Long Bridge Runner

Chapter 25-The Christmas Social

Copyright 1995
By David Rojay

THE LONG BRIDGE RUNNER
Book One/THE MIDWEST

By Christmas week Dorothy had her new teeth but no money. Daniel received a box of used toys donated by Brother McGrill's church in Fairhaven. He smiled and said, "Thank you," when Virgil Thompson and his wife arrived with groceries; but he never played with the toys and left them in a box at the foot of his bed.

This visit dimmed in comparison to the excitement at the Methodist Church. Although Dorothy was no Methodist, she yielded to Daniel's desire to see the church's Christmas Play.
Molly was brought in from the farm and the three of them attended the morning church service where Doc Allison, accompanied by his daughter, played "Listen to the Mockingbird" (complete with bird whistles and bird sounds) on his violin. Daniel was impressed as was his grandmother who had heard this rendition many times.

After church, John arrived with Audrey and carried them back to the farm where they ate fried chicken that Sarah had prepared. When lunch was finished, Daniel looked the house over to see if anything had changed and was followed into the parlor by his great-aunt who gave him hard candy in wax paper and a ten-dollar bill.

"My God!" He heard himself say.

"For Christmas." said the old woman with a wink. Calculating the sacrifice this gift required, Daniel appreciated it the most.

Later on everyone but Sarah returned to Golden Gate for the evening Christmas play. Daniel thought the play was a disappointment except for the use of red fernel lights that had been borrowed from the school auditorium but immediately after the play was the Christmas Social.

Of the hundred-plus souls who attended the Social, at least fifty brought a dish; this is simple arithmetic because these were mostly the wives and daughters. A lot of time was spent on the phone asking one another, "What are you going to make?" Indeed, cooking for the Social was at the heart of Golden Gate's Christmas season.

In the end there were salads of every kind-some simple ones such as cucumber and onions in sweetened vinegar (no one used the word "vinaigrette") to complicated ones like Lorna Dunning's twelve-bean salad. There was potato salad, of course, and egg salad and cole slaw and on the high end-Waldorf salad made by the school principal's wife.

There were several starchy dishes: mashed potatoes and a sweet potato pie with brown sugar topping, candied yams with pineapple and marshmallows, not to mention escalloped potatoes and a large bowl of dumplings. Mrs. Schulte, who made the German style dumplings, also brought three wursts: liverwurst, bratwurst, knackwurst and some kopf kase*.

There were other meats including a pork tenderloin and breaded and fried tenderloin-a staple of the Midwestern diet, a whole smoked ham decorated with a red glaze, a large roast beef, a huge meatloaf and a platter of sliced venison, not to mention another platter of fried burgers for the children and Swedish meatballs, each one stabbed by a toothpick. Ethel Higgins, who was from Paducah, made a first time dish of barbequed ribs. This was southern food and too messy for most.

For balance, there were vegetables of all sorts: peas and carrots and corn and stuffed peppers and baked beans-but no ochre or hominy grits. Garnishes included sweet, sour and dill pickles along with black and green olives and pickled beets, deviled eggs, celery filled with cream cheese or peanut butter and mushrooms of every sort.

There were all manner of breads available to go with the meal including sourdough bread and cornbread and fancy rolls and, in the spirit of Christmas, gingerbread covered with iced cinnamon.
There was fowl aplenty from a large turkey filled with stuffing a baked goose, some baked duck and some baked or fried pheasant; pheasant ran wild on the prairie. Of course there were buckets of fried chicken.

After eating all, or some, of the above items the diners were confronted by the desert table----------------apple pie, cherry pie, rhubarb pie, blackberry and blueberry pie, raisin and mince pie (also known as Christmas pie) and of course, pecan pie and coconut and banana cream pie. Various and assorted Christmas pastries were meant to be taken home in shiny red and green bags that were neatly stacked at the end of the table.

There were too many kinds of cakes to mention. Molly had brought her famous chocolate fudge cake with walnut sauce icing and Dorothy had made an angel food cake with Heath bar frosting. And if this was not enough food to bring on heart attacks, at the end of the meal hot peach cobbler with ice cream was introduced along with strawberry shortcake. To wash all this down, there was coffee and tea and Nehi soda and lemonade and a large bowl of punch.

The highlight of the evening was home movies of Lee Hicks' expedition to Canada. There, with the help of Charlie Bennett and Orville Taylor, he had dispatched two black bears. The carcasses were hauled all the way back to Golden Gate where they were examined by a large crowd on Main Street. Daniel could not imagine how he had missed this. Mr. Hicks gave a talk after the movie, which ended with him saying, "Orville asked me what I'd do if a bear attacked our camp. I said, 'I'd run like heck' and Orville said, ‘A man can't outrun a bear.' and I said, ‘I don't have to outrun a bear, I jist have to outrun you.'" The room filled with laughter and later, as Daniel walked the two blocks back to his corner home, he vomited up most of what he had eaten.
*Headcheese
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