Experiences

Traditions & Customs

Jeanna G2 Comments

I spent the last four days at the beach with my posse. It’s the fourth year in a row that we’ve taken this family vacation together. This past July was the third year in a row that we shared a lake house together, and this November will be the fourth year in a row that we shared a mountain cabin for a long weekend. Some other women and their families have come and gone on these trips, but there is a core group whose presence has remained throughout. I’m grateful for the two women who do the majority of the planning, and they tend to book our rentals a year in advance, so there’s always something fun to look forward to and plan around. One of these women’s families used to take beach vacations with their friend’s families when she was a child, and she wanted that recurring event to become a tradition that her children could experience. It is now my hope that my daughter will continue this tradition with her children and closest friends.

One of the many conversations of this most recent trip revolved around the topic of traditions. I took an opinion poll asking how many times or years an event needs to be repeated before it can be considered a tradition. I liked the answer of three years in a row best, because two years could be a fluke, but three shows effort to continue the event. It wasn’t until I started writing this that I realized “generation to generation” is part of the definition of tradition. So when creating new traditions, you’re initially practicing customs, with the hope of continuance and a motivation to hand down these practices.

Aside from these shared vacations, I want to pass on to my daughter many of the customs that I practiced as a child every year with my family. A lot of my favorites relate to holidays, but not all. Of course there are customs related to behavior, morals, values, and character, but those require daily practice, not just an annual duplication.

Holidays make me think of food, and I think certain dishes could and should be handed down and practiced year after year. My daughter will know how to make real mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, her own pie crust, my grandma’s chocolate chip cookies, and how to roast a turkey. Ham crisps (ham salad on Ritz with a cucumber slice), bowls of olives, shrimp cocktail, and lutefisk will be available before Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes are prepared on St. Patrick’s.

New Year’s is spent in the place you love the most to get the year started off right. For us, it’s been the beach.

She and I celebrate Valentine’s Day with fondue. I want her to continue to celebrate that holiday by sharing it with who she loves and who loves her.

Thanksgiving isn’t complete without watching the Macy’s parade and the dog show. I’ve added the new custom of watching all of the “Friends” Thanksgiving episodes every year, too.

During advent we open a chocolate-filled calendar every day. We watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Christmas Story every year. I complete a Christmas jigsaw puzzle annually, but that’s a hobby that doesn’t need to be passed on. On Christmas Eve, baby Jesus is laid in the manger of the crèche. We also go to the candlelight service every Christmas Eve, and then get to open one gift before bed.

Non-holiday traditions include taking a photo on the first day of each new school year and playing board games together. Sports are a huge tradition in our family. We play them, we watch them, we bet on them, we love them. The New York Yankees. My daughter is a 4th generation fan. Penn State football. I am a Nittany Lion and hope that my daughter at least applies to attend. My dad graduated from both Michigan State (undergrad) and Iowa (grad), and my sisters and aunt are Big 10 alumni, as well, so Saturdays in fall are loud. Every year we pick our favorites in the Triple Crown races, which my mom did with her dad. We root for USA in the World Cup and the Olympics. I grew up a Whalers fan in Connecticut, and now we root for the Canes (who used to be the Whalers) here in North Carolina. We fill out our March Madness brackets every year, and we always tune in to watch the Super Bowl.

So why are we motivated to hand down these customs? I like traditions because they create a comfort space for me, a chance to hit the re-set button. All of them are something to look forward to, a reward for all the hard work, and an escape from the mundane. Some of them, like the vacations, are a chance to reconnect with friends and to participate in experiences that we wouldn’t normally get to enjoy in our day-to-day lives. And considering the topic of my blog, traditions are a chance to rediscover not just my childhood, but those of my ancestors with the added bonus of learning more about who am I, where I came from, and who I can be. Traditions and customs create experiences and add a much needed joie de vivre.

What are your customs that you hope become traditions? What traditions do you continue to carry on from your ancestors? Why do you practice these customs and traditions?

Head Heart Hands Health

Jeanna GLeave a comment

For a couple years of my childhood, I participated in the 4-H. For those of you who don’t know what it is, 4-H is a youth development program that is part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Cooperative Extension System (CES). NIFA is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture. CES is part of the Land-Grant University System, which was created with the intention of increasing educational opportunities for the working class population, especially farmers and ranchers. 4-H helps to prepare youth for work and life by teaching useful skills through hands-on experiences.

I grew up in a rural town, a farming town. The town’s area is about forty square miles, and there are over thirty farms. There were also fewer than 10,000 people living there when I was growing up. In addition to all that, the World Wide Web didn’t go live until I was in Middle School, so the skills youth were learning when I was a child are a bit different than the skills youth are learning these days, especially during the remote and virtual learning days of Covid-19.

So what did I learn in 4-H? I signed up for sewing, cooking, photography, and dairy. I really enjoyed sewing, and to this day I say I’m going to get a sewing machine and try my hand at it again. I’ve had plans to make a t-shirt quilt for, oh, I’d say close to 30 years. I made a skirt the first year, and a jumper the next. I liked the puzzle part of sewing; following the pattern, making individual parts, and then piecing them all together.

Cooking was fun, but I learned more about cooking by hanging out in my mom’s and grandma’s kitchens. I learned even more from working in the hospitality industry for 25 years. Following a recipe is easy, but making a dish unique and tasty is where the challenge lies, and what requires experience. I definitely have experience in eating! I remember completing an assignment in my early elementary years that asked what my favorite subjects were. I wrote “lunch.”

I loved my photography class. I had taken photography as an activity at my summer camp, too, so I already knew I would enjoy it. I still have dreams of being a photojournalist for a food magazine. In that dream I can travel around the world eating delicious foods, taking pictures of the meals and locations, and then writIng about the experience. I guess I should buy a camera. Everything seems to be digital and captured on iPhones these days, but one of the best parts of photography was developing my own pictures in the dark room. I was, and am still, envious of the woman who led the 4-H photography class; she had a dark room in her house! Maybe I’ll have a she-shed dark room at a future home of mine.

Dairy was quite the memorable experience. I was assigned a local farm and a calf to walk. I would walk my cow up and down the center of the barn. All of the adult heifers were facing away from me, so I was always paranoid that I would get donkey-kicked by a cow. We also learned to clean their hooves and give them hair cuts. When people ask me about where I grew up, I like to tell them I walked cows as a way of describing where I’m from. I won first place in Showmanship at the county fair. I loved that trophy with the gold cow on top. I also won first place in the clipping contest. What’s a clipping contest? Whoever does the best job cutting all of the cow’s hair in less than 10 minutes wins! It cracks me up just knowing things like this exist.

4-H exists to help youth to develop skills that they can use to support their homes and communities. Although I don’t take care of cows or sew anything other than buttons, I did improve upon life skills like problem-solving, reading and following directions, finishing what I start, and creative thinking. I loved the experiences, especially the ones I probably wouldn’t have otherwise had, like caring for cows and developing my own photos. I hope to get my daughter involved. It’s a good thing 4-H helped me to develop time management skills, too!

What clubs did you join as a kid?

The Fourth of Firsts – My First Bar

Jeanna GLeave a comment

I was 16. I had a real ID, it just wasn’t me. I have long, straight, dirty blonde hair and green eyes. Ms. Fowler from Michigan has shoulder-length, brown, curly hair and brown eyes. The ID was also expired, as indicated by the hole punch in the top corner. It’s amazing how easily I waltzed into that place back in 1995. I doubt it’s as easy these days. At least I hope it isn’t when my daughter turns 16!

Finn McCool’s, north of the city in Westchester County, was dark and cool. There was a basketball game like you’d find in an arcade. You shoot actual basketballs and they roll down the ramp back to you. I shot a few and then when one bounced off the rim and came back to bounce off my forehead, I decided it was best if I stuck to a barstool until my co-conspirators pulled me out the door. Better to be pulled out than tossed out! A night to remember!