Springerle Cookies

A part of Christmas when we were young was making Springerle Cookies, which we would do about a month or so before Christmas. Mom would go to the drug store to get the secret ingredient, which I now realize was Anise Oil. After mom mixed the dough, it was rolled out to about 1/8 inch in thickness. We had a Springerle board which was made by my grandmother's father, Karl Froess. This board was placed on the dough, and pressed down to emboss the pictures into the dough. We then cut out the cookies and arranged them on the dining room table to set over night. The next day mom would bake them, and we would put them in tins to age until Christmas. I remember that the cookies were very hard, and were puffed up with air pockets, which we called caves.

Grandpa Crotty

Today is Grandpa Crotty's birthday. He was born December 7, 1874. He would be 134 years old.

From Tom Barron

Knight of Saint Patrick

Dad was bestowed the distinction of KNIGHT OF ST. PATRICK on March 17, 1982. This honor was in rightful recognition of his service to God, church, and the community.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Nov 22, 1963

I had been stationed at Karamursel Air Station in Turkey for about 17 months. I was now a 'short-timer' with less than a month remaining in my tour at this semi-remote site. I was working the swing-shift that Friday, and after I had been at work awhile the sergeant came over and told me that it was my turn to have the night off. After going back to the barracks and changing, I decided to take a book that I was studying, and go to the snack-bar. It was sometime after 7PM (1PM Erie time) and I was sitting there with my book and snack, when several guys came in and announced that Kennedy had been shot. I thought to myself - they don't know what they're talking about - I would go back to the barracks to try to verify this, but when I got there everyone was heading to the Airman's Club. The club was packed and the Voice of America on the radio was being piped over the loudspeaker. Everyone was quiet and just listened to the news. I don't remember too much more about that night or even how long I stayed at the club. It had seemed like a family member had died. It had been a little over three years when I had seen the future president speak at a rally at the Lawrence Hotel on 10th and Peach Street in Erie in 1960. See http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=74256

Halloween

It seems that Halloween wasn't such a big deal when we were kids. Actually I can't remember anything about Halloween in my younger years. Maybe it was because David had a costume, that the subject came up at supper that Halloween in 1955. Mom said that she could make up some costumes for Tommy and I. She blackened our faces with a charred cork. I was made up as a hobo and Tommy became Aunt Jemima. When we went to a house we didn't say 'Trick or Treat'; we said 'Do you have any handouts?'.

Notice the headline on the newspaper 'Big 3 Fear Middle East War'. Some things don't change.

Grandma Smith

My mother (Lucille) related the following anecdotes to me about her grandmother Lucy Horrigan Crotty Smith.

Once when my mother and her brother John were pretty young, their grandmother gave Johnny some money to go up to the corner store to get a half dozen of some kind of sweet treat. On the way back from the store, Johnny was so excited that he ran down the street saying "We each get two! We each get two!"

In her later years, grandma Smith's room at 509 was at the front of the house, which was originally the living room. Whenever one of her grandchildren would go by in the dining room, and she saw them, she'd tap her cane on something and exclaim "Oy-ye! Oy-ye! Come here". So, being little kids, they tried to avoid going through the dining room.

There was a Mrs. Riley who lived in the neighborhood. She was hired to come each evening and get grandma ready for bed. She'd stay with her through the night, and then help her get dressed in the morning.

P.S. The "We each get two" phrase stuck with my mother, and she often used it throughout her life. For example, if she made cookies for desert, she'd say that "We each get two".

P.S.S. Grandma Smith was a businesswoman. She owned a tavern on State Street between 4th and 5th, and then I believe the tavern just east of State Street on East 5th. She built the big house at 509 Parade as well as the five look-a-like 'cottages' on 5th and Parade, which she rented out. I also believe she owned a house near 7th and Parade.

The cherry tree

I thought that because I have a couple of pictures that show the cherry tree in the yard at 509 Parade, and because I have a block of wood from that tree, that I should put it in the blog. I can remember eating the cherries, but it was probably when the Filipkowski family lived there.

The B&W pictures were taken about 1939. With the bench (which Dede has in Houston) are Lucille, Nancy, Betty, grandma (Julia) and Anna.


About 1980 the tree succumbed to old age, and the man that owned 509 at that time told my dad that I could cut it up for my wood stove. I saved one piece for posterity.







P.S. After talking with Nancy, we've decided that the tree in the second picture is a different tree. It would have been taken from about where the bench was.