Goulash, gas baths, love and marriage, the Woodhull Journal and more
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
My Wramblings are often like a Hungarian goulash which is a rich soup or thick stew made with large chunks of beef, onions, and heavy seasoning from sweet Hungarian paprika. In contrast, American goulash is a quick, one-pot comfort food made with ground beef, tomato sauce, and elbow macaroni noodles., but has many variations of ingredients and methods of preparation. This is my favorite meal of choice and I convinced my wife to make it the other night. I believe that I have written before that it was the first meal I ever produced for our family “sitdown” supper.
Check out this recipe from Plattertalk.com, photo above
Having mentioned supper it brings to mind other writings wherein I discussed which meal was called for each occasion and/or time of day. Supper to us has always been the evening meal, which we have in much less frequency than in years past. Some call that evening meal their “dinner”. I consider that meal to be a lunch meal, and lunch to be a smaller quantity of cooking to maybe have a cup of soup, sandwich, or left-overs such as goulash.
If I have made you hungry (or nauseated), I will forgive you for abandoning your wreading.
Once again, I have to share my “pride” and pure feeling of gratefulness as I had a “recognition meeting” outside the exam room at Jones Memorial Hospital (JMH). While cruising the halls in search of the Urgent Care Center having been directed to it from the sign in desk, I stopped a uniform wearing hospital employee and asked if he could help me locate Urgent Care. He did but in so doing he asked me my name. I’m not exactly sure why he asked, but when asked, he responded with the frequently asked question; “Are you the Chuck Wiser that writes the Wrambling articles in the Wellsville Sun?” I replied proudly that I was. He then went on to point out what he likes most about my Wramblings siting and quoting several topics and areas that he enjoys. His favorites are my humor and my grammar groans. My published grammar vocabulary list attached last week was inspired by his “grammar groan.” His field was Pediatrics according to his ID Badge. Too bad I didn’t get his name. If anyone knows who it would be please contact me.
This is as far as these clothes made it, not into the house yesterday after my “stupid stunt” at the gasoline purchase location after a shopping trip to Olean. Whilst filling one of the 5-gallon gas cans I took my eyes off what I was doing to reach behind me to open the “gas tank tube” door. When my head turned my eyes and apparently arm followed it as all of a sudden, I feel something extremely wet and especially odourus drenching my legs and ankles. I tried to reinsert the nozzle a second time and let more spray out. Too late, as the drenching damage had already completed my gas bath. I put the cans in the back of the truck and headed home “sitting in my own stink.” I figured that I had paid for about a half-gallon more gas than what went into the truck.
Graciously when I entered the house in just my “skivvies” my wife looked up at me from her “bead art” project but never said a word. I went and took a quick scrubbing shower and her comment was; “Why didn’t you just jump in the pool?” “No soap” I replied.
My wife has become very supportive and less critical of my “stupid stunts.” Nearly every day I need to interrupt whatever she is working on, or doing, requiring a bandage applied at some location on my body. I am seldom lacking one (or more) somewhere. My 80 year old thin skin and bruising tendencies make my arms for the most part look red or “purplishly” spotted all the time.
The major problem, magnifying or contributing to my “accident prone-ness” and THE major factor in my carelessness now is my advancing age. Mentally however, disregarding some helplessness in remembering is my memory and cognitive knowledge, unlike other famous people.
This memory challenge was extremely prevalent this past weekend, and which, resulted in a very disappointing and embarrassing result of a missed event based on my erroneous event time. The Genesee Valley Chorus (GVC) was scheduled to perform at 1:00 PM in a 250 Year celebration which, as I understand it was a brainchild that Andrew Harris, owner editor of the Wellsville Sun organized. When I showed up at 1:30 I discovered that all the activities had concluded and a few of the GVC members were wandering about looking at the various displays. When Dave Toot, Kim Toot and Matthew Purks Morris saw me they explained that I had missed everything, They didn’t chastise me or criticize me in any way, but it still didn’t take away from my “hurt.”
That was to me, a historic faux pas that will reside in my memories forever, which brings up another topic, that being our long-term memory abilities. The older I age, the more I bring back those memorious events that reach all the way back into the late 40’s and which blossomed out in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. I can recall many significant events which made a distinct impression on me. I recall World War II events from my early youth age when My grandparents would take me with them as they did “airplane spotting duties” on a hilltop in Rushford, NY.
The 50’s brought to mind a decades worth of County Western music played on the radio and sung by my mother as she toiled around the house doing weekend duties. I learned to cook as I had to prepare the late 50’s evening meals for the family even at that early age. That is where I developed a love for Goulash and I suspect when my family got tired of eating it as I prepared and served it at least once a week. It was at that time as well as I came to the conclusion that I didn’t like potatoes. As it turns out my least favorite meal including those was if they were just boiled. I hated trying to “mash them” with my fork. We seldom have them that way and I still don’t mash them with my fork but rather cut the potato into small cubes to eat as “bite sized” pieces. This of course contributes to my making and enjoyment of Potato Salad made with Miracle Whip mayonnaise. On the rare occasions when I still make that salad my recipe differs from my wife’s as I like to add some cucumber and chopped onion into the salad. My wife doesn’t.
The 60’s added a whole new or the recall of a musical genre not yet experienced by my generation. The songs of the Beatles, and Mama and Papa and many others filled the airwaves and my musical memories. I can still recall the lyrics and tunes of most of them and look forward to doing so as I travel places in my truck. A group of musicians meet frequently at the Creative Arts Center in Wellsville from noon to about 3:00 PM every Thursday. I joined them last week and thoroughly enjoyed participating despite not recalling tunes and lyrics of many of the songs they performed. I won’t be able to join them this week as I have to make a necessary trip to Lowes in Hornell after I finish Wrambling along in here.
Creeping up on our 60th wedding anniversary I look forward to celebrating our 60th next June and hope to do something special for the family to share my gratitude for their part in my married lifetime. My wife has become used to my “habits and actions” and seldom complains about anything I do. Sometimes however her questioning “Why didn’t you…” displays her phenomenal “logical” methods of doing something. She, by her own admission, doesn’t care, and thus doesn’t understand mathematics, in any way, shape of form. Her logic and common-sense solutions to questions, activities and projects far outweigh her lack of math understanding.
From a common sense and logic standpoint she is by far the most qualified and intuitive person I have ever been associated with. Donald Oscar Peterson, an old-time Air Preheater Co. co-worker, is by far the most intelligent person I have ever known. Don often got into trouble with our professors as they penalized him for getting a proper solution or answer to a complex mathematics problem by using his creative mind rather than a book published formula or derivation. RIP Don.
My favorite summertime vegetable cucumbers, are now in plentiful supply at garden stands all over. Bob’s Market in Wellsville has some that are great, but my favorites are still available at a little roadside stand on County Rte. 31 on the way to Friendship. They grow the long slender “seedless” cucumbers (cukes) that I love. I pick up a couple (or more) every time I go by their stand. I am known to them, and called by them; “The Cucumber Man.” I eat cucumbers as a “snack” at any time of the day. A second best type of cuke available this year is pushing its way onto my list taking over as the 1st choice. This is a small cuke grown in very plentiful quantities on a plant that my wife purchased through QVC online. It was placed on our deck as a potted plant. The cukes are about 3 to 4 inches long and a little over and inch in diameter. You can munch on them like eating a piece of celery, or slice them across, or lengthwise. Another QVC purchase find is a “Purple Grape Tomato.” That too is growing an abundance of “fruit” and I have been eating them, even directly from the plant, all summer long. There are still hundreds left to ripen on the plant. I am mostly now a “veggie snacker” in the summertime. Formal sit-down meals are a little sparce but I don’t mind as I “piece on” veggies all day long.
As I mentioned previously, I am going to begin contributing my “Wramble-Like” articles in the Woodhull Journal authored by Charles van Heck. I still have to present him with a short biographical history so he can offer that as an introduction. I have much of it put together in my head but haven’t yet had a chance to write any of it into readable form. I guess in a way that is what triggered my recollection of those other items I’ve mentioned or discussed. Charles, I know you’re reading this so I wanted you to know that “I’m working on it.”
I don’t recall whether I’ve golfed yet this year at the Serenity Hills golf course located on County Rte. 31 as you descend the last hill heading into Friendship. The name is self-explanatory in a way as you wander about the course, but I wonder how or why Pudge Cooper, its creator and first owner named it that. I would be interested to know what his motivation or inspiration was. The only negative characteristic is the occasional wafting of cheese factory waste disposal odor in an adjacent field or just wafting its way just over the hill from the “cheese factory” to the north.
For some reason as I drifted in and out of sleep last night my mind kept repeating the words of the Pledge of Allegiance. I just did a Google search and here’s what I found…
““The U.S. Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and magazine editor. It was created for a national school celebration tied to the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas. The text changed several times through official and social updates. : President Dwight Eisenhower signed a law adding the words “under God” during the Cold War to separate the nation from state-supported atheistic communism. I do recall having to memorize the original version and then add the Eisenhower changes. ““
If you have any comments, questions, cares or concerns please feel free to email me at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com. I truly enjoy receiving suggestions and comments from you, the readers. Despite my “sign off” statement I really write what you see, hear and read about. Please share your thoughts with me and when appropriate I will share those as well with everyone reading this. You can contact me at the IM.Wiser link or to my roadrunner address if you are familiar with that. I don’t publicize that second link but it doesn’t bother me when a Facebook friend contacts me through that link address.
It just started raining and I will relax and sit here listening to the pitter patter of the rain drops on the metal Sun-Bird Room roof.
