BROWN AND SERVE ROLLS

Remember brown and serve rolls?   I believe they are still available in the stores.  Originally they may have been produced by Wonder Bread back in the 1950's, just guessing on that.   I'm sure some of you remember Wonder Bread, the good old white bread with our bologna sandwiches.

My mother always had these rolls available for Sunday night dinners or during the holidays.    After she spent a good part of an afternoon preparing a big meal for whatever the occasion was she would place the rolls on a baking sheet and in the oven they went after she had  put the food on the table and trying to round up us six kids.   My dad usually had a big chunk of  beef of some sort on the barbecue and would bring it in the house as we all sat down to eat.   Soon we could smell those brown and serve rolls burning in the oven as mom ran into the kitchen to salvage what she could.    The tops of the rolls were black and mom would make the best out of what was not burnt.   This happened on a few occasions and became known as the Black and Serve Rolls.  

THE HOLIDAY FOG

 Lately the fog has been formidable.   The other night I was visiting with friends in Oakland.    It was about 9 pm when I started my way home through dense fog.   Oakland is a small town with most of its streets going north and south and east and west.    My intended route home was to take a street west turn north on old highway 99, cross the Calapooya Creek bridge and take the Green Valley Road home.   At this time of night there is never any traffic on this route so it is considered a safe drive.    Driving west in Oakland I somehow missed seeing the stop sign where I would turn north on highway 99 and ended up on a dead end gravel road near the railroad tracks.    While turning around I had the fear of getting stuck not knowing what the ground was like off of this little gravel road.   Miraculously I made it to highway 99 and it took a half hour to finally get home through the dense fog.   When I arrived home I discovered my black cat was on the roof .  I had left the ladder up on the deck to apply moss killer and the cat had climbed it but would not come back down without my assistance.   After putting gloves on and climbing the ladder I grabbed the cat and got her down without a catastrophe.   Felt like a survivor at the end of this day. 

CHRISTMAS 2023

The holiday season can be a time of despair and loneliness for those of us without family close by and the loss of a loved one.   We think the sooner it's over the better off we will feel.    Then those Christmas cards and letters start arriving from friends and family members far and near telling of their joys and sorrows over the past year.  Some have suffered health problems or loss of a loved one also.    This makes me feel not so alone and the need to reach out.   We all are so wrapped up in our own worlds, fighting our own battles that we can't see through the fog of our own despair what our neighbors, friends and family members are going through.   Maybe if we all reached out to each other there would be more hope in the world and less hatred, anger, injustice and war.   Without hope there can be no peace.  

Merry Christmas!