A Happy Thanksgiving To All

Memories flooding my mind all week long. Missing those wonderful and kind hearts for parents I was raised with. Oh the beautiful Thanksgiving feasts  my mother laid before us. She was a master in her kitchen. I can close my eyes, and see her in her apron and holding a spoon in one hand. she cared for her phamily with such grace and beauty. You don't have that today, people are too much in a hurry. Cell phones in one hand, phamilies often an afterthought. Sadly I do not have a photo of my beautiful mother but I have dozens of silly food photos from all those beautiful Thanksgivings I spent with her.

A favorite KSKJ ladies in the kitchen cooking photo. My mother, sans her apron on your far right. She loved the color green and wore it a lot. These BoJons Queens of the Culinary set could whip up dishes these TV foodie celebrities couldn't touch today! They had husbands who worked hard for a living, most of them at the CF and I Steel Corporation. They were married to railroaders, like Uncle Louie, all those years working in the yard for the railroad and traveling the country for free when he took Auntie Ang (far left in pink top and apron)on vacation, always to see her sisters in southern California.

This is a beautiful photo. These BoJon queens of the Culinary Arts were something. Auntie Ang whipped up these outfits like most of us have a thought. Even with crippling arthritis destroying her once beautiful hands, she sewed like a magical wizard and whipped the outfits up from her own designs. Talented, folks that would be an understatement today. She baked like a dream and if you ever had a cake she baked, it was light as a feather and filled with delicious goodness. All these precious ladies were wonderful in their kitchens. They did it out of joy and not drudgery.  They had long, loving marriages and they enjoyed serving others.

Not to forget these fabulous BoJon beauties! Three of dad's sisters, Anna, Mary (Mima) and Angela(Gela). Missing in this photo are Stephie and Millie. Auntie Mima, married to a true blooded Italian, learned to cook his favorite dishes when she married him. She would shame these so called experts in food today. She never used a recipe, measuring for the crowd size. I learned a lot from her, she put us to work setting tables for political dinners and weddings, We were kids, and our mothers did not have play dates and babysitters, we went where they went. We had manners and we respected our mothers. Life was better than.

One more BoJon Queens of the Culinary Arts photo. Fashionable designs by Auntie Ang second on her right. My sweet mother second on your left. They were young and they were beautiful, I sure miss them tonight.