It was June of 1971 and my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage was waiting for the party to begin. Uncle Hugh is in the kitchen getting things ready. Grandmother was 87 and didn’t break her hip for some years yet. I remember so many dinners around that table. There were always cakes with caramel icing for birthdays. This time it looks like there are two cakes – one chocolate and one with caramel icing. Both have candles.
Candy corns in the little silver dish. There were often candy corns in the covered candy dish that always on the front room table coffee table. Candy corns or red and white striped peppermints or sometimes chocolate kisses.
I can think of several June birthdays. My father turned 60 that year. My cousin Anna Pearl turned eleven and her sister Maria turned nine. It must have been an all June collective party. I wish I had been there. My oldest daughter Jilo turned one that June.
Fantastic to have before and during party photos! Yes, many birthdays were combined into one celebration in our family as well…especially in a few months of the year, but June wasn’t one of them.
In my grandkids generation, there are lots of birthdays in October.
I love how we get a peek through the doorways to see more of the family.
I like that too.
Oh how I miss my mother-in-law’s homemade caramel icing. It always had a crispiness to it plus the creaminess below the crust. I have tried to find a recipe but nope. No can do. Candy corn seems like an odd candy to have on hand in June. My grandmother usually had lemon drops.
One of my daughters makes wonderful caramel icing. My father always had lemon drops.
My mom is now 87 and often talks of the birthday/anniversary parties that her mother, i.e. my grandmother, used to host in her home that were just like this. The sounds and aroma from the kitchen, the good food and special table settings, the chatter and laughter. The memories are all in your snapshots.
We used to host those here but they have fallen off as the grandchildren have gotten older and family members have moved further away.
Gosh, this made me think back to whenever I visited my grandparent’s house they had a special dish that was known as the candy dish and there was usually either peppermint or butterscotch candies in it. I am craving caramel icing now.
My other grandparents had a candy dish that always had those white peppermints.
Yes Reading this really did take me back to that candy dish! I can smell the butterscotch right now! and the Lemon Drops were always stuck together in the bottom of the bowl! But I can just close my eyes and smell the room. Now what a great read. I love it
The one cake looks like a German chocolate cake with the coconut icing. Mom used to make that one too.
I think you are right! Except the cake looks like a yellow cake.
Wonderful photos and post! I find the silver sugar and creamer set quite attractive. I wonder when folks stopped using these and began to use ceramic or Melmac sets to match their dishes? Also nice that the childrens’ table, often forgotten, made it into one of these nostalgic photos.
I thought I had a better shot of the children’s table, but can’t find it.
Lovely memories of special family celebrations. But I had never heard of “candy corns” – what were they?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_corn
Our busiest birthday months are exactly 6 months apart: Feb. : 5 birthdays, and Aug.: 7 birthdays. But we’ve never gotten together to celebrate all those birthdays together because we live miles apart from each other (some many miles). In July, however, when our families have a summer reunion, we celebrate several anniversaries with a big fancy cake decorated for all. 🙂
Nothing brings to the forefront the passage of time as much as photographs that were about current events when we were young which are now almost historical documents in themselves. Looking at that picture of your grandmother I can’t help but marvel at the historical scope from her remembered youth to the world of today.
I’ve been reading some of the letters she wrote when she was 19-22 that have given me details of her life that I didn’t have. Looking at her as I knew her and thinking of her life before that…
Those chairs look very similar to chairs from my memories of big family get togethers – with the decoration embossed on the wooden back. It must have been a popular style in those days.
Yes, I am sure they were.
The photos bring back wonderful memories of similar gatherings that my family had years ago.
Our gatherings are so much more casual than those were, but we still gather.
What a beautiful memory. It had me thinking of past occasions like these with my extended family, and feeling nostalgic.
I used to do Sepia Saturday every week because it made me look for photos that triggered memories. I don’t do it as often now because I’ve done it so long, I’ve used up so many of my photos over the year. I’m glad it made you remember too.