REMNANTS OF OUR HURRICANE IDA
The morning after the floodwaters danced around and into New Jersey homes and yards with the remnants of Hurricane Ida, my brother Stu and I assessed the damage from the comfort of our living rooms. Their cellar was dry at 4:30 a.m. when our brother Al looked, and ours was too when my husband checked in the morning.
Stu said before dozing off to sleep, following hours of torrential rains with deep flooding in their backyard and patches of water seeping in through doors and windows, he started to ruminate. He had flashbacks to the homemade French fries our mother, Ida, toiled over in that same house our parents purchased in 1965 and the apartment we all lived in before, and her knack for making home fries. Those, he said with delight, were good.
He clearly described her peeling and slicing the potatoes for the French fries. Then, he spoke of the white plastic-sided peeler she used with a sharp metal blade to sliver the potatoes for home fries.
Hearing all his descriptions of our mother’s kitchen prowess reminded me of the joy and astonishment of watching her peel beets to make homemade borscht or apples for her famous apple pies. The memories have me drooling for the taste of my mother’s soups and pies.
In one clean swoop, she peeled around and around the round red root vegetable or juicy fruit. With a flick of the wrist and a paring knife, she made it seem so effortless.
With that thought, Stu posed the question, when did they first begin to sell frozen French fries? I had no idea, so before I knew it, he sent me the answer from the internet: https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/introduction-frozen-foods-timeline. He commented that it shows French fries became available in supermarkets as early as 1947. That was before we were born.
Why did our mother make her own then? I suggested, either a kosher issue, cost, or habit prohibited her from using them. Stu reminded me that we also didn’t have a microwave or toaster oven.
Next, we’ll have to check the year of the more recent advent of store-bought grated cheeses as I reminisce how hard our mother worked at grating a bar of cheddar cheese. I experienced that chore before the pleasure of simply opening a bag of shredded cheese.
How can we forget her fresh green salads with hand-shredded lettuce, rather than emptying a bag of pre-torn lettuce into a bowl and topping with pre-cut fillers of carrots, onions, and other desired veggies? Or the sight of her with a vegetable peeler wicking the skins off and slicing vegetables for her weekly chicken soup and many thick winter soups? That was before the latest offer of pre-skinned packages of soup greens.
Then, there were all the endless batches of her hand-shredded cabbage for her much-desired coleslaw. That was before the advent of the food processor, followed by packages of shredded cabbage available at the supermarket. Our family won’t soon forget her routine cutting melons and pineapples before the more recent offering of skinless, sliced pieces available in the markets.
Along the way to this latest convenience, gadgets such as corers and reusable storage containers came on the market. Paper goods and plastic storage bags lightened the load, and the chores lessened.
We would take her cakes, pies, and cookies from scratch over a box any day. My brothers and I say our hardworking mother Ida is hands down the winner of the title Hurricane Ida. Her endurance rivaled a tropical storm.
Twenty-four hours after the rains, when the water rose in the basement of the house she lived in for 48 years, she would have had a thing or two to say about that tropical hurricane named Ida.
Remnants of tropical Hurricane Ida slammed the Northeast on September 1, 2021