Category Archives: Memories

58. Earth Day

Memories, Music, Song Blog

I remember the first Earth Day. I don’t remember what we did, but I remember thinking it was a new beginning – a way to save the Earth.

In 1986 or thereabouts my husband and I walked from our house in Alexandria to an Earth Day rally in Washington DC. Tom Cruise was there. We walked home too. We got sunburned and blistered feet.

We didn’t do anything this year for Earth Day. You’d think we’d care more now that we have kids and global warming is a reality instead of a theory.

Here’s a song for Earth Day that I found on an IM contact’s weblog:

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

Memories, Reading

First of all, I had no idea Kurt Vonnegut, Jr was born before my father. I always think of him as young. I thought he was maybe ten years older than me, so when I read of his death on Tuesday at age 84, I was shocked. I would have thought John Updike was older than Vonnegut – or that they were the same age.

I cannot say I was ever a huge fan of Vonnegut’s work, but did read and enjoy a couple of his books in high school – Cat’s Cradle & Slaughterhouse 5. They’ve stuck with me all these years later – certain passages from the novels will always be a part of me.

The tribute on his website, is particularly moving. It is a simple bird cage, the door open with the words Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922 – 2007 underneath.

Irish memories

Memories,

A couple of days late for St. Patrick’s Day, but heck, time flies when you’re drinking Guinness.

Winter 1979 I hitchhiked through Ireland with a couple of friends. We stayed in youth hostels and visited Dublin, Bray, Wicklow, Waterford and Blarney. While walking through one of the villages an old woman, standing outside her cottage asked us if we were Americans. When replied in the affirmative, she insisted we come inside for tea.

It seemed strange that she invited us for tea but had us make the tea and cut the bread. But she was pretty old…

Anyway the bread was delicious and we asked if she’d tell us how to make it. I wrote it down, and then found a very similar recipe in a book I had, so this is a combination of the two recipes.

4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 cup raisins
½ cup currants
2 eggs
½ cup butter
1 cup milk

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together. Sprinkle a little over the currants and raisins. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter (I use a food processor), then add beaten eggs and the milk. Mix in currants and raisins.

Turn onto floured board and mold into round loaf. Place in greased spider (black iron skillet) and bake 1 hour in oven at 350°.

Please note – this is a sweet bread, not a traditional soda bread, but it is more authentic than the soda breads I’ve purchased.

We pretty much lived on bread, eggs and Orange Squash during our week in Ireland. None of us had much money – in fact I returned to London with only a few dollars left. I returned to the states with less than a dollar to my name.