1.What is an awesome story that you have heard a relative tell about a meal they once had? Who did they have it with? Why was it special?
2. Have you ever attended a parking lot carnival? If so, where were you? How old were you? Why did you go?
3. When was the first time that you remember going fishing? Did you catch anything?
4.Do you remember swimming lessons? Who taught you? Where did you learn to swim?
5.Describe the pet owned by your paternal grandparents. What were your feelings about this pet?
6.Did you ever go to a tea party when you were a child? Who hosted it? Why did you go? Who did you go with?
7.Have you ever run your DNA? What did it show? Why did you decide to do it?
On Wednesday I had dinner with my Grandfather. He started telling me stories about his mother. She was a great baker. His father worked in several factories in Pennsylvania during the Great Depression. He said that his mother would make raisin pies before the father would go to work (it seems like his shifts were a few days at a time, but I might be wrong on that).
My Grandfather said that his mother always made two pies, one for the father and one for the family. She would begin by baking a crust for the pie. Then, he said that she would boil the raisins until the water turned dark and developed a syrup-like texture. She would pour this mixture into the set crust and add more pie crust to the top of it before she baked it again.
When the pies came out of the over, she would cut pieces for herself, my grandfather, and his brother. But the boys knew better than to try to eat some of their father's raisin pie - which he would take to work with him.
He said that he had tried several times, as an adult, to bake raisin pies like she had made them, but that they never turned out to taste the same.
Before I heard that story, I had never heard of "raisin pie." I had to go home and look it up. I thought it was a pretty neat piece of family history.