbed. I’ve never tried that in my own garden, but it seemed to work in theirs.

          While Uncle Ike was kinda naughty, Aunt Lola was the epitome of class and breeding or at least it seemed that way to me. She had snow white hair and always wore diamond studs in her ears. She also always wore a dress and apron. Every once in a while, though, after I grew up, Auntie Lola would set me back on my heels in shock at what would come out of her mouth. You would expect it from Uncle Ike, but not Aunt Lola. Once you got over the shock, what she had to say was always applicable and very funny. I remember many dinners with lots of laughter and good food at their home.

          They never had any children, but Aunt Lola found herself pregnant as a young woman. She didn’t marry the father and chose to keep the child. She worked as a beautician and raised her daughter on her own. That must have been extremely hard back in those years. I think the daughter had grown up by the time she and Ike married, but I’m not sure.

          They both liked to garden, or at least Auntie did. Their gardens were beautiful with all different kinds of flowers and not a lot of grass. It was very pleasant to sit out back surround by all that beauty. I still remember the passion vine that grew up a trellis by the back door and their begonias were lush and gorgeous. They also had a tulip tree (magnolia?) in the front yard. I loved that tree and asked Auntie to please leave it to me in her will. Unfortunately, as they got older, that tree was pretty messy and one visit, it was simply gone…they’d had it cut down.

          Aunt Lola was the one who taught me to can. First, she told me what I needed to buy in order to make 18-20 quarts. Then, she and Ike came to our house and while John and Ike hung out, Auntie taught me how to make garlic dill pickles. I still have the recipe although I’ve copied it over several times. It says we did this in 1968 and the cost per quart was 33 cents. I’ve made at least ten quarts or more every single year since I learned how. I’ve also shared her recipe with many people and held a tutorial last summer for three of my friends. In just a few weeks, it will be time to put up this year’s jars and the cost will most likely be more than $3.00 per quart.

          She also taught me how to can green beans. For those you need a pressure cooker and I bought one although I’ve always wondered how women canned beans back in the day before pressure cookers. I went to her house to learn how to can them. I remember placing the warm jars, carefully protected so they wouldn’t break in the trunk of my car. For years, I had three or four teepees of bean vines and canned all the beans produced and that we ate during the winter. Store bought green beans never tasted as good as the ones I canned.

          Auntie and Uncle Ike also made sauerkraut. They had a huge stone container or crock in which they put the shredded cabbage and whatever else went into the process. I seem to remember them saying something about how you had to keep checking back and skimming off scum or mold or something and turning the cabbage until it was time to can it up. They’re also the only people I’ve ever known who made an actual mincemeat. I always just buy a jar and it’s mostly raisons, apples and spices. Auntie made it with venison…real meat. Either Ike went hunting or someone else in the family did so in order to provide the venison. I remember having mincemeat pie prepared by Aunt Lola and it was very good.

          It was also Auntie Lola who planned and organized the huge family picnics every single year. They were always wonderful affairs and family you may not have seen since the last picnic always showed up. As a youngster, it was great fun to play with cousins and be told how much you’d grown by the various aunts and uncles. Uncle Ike departed first and I think the last big family event planned by Auntie was his funeral and memorial. Then Aunt Lola went to California to live with her daughter and the family picnics became a thing of the past. I believe AJ was old enough to have a few memories of picnics and Aunt Lola and Uncle Ike. A cousin and I talked about keeping the faith and organizing some annual events, but we never followed through and I deeply regret that because almost all of the people from those times are no longer with us.       

I think I’ve written about blue huckleberries before. There was family back in Spokane, on Auntie Lola’s side of the family I think. Every year they’d go over there in time to pick huckleberries. When Auntie became too old to clamber around, the younger family members would cut off branches and she’d sit and pick them clean. Then, she’d can the huckleberries when she got back home. At each and every annual picnic, Auntie would bring two huckleberry pies and I would hover around until I made sure I was going to get at least one slice. It’s my all-time favorite kind of pie.

You know I believe it’s unfortunate that so many of us do not hold annual events for all our family members. Families are no longer giant sized with lots and lots of relatives. The majority of families these days have one or two children as opposed to the half-dozen to a dozen that many families had in the days of my grandparents. In a lot of ways, I feel we cheated our own children and grandchildren when it comes to those kinds of experiences. Perhaps times were easier and slower back then? As we moved into the latter part of the last century and the first part of this one, it seems to me that life began to move faster and faster. It seemed/seems we’re all so busy and dashing about so fast there’s no time to plan for or organize a huge family events. It seems like we’re lucky to get together for birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And, now, with the pandemic, we may be missing those as well.

I like to look at my fuschia or dill pickle recipe and think of Aunt Lola and Uncle Ike. In turn, that brings back memories of other relatives from those annual events; and I feel the richness of those remembrances and how those relatives and experiences added so much to my child and young-adulthood. I’m exceedingly grateful the older I become for those who went before me and shared and taught me so very much.