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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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April 15th, 2013, was not a good day for many people. It was not a good day for the 50% of Americans who pay income taxes. For the other 50% who don't pay income taxes in this nation, the day probably passed with very little ado. April 15th, 2013, was not a good day for the family and friends of Ray Schmieg. Ray died that Monday on the couch listening to polka music on TV as he often did at noon. He died peacefully. As I said to his wife Frannie the day of the funeral here in Victoria, as we live, so shall we die. April 15th, 2013, was not a good day for the people who were killed or injured by the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon. It was also not a good day for their families and friends. It was not a good day for Boston nor for the nation. My mother gave each of us girls a brand new shiny pressure cooker shortly after we were married. The three of us sisters got married within six months of each other, and Mom knew that having a pressure cooker was as important as having a large freezer and a garden. I wonder if my four brothers also got pressure cookers. I canned about a hundred quarts of food each summer, mainly applesauce and tomatoes, also green beans, and pickles. The pressure cooker was large and sort of scary to me. It was heavy and I had to make sure the rubber lining in the lid was clean and properly snug, and that I had the little metal widget ready to pop onto the spout when the steam started hissing out of it. Then I watched the needle of the gauge climb to the pressure required for canning that particular fruit or vegetable. When it got to that pressure, I turned the heat down and regulated it so the needle stayed put for the required amount of time. I always imagined the big, heavy-duty lid blowing off and blasting a hole through the roof of my house, but it never did. When time was up, I carefully slid the hot pressure cooker off the burner and onto the cold burner next to it. When the needle finally fell to zero pressure, I plucked the hot widget off the steam spout, then twisted the lid until it was loose and I could lift it off. I used two towels, one in each hand, to gently lift out the hot quart jars one at a time, wipe them off, and set them on a board away from an open window, not near a draft. The jars were supposed to cool slowly and evenly, not abruptly, and as they cooled the lids sealed. The popping of the lids was like music to my ears. It meant a good seal and my canning was successful. When I started doing the Gazette in 1980 and became the pianist and organist at St. Victoria about that same time, I stopped gardening and canning. My kids were still little and something had to go. I never liked weeding nor the mosquitoes that came with it, and the canning didn't save me much, especially considering the hours of work that went into it. The decision was not difficult. The "canning" that did continue occurred every spring when we re-heated indoors the maple syrup that was "made" at our 24/7 outdoor fire. We needed the syrup hot enough to ensure a good seal. The four families -- Plochers, Geskes, Hubers, us -- each got about 40 quarts every season. My huge 23 cubic foot freezer, which we purchased in 1970, the year we were married, only died and departed our home a couple years ago. It once stored 100 home-grown roosters from Mom and Dad, a quarter or half beef from Mom and Dad, several bags of corn on the cob from Mom and Dad, and dozens of jars of strawberry jam that I faithfully made every June until my kids left home. Jenny and Nick didn't know what store-bought jam tasted like. It's not very good compared to my freezer jam. I used to go strawberry picking in huge patches south of Victoria somewhere. I'd always get lost looking for the place so I certainly couldn't tell you just where it was. But it is the pressure cooker that instigated these thoughts today, because of the Pressure Cooker Bombers in Boston on April 15th. What kind of person would conceive and carry out such a vicious planned killing! Yes, a terrorist. Terrorists do wicked deeds with wicked intention. They turn the world upside down with their darkened and depraved minds. They are abusers of humanity. No man-made law can protect us from them. It's a different Law that can protect us, and has protected us, but our nation has been turning away from it in many ways. We can't even post the Ten Commandments in our public schools. So where is my pressure cooker today? I gave it to my daughter who is a big gardener and canner. Jenny even cans pumpkin, squash, beets, and carrots. She does it -- not to save a buck like I did -- but to feed her family in as healthy a manner as possible, without the preservatives, chemicals, and dyes found in so many foods today. So it's not true what the talking heads said on TV on April 15th. A pressure cookers is not a piece of equipment from the past, used by parents and grandparents. It is used by the younger generation too -- for canning pumpkin and for the intentional killing and maiming of innocent people. |
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In-Town Auto Repair 952-443-2868 |
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942-443-2078 |
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May 2013 |
