Wisconsin, So Much More Than Cheese

Thanks to relatives who really take the command to “be fruitful” seriously, I have a jumbo-sized extended family that includes cousin-designations I’m not even familiar with. After a hectic rush to get the Florida contingent to Wisconsin in time to say goodbye to Gram, it was comforting to be surrounded by the all those second cousins and once-removed Wisconsonites in the ICU. Following her passing, we agreed to meet the next day at the church where Gram served the hungry and homeless every Thursday. We heard from many of the people she served each week about what a great lady she was, and several people intimated how proud she would have been to see us all dishing up supper with a side of sass just like she did.

Just a few of the gang

When we weren’t volunteering at the church, coordinating funeral arrangements or eating copious amounts of pizza, the dozens of descendants who descended on Racine, Wi., managed to have our own little version of the Winter Olympics. I’m sure the simultaneous, legit Olympics were awesome, but as someone who still guffaws at clips from America’s Funniest Home Videos, I have to admit that I couldn’t get enough of my fellow Floridians attempting winter sports for the first time. It was noticeably more entertaining than the hours upon hours upon hours of curling we saw every time we had a moment to flip on the TV. I actually thought about calling NBC… Hodgie on a sled is ratings gold, as you’ll soon see.

Just a preview to get you ready for the next post

As native Floridians, siblings Hodgie and RaeRae and cousins Daniel and Topher have never participated in real snow sports. You may recall Hodgie’s first snow experience just happened in NYC, but as he and Nathan were unable to locate a sled, they just rolled around in the powder and called it a day. Similarly, I’ve never seen real snow other than in NYC, where it’s beautiful for about an hour and then it turns into sludge. Wisconsin was like… Narnia, positively coated in fluffy, clean, white snow. And we could not wait to play in it.

It didn’t take long after Hodgie’s arrival on Friday morning for the family Olympics to begin…

Stay Tuned: The Medal Count for Family Winter Olympics 2010

What's New in Bloggie-Land

1. You have probably noticed that the old www.bigappleangie.blogspot.com link now directs you to my shiny new URL - www.bigappleangie.com. It’s the only “real estate” in the world that is all mine, so I’m quite proud to be a new "homeowner". Don’t forget to change the URL if you link to me on your blog… and if you don’t yet, what are you waiting for?

2. I recently updated the links to my favorite blogs on the left sidebar, so please take a moment to familiarize yourself with these notable bloggers. If you’re into travel, you can’t go wrong with award winning journalist Kristin. Melissa, my publicist during the Best Job in the World era, has just started a multi-city dating tour that is sure to be intriguing. For a dose of laughter and tips on all the best new stuff you just have to check out, Holly in San Francisco is your girl. And when I’m MIA from the blogosphere, check in on Bethany and Lauren. We’re with each other most of the time, so their updates are the perfect place for an indirect BAA fix.  

3. If you are an avid BAA fan and your blog is not on the list, comment below and I’ll gladly add you to the blogroll.  

4. Coming soon… Wisconsin, So Much More Than Cheese.

Seasons of Love

A lot can happen in 91.5 years. While raising five kids (who in turn had 12 grandkids, 30 great-grandkids and 5 great-great-grandkids), my Great Gram wrote thousands of letters, canned a metric ton of sauerkraut, handmade baby quilts for all her descendents and for her friends’ grandkids, too, and spent decades serving the homeless and hungry at her church's meal program. She lived frugally and simply in the same house for something like 60 years, and she spent the majority of her time (at least since I’ve known her) helping others.  

So many things that I learned from books, Gram actually lived through - World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, the Atomic Bomb, the Korean War, Vietnam; the evolution of the automobile industry, microwaves, computers and cell phones; Prohibition, women’s suffrage, desegregation, space travel. Gram said she was older than root beer, since it was invented in 1919 and she was born in 1918. Sliced bread wasn’t even around when she was born… can you imagine life before sliced bread? The invention that Gram said most impacted her life? The washing machine. And try to wrap your head around this: Gram experienced the presidencies of Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama – that’s the New Deal, the Space Age, assassinations and foiled attempts, the Cold War, resignations, movie stars, sex scandals and the first African-American president. Kind of a lot to process, no?  

In spite of the maddening pace of progress during the 20th century, Gram was a lesson in steadiness. We all knew her definitive rules and didn’t dare break them: 1. No walking on the hill where the flowers bloomed 2. No whining 3. No talking back 4. No wasting food. As the tiniest member of the family by far, she was also the feistiest, and you certainly wouldn’t want to cross her. Though she had a somewhat tough exterior persona, I think she was one of those people whose actions said “I love you” more than her words ever could. If she canned you some tomatoes, or brought you some homemade carrot chili, or sewed you a blankie or served you a meal at the church, that meant you were loved.

Outgrowing our diminutive Gram was a rite of passage for the 30 great-grandchildren, though some of us sprouted faster and taller than others (looking at you, Stark boys!). You may have noticed I was one of just a few descendents to receive the shortness gene from her, and I also apparently got her nose, which I never noticed until I was rifling through pictures of her in her 20s.  

Despite certain unbending habits that I always attributed to her having lived through the Great Depression, Gram always had a zest for life and sparkle in her eye to go with a not-so-subtle sense of humor. I won't share details on some of the more shocking things she said (stories recounted ad nauseum at the funeral and wake much to my dismay), but trust me, it would be enough to make you readers blush and to lure some unsavory Googlers to my site. 

I think she was secretly gratified that her grown great granddaughter (me) had a nervous breakdown (or two) over one of her famous homemade blankies. (We'll get into that at a later date, but for the record, I’m not ashamed.) She was a great letter writer, and though her handwriting got worse as she grew older and arthritis crippled her hands, she always wrote me back. Each letter included an update on canning, the flowers in her garden and her work at the meal program, and often there was a Polaroid folded in with pictures of the snow in the front yard or the canning she’d just finished.  

Though I always suspected she'd outlive us all, Gram passed away on Feb. 17, 2010 -- Ash Wednesday. That's 33,402 days, 2,885,932,800 seconds, 48,098,880 minutes, 801,648 hours and about 4,771 weeks of living. Life expectancy for US citizens is approximately 77.7 years. Gloria Kralicek, FTW.

What I Learned from Gram

If you say you're going to do something, do it. Your word matters.

If you have aches and pains, deal with it.

Driving is overrated. (She never had a driver's license)

Being sassy yet good-natured is a good thing. (But don't talk back to your mom)

Actions speak louder than words.

Handwritten letters are treasures, even if they're always about the same three topics.

There's nothing shameful about a grown woman sleeping with a baby blankie.

There is no chili better than Gram's carrot chili.

Always send a thank you note.

You can have all the faith in the world, but if you're not serving others, you're doing something wrong.

You don't have to be big to be awesome.