Artifacts

I received an interesting Christmas present this year.

Now, as you can see this cookbook isn't in the greatest shape.

I have to make an effort in the next couple of days to have it rebound. Miraculously, other than a bit of wear and tear on the title page, the pages are in great shape; it's just the binding that needs more than a wee bit of tender loving care. But it's not surprising that the binding is in such sad shape---after all it's nearly a hundred-years-old.

And, as it turns out, was my grandmother's.

I've mentioned before that I'm a late-in-life child. Well, not really. My parents were forty and thirty-eight when they had me---not so very old nowadays for reproduction purposes---it's just that since they already had seven kids it seemed unlikely at the time they'd keep going for it. I'm glad they did, but because my parents were also late-in-life children, the generation spans are wide in my family---my paternal grandmother was born in 1889, if that gives you a clue. As a result of this span, I never got to know any of my grandparents. I heard stories about them, of course, and I vaguely remember my paternal grandmother---commonly referred to as "Granny" in our household---but as she died when I was four, there's no specific memory I have attached to her. My grandfathers are long gone, and then there was my mother's mother, who seemed even further removed from the rest: she died in 1938, when my mother was six-years-old.

This is her cookbook.

I don't know much about Grandmother Kamloth. Mom doesn't talk about her. I know that I have her nose because there's an old photograph of her hanging on the wall at my parents' house. I know she was born in this country, the daughter of a florist who emigrated from Switzerland. Apparently, she came from a well-to-do family because when my Dad was researching our family tree, he went looking through old Omaha phone books and found that their residence had two lines, rather than just one---apparently one was for the servant's quarters. At some point in time, she married my Grandfather and had three daughters, the youngest of whom was my mother.

I also know that her name was Helen. Helen Haas Kamloth. A nice German girl from Omaha.

But that's about all I know.

That's why I titled this post "artifacts" because this cookbook feels like an artifact to me; something to be studied to learn more about the person who owned and used it. It's not a personal. It's just something that belonged to her. I have no emotional attachment to this cookbook because it was my gradmother's. I don't know that I will learn more about my grandmother by actually owning it, but it's quite cool nonetheless. My family is not big on handing things down. Not only do I not have any memories of my grandparents, I don't have any of their belongings, either, and neither do any of my siblings. Now, while I'm sure some of you, my devoted Cake Eater readers, are gasping at the loss of family history and are about to chastise the Cake Eater parents for not keeping better track of things, please realize that, well, there weren't a lot of things for us to inherit. Remember, I'm only one generation removed from the boat in some instances: it takes time to build up a legacy. My folks were busy looking forward and dealing with what they had on their plates; looking back and living in the past is a luxury they didn't have time for.

Anyway, I digress, as usual, but this cookbook, it turns out, is chock-a-block full of interesting things that I'm choosing to share with you, my devoted Cake Eater Readers. Yes, that's right. In a very Lileks-ish Gallery of Regrettable Food fashion, I shall be sharing excerpts from this fab cookbook, which is not only a cookbook, but rather:

"A Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home"

Containing

COOKING, TOILET AND HOUSEHOLD RECIPES, MENUS, DINNER-GIVING, TABLE ETIQUETTE, CARE OF THE SICK, HEALTH SUGGESTIONS, FACTS WORTH KNOWING, ETC.

By

HUGO ZEIMAN AND MRS. F.L. GILLETTE
STEWARD OF THE WHITE HOUSE

So you see, my devoted Cake Eater readers, this shall be good fun.

Posted by Kathy at January 1, 2006 11:06 PM | TrackBack