A SHORT-LIVED BUT GRAVE UNDERTAKING

When I was a 14- year- old country girl trying out ideas for my future, I discovered an opportunity to volunteer at the Meeker County Memorial Hospital. The position of “candystriper” came to my attention. Those days that was as glamorous as “flight attendant” in my mind and seemed to fit with my servant nature, which was honed daily at the side of my farmwife Mom. She thought it would be a great experience for me. And so I promptly talked my dear cousin and best pal Kathy into joining me in this lofty endeavor.

Always eager for another adventure, Kathy gleefully agreed. School was out for the summer and we were anxious to try something new and exciting. However, since we both lived 16 miles from Litchfield, we had to make arrangements for being shuttled to our 2 hour weekly job. In those days, trips off the farm were planned far in advance, never a spontaneous jaunt that didn’t include various stops. Mom drove us a few times, filling the car with groceries as she waited, Dad brought us once and went to the dentist and the John Deere store, Kathy’s big brother Richard even ushered us to town once, as I recall.

We were quite excited to don our new uniforms: pink and white striped jumpers. We looked like peppermint sticks. Our duties included bringing floral arrangements to the rooms, delivering meal trays to the patients, freshening their water glasses, basically following the nurses around to help them when needed. We learned to change bedding on the patients’ beds (a skill I already had down to perfection, thanks to training by my invalid aunt when she wanted fresh sheets on her own bed. It was she who taught me to make the “hospital corners” on each end that I still practice to this day).

We only lasted about 6 weeks. I remember exactly the day we resigned and why. Towards the end of my shift, I was finishing topping off water glasses in each room in my section. I filled the glass of an old man who appeared to be asleep. Upon leaving his bedside, I witnessed a gurney being rolled into the room by a doctor and a couple of attendants. They asked me to step outside and, suspicious, I waited around the corner until I saw them leave with the man. Totally covered. Totally dead. I was totally done.

When I breathlessly informed Kathy of what I had just witnessed, she willingly handed over her jumper that day, as well. Wimps? Yup. We wanted to escape the world of sickness and confinement. Not sorry we had tried our hands at care-giving but, oh, so happy to return to the carefree days of summer with no dead bodies in it. We rejoiced at the thought of picking rocks, baling hay, baking cakes, canning tomatoes. It was the best summer of our lives in comparison to our latest undertaking. No disrespect intended.

GET WELL CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

4 cups chicken, cooked and chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup carrots, chopped

1 bay leaf

4 whole allspice

8 to 12 cups chicken broth

8 ounces noodles

Salt and pepper, to taste

Fresh parsley, cut up

In a stockpot, sauté onion and celery in butter for 5 minutes. Add bay leaf and allspice. Stir in carrots and broth. Simmer. Add noodles and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add chicken and parsley before serving.

PEPPERMINT STICKS

3/4 cup butter

6 tablespoons sugar, plus additional for dipping

1 egg, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup crushed peppermint sticks

Hershey kisses

In a mixing bowl, blend butter with 6 tablespoons sugar. Mix in egg yolk and vanilla. Blend in flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Stir in crushed candies by hand. Beat egg white until frothy. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each into egg white and then into extra sugar. Place on cookie sheet, sugared side up. Put thumbprint in top of each cookie and top with a Hershey kiss. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

BACK HOME LEMON POPPY SEED LOAF

3 cups flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons lemon zest

1/2 cup poppy seeds

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Stir in lemon juice and sour cream. Add dry ingredients. Stir in lemon zest and poppy seeds. Pour into 2 greased 9 by 5 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before removing from pan.