Throwback Thursday

Me and my sister Trish holding newborn sisters Glenda and Gloria.

I have been without my camera since before Christmas. This has been a very difficult time for me. I have realized that I live through the lens. Not only food but every time I see a brilliant sunrise or crisp white hoar frost.

It is a lesson in respect. I foolishly put a bottle of hair product in the basket with my camera equipment. Yes, it leaked. Looking back only serves one purpose. I won't do that again. My camera has been in for repair since.

Yesterday I finally went to pick up the body. It was okay and ready but parts have not arrived to repair my lens. After serious thinking and considering the consequences it was more prudent to buy a new lens rather than repairing the old. Same cost. More time lost. The good news is that Mr. Cheng had a fullly restored lens for $100.00 cheaper than buying new.

I will be back with more recipes soon now. For today I found these pictures that are interesting, to me anyway.

I don't ever remember my parents looking this young. I was two.

Must be Grandpa Hewitt and Grandma Hewitt with my sister Trish.

Spoiled baby me.

Christmas Memories

Farm life when I was young was very much different than it is today for children. We lived in my grandparents original home. It was old. And it was not quaint. It was just old. My room was on the upper floor that had a slanty ceiling. I guess you would call the style 'story and a half'.

I can remember when my father insulated the rooms and added walls and doors. Until then my sister and I slept on the fold out sofa in the living room. When my father was a child he slept upstairs in that uninsulated room. I cannot even imagine how cold it was.

We had the old fashioned windows in the kitchen and one kitchen window had a cracked storm window one winter. The frost from kitchen steam would build up and make it misty to see the moon and stars. On that window sill sat an amarylis. That plant sat there for a couple or more years. It would be almost frozen into the accumulated frost at times. Every winter it would have the most amazingly beautiful bloom. The rest of the year we ignored it and let it die back but every Christmas it would come out of dormancy. We would give it a little water and it would bloom all over again.

I had to buy this bulb just to see if I could grow my own amarylis. Merry Christmas.

Returning to Our (University) Roots

Leafing through the college brochure of 1970, our freshman year displays an array of pictures perfect in retrospective. Hair styles, clothing styles and classrooms take me back to a golden time in my life. Invitations to previous convocation celebrations draw a blank as to whether or not I actually attended the private parties. The cards and programs were worthy of keeping so I assume precious.

Potato gnocchi with mushroom sauce

Making gnocchi

What would four home economists celebrating a special birthday do for excitement? Take a cooking class, of course.

Last year Betty, Adele, Glenda and I planned to get together for our 60th birthdays. Circumstances beyond our control delayed this auspicious event until this weekend.

Thank you, Glenda, for taking the bull by the horns and getting us all together. We all graduated from the College of Home Economics in 1974 from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We were a tight knit college with only 48 graduands in the 63rd Annual Convocation on May 16 and 17, 1974. We had a close relationship with our professors and Dean Edith C. Simpson.


In her address to us, the class of 1974, our dear professor Emmie Oddie issued a challenge.  As I read her address my eyes tear up remembering those precious days. Almost from the first day our professors instilled in us the importance and responsibility to spread the word that home economics matters.

In Mrs. Oddie's own words, "When this door to professionalism is opened boldly and with courage, then will the professional dispel the image of Home Economist as arch enemy of the woman's movement, apparently guilty of constant reinforcement of cultural stereotypes, - will shatter the view that home economists represent the "Establishment".

Sometimes I feel I failed. I was not able to show that believing in family values and personal growth aligned with the women's movement. Back then it was a whole different show. When the pendulum swings too far one way, it responds by swinging too far the other way. I feel the focus has been too much on the pendulum than the issues.

Today when I hear a father worry about his daughter going off to university and not knowing  how to prepare a proper meal for herself, I wonder where we failed. It is not fair to put the blame entirely on us, the home economists. After all, I know how hard we worked to make changes. The rest lies with parents, health professionals and social institutions. A failure to fill the gap between needs and reality  is the fault of society in general.