Spo-Reflections

For the past year or more Someone has been squirreling away savings in CDs; the money sits ensconced and unavailable for twelve months only to emerge a little bigger for doing so. He explains this is better than it sitting in the checking account doing nothing for the same time period. Two of these are soon to expire prompting the question what to do with them. 

Much like a child getting some pocket money the question arises is it better to spend or to save. I wish I had taken basic economics to better answer this. I’ve heard tell of a couple of economists named Hayek and Milton who said it is better to save even in good times. Someone is in their camp that he wants to put the money back into CD status. 

The other school of thought is to spend in a sort of live-fast-and-die-young approach as proposed by a maverick named John Maynard Keynes.* I am of this camp at the moment. If the sudden appearance of two CDs like Pop-tarts popping up from the toaster I say let’s buy some things needed and extravagant. There is no lack of wants. Our bathroom towels are decades old and have lost their luster. There are house repairs to do. How about a new car something bought before The Elantra blows another engine light pushing the desire to a necessity?

It is said money issues is a major factor in stressing a marriage as money is often a symbol for something else. We both grew up with the Midwest mentality if you spend money now and later there is a crisis you won’t have any and will end up living out of doors in a cardboard box freezing to death in summer and serves you right for being foolish. There is also a lingering vague superstition the gods will punish us if we enjoy ourselves. Oh the pain.

Adding to the complicated economic equation is a vague notion we won’t live to see seventy so what’s the point of saving if we aren’t going to live to see it.

With the still feasible threat of unemployment this year putting away as much money as possible has some sense although at times it seems alarmist, such as thems who keep buying ‘survivor meal kits’ even though they already have heaps.

I hope soon to have a talk and perhaps a compromise to put one of the CDs back into the freezer and the other can be used to buy towels, a mattress set, and to hire someone to paint the house before the HOA sets fire to our front lawn. 

Money. What a matter.

Are you more of a spender or a saver? Is your ‘other’ of the same approach? 

*I think it was Mr. Keynes (or someone like him) who said ‘in the end were are all dead’ so spend it to create jobs and stimulate the economy and tax later although it’s a little vague how to make people happy about paying taxes.

My last entry on my childhood knickknack got me thinking about things that manage to stay around. Unless one consciously decides to keep them , the majority of objects that stick are haphazard things. It’s curious to consider why this or that thing managed to make it to the present while so many other things did not. Often the saved items aren’t particularly rare or valuable or even precious; somehow they persevere without much consciousness to make it so.

I have a new years resolution to make a weekly new dish so I’ve been scourging the cookbooks, clippings, and saved emails for candidates. Some are complicated and some are simple things often with history or stories attached to them. In my laptop is a PDF file titled:

                  Ginny’s Family Cookbook

(Updated from Cole Family Cookbook, 1972)

Ginny Jackson 2009

This was given to me by a blogger buddy soon before his sudden death in 2019. I have a vague memory Jay he wanted me to have a copy of his handiwork somewhat because he knew I like this sort of thing but also he wanted the memory of his family to proceed. Apparently he didn’t have many great nieces or nephews nor were they interested in what their ancestors ate.

In the introduction Jay states he decided to make a family cookbook. He describes how he asked his relations (mostly the aunts) to disclose the family ‘secret recipes’ including any from “Ma’ Sadie Underwood the matriarch of the family. He ends the introduction saying how Granddad Clarence Gordon Col and Sadie would be amazed what their descendants have accomplished.

None of the recipes are ‘unique’ or look ‘gourmet’; they consist mostly of casseroles and soups and ways to cut vegetables, things found in any Midwest church cookbooks from the 60s and the 70s. The charm lies in the titles and descriptions. ”This was grandmas favorite dinner we all loved it and she wouldn’t give it out so we had to come over’ .

The PDF is botched that only a few pages remain of the original file. Oh this hurts. Again it brings up my curiosity of the almost fateful phenomena of what does and does not survive. On Sunday I plan on making “Cheeseburger soup”. It looks to be a simple soup made with typical vegetables and ground beef with sour cream and grated cheese added near the end. It is hardly ‘gourmet’. The joy of it will come from knowing it probably hasn’t been made anyone in decades. Like Odysseus pouring wine into the ground to conjure the spirits of the dead I can imagine Jay and his aunts and his grandmother Sadie at my side asking me if I like it. 

Do you have a funny or simple or mawkish or even fancy recipe that has managed to survive the generations in your family? Do tell about it.

I found a photo; I wonder if this is what it should look like. I like the notion of a pickle garnish.

Cheeseburger Soup (Submitted by Jay Cole Simser)

Procedure

In large pot, melt butter or margarine over medium heat.

Add ground beef and vegetables until ground beef is brown.

Stir in dried basil and dried parsley.   Add broth and potatoes.   Bring to a boil.

Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 – 12 minutes.

Melt the remainder of the butter and stir in flour.  Add the milk, stirring until smooth.

Gradually add the milk mixture to the soup, stirring constantly.

 Bring to boil.

 Reduce heat to simmer.   Stir in cheddar cheese.

 When cheddar cheese is melted, add sour cream.

 Heat through, do NOT boil

This year is The Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar.* I am told the years of The Dragon are considered especially lucky years and it is the favorite of couples to have children born under this sign of the zodiac. Apparently there is a surge of births in these years as parents plan to have “Dragon children” hoping these kids will excel over thems born as Tigers, Pigs, or Goats.**

Curious! There is some truth to this. Studies done comparing the ‘success’ of thems born as Dragons to thems born otherwise show some differences. It turns out ‘Dragons’ in China are more likely to get higher grades, go to university, play instruments, and get better paying jobs. This in turn prompts others to try to have kids born in the years of the Dragon. 

So how does one explain this phenomena other than faith in zodiac signs?

It turns out it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. ‘Dragons’ now adults recall in their youth being told over and over they were Dragons and thus they were smart and will be successful. Their parents poured a lot of time and investment into their so-called brilliant lucky children. One man summarized it as ‘when you are told all your life you are a genius and can do anything you tend to believe it and you fear letting your parents down if you don’t excel’. So they do.

It’s amazing how praise and support makes people feel good about themselves and lo! they do good. I wish I had a shilling for the number of times I’ve heard people say they went into this/that or the other career or hobby as someone pulled them aside and said hey you’re good at this you should do it. As a boy I probably wasn’t a great artist but I remember Mother thrilled at my drawings, pointing out how good they are so hey I kept drawing and under the illusion I was the next Norman Rockwell I got good at it.

Zodiacs are fun but they label people. So much of human tragedy and shortcomings comes from telling others how they are rather than nurturing them into what they can be.

When others support our potential and deem us so, we are all Dragon-children. Take time today to praise a coworker or a minion on a job well done. Point out to a loved one something they did well. This costs nothing and goes a very long way. It could even transform someone.

*I think nowadays it is supposed to be called The Asian Calendar to convey it is not just used in China but other countries of Asia that has this sort of thing. 

**Supposedly every sign has positive and negative aspects to it but Dragons are more ‘good’ than ‘bad’. Keep in mind we are talking about zodiac signs not science. 

Saturday mornings nowadays are full up with oh-so-practical chores and there’s-work-to-be-done projects. This wasn’t always so. Back in the 70s Saturday mornings were all about the cartoons. Every season when the new shows debuted we kids would scrutinize ‘TV Guide (remember that?)’ for which ones to watch. My brothers and I took this stuff seriously, our Saturday morning Schlieffen plan, to get the right ones watched.

We did this for many years; by now it has all blurred in my memory I can no longer remember what we watched. Bugs Bunny cartoons were clever but I hear tell thems in charge have edited out all the Elmer Fudd episodes in which Bugs gets the mighty nimrod to blow Daffy Duck’s bill backwards. We thought this hilarious and no we didn’t think to try it at home ourselves. What I remember most were the Hanna-Barbara productions, H.R. Puffenstuff and the like. We were too young at the time to question what mind-altering chemicals were used to come up with these zanies.

Near the end the shows took on morality lessons like don’t do drugs and how important it was to always tell the truth. I smelled a rat right and found these type of shows boring.* I wasn’t here to listen to church school stuff but see things blown up and to drool a bit watching ‘Johnny Quest’ although at the time I didn’t know why.

I’ve been poking about The Tube of Yous looking for these shows. Oh the pain. Some of the cartoons are terribly dated. These days no one would write such as passive co-dependent victim type character as seen in ‘The perils of Penelope Pitstop’. “Go go gophers” is beyond the pale and too painful to watch. Hanna-Barbara is camp incarnate. I think all episodes of “Fat Albert” have been destroyed thank you Bill Cosby.

I don’t know what kids do these days on Saturday mornings. Probably they are forced into oh-so-good-for-them activities like sports events and play dates, ‘quality’ activities with adults always around. God forbid the kids just have fun by themselves! 

Ah well, the 70s were happier, groovier times. I managed to grow up not too warped nor depraved from countless Saturdays idle before kiddie shows flogging breakfast cereals many of them I indeed wanted Mother to buy. I have Witchipoo and Benita Bizarre to thank for making me the man I am today.

Hmmm maybe the censors stating Saturday morning cartoons were corrosive had a point after all.

*The exception of course was “Schoolhouse rock”. The clever dicks who put these together did a fine job as getting kids to learn arthimatic and grammar. I can still recite all the songs. Which one was your favorite?