Grandma Frances would have her birthday every January, but died in 1991 at the age of 97! If she had taken better care of herself, she would be alive today. But no, she insisted on eating red meats, spicy cheeses and hard salami, wine and often got emotional. At least she didn’t smoke.She was a nutritionist’s nightmare, a living testimony to bad habits.
Once, while a very impressionable young teenager, Dad and I went into Brooklyn to have his taxes made out by a friend of the family. It was a Saturday afternoon, in probably early spring, and he decided to visit “Grandma”, as we called her. Arriving on Fulton Street, we parked the car and almost under the shadows of the el, stepping over the grating for the IND line that ran under the street, the noise said: ‘Grandma’. By then there was the deterioration of the old neighborhood occurring, so in some ways it was a sad visit.
Grandma was all excited to see us, and made us stay for dinner, even though she had eaten! Racing down her long hallway that ran adjacent to the railroad flat rooms on the bottom floor of the building, she threw a steak or two in a wire holder, dropping it over an open flame on a gas stove in her basement, or cellar as we called it. The smell from the meat cooking was overpowering my ability to reason, let alone my ability to speak, as my saliver was activated at an uncontrollable pitch, as I sprayed instead of said! When she returned, she took out a crusty loaf of Italian bread, some hard salami and a hard cheese with a glass of wine, to try to control my salivation problems.
In the time it takes to say salad, she had the wine (homemade) the bread, cheese and salami along with the best salad ever made, from the homemade wine vinegar. A tasty vinegar that always made a simple salad a treat!
Grandma knew how to live, and was very generous.
Today, TLW (The Little Woman) strives to cook healthy, as we all do. That is, no fats or bad stuff according to today’s nutritionists. I myself cook from a Weight Watcher’s cookbook. I have been watching what I eat all these years and only suffer from: high-blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. I’ve only had one heart by-pass operation, so I guess all that dieting and watching is working!
Who knows, maybe I’ll live to next Tuesday! (If I watch it)
1 comment:
God bless Grandma. When we get older, eating is pretty much the only vice we have left. Have a steak once in a while, but make it a good one.
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