Jilo’s First Christmas 1970

Christmas, ,

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Nightgown & Undershirts –  Pee Wee and Winslow.
Sleeper – Grandmother Cleage.
Pop beads, music box, rings, boat, rattle – Ma and Henry.
Poppy $10
Louis $10
Barbara – back carrier.
Silver spoon – Gladys.
2 sleepers & clutch ball – Martha.
Jim out of town (St. Louis) .
Xmas eve at Miriams.  Living at Bro. Johns.
Xmas, went by Grandmother’s. first time she saw Jilo.
Dinner and spent the night at Ma’s.
Jim back on 30th.  Party at BCL (ugh).
Man across the street from Miriam’s hollering for help (“I’m not kidding Help!”)
Pearl and Micheal didn’t come home for Xmas.

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Holding my oldest daughter, Jilo
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Jilo and great grandfather Mershell C. Graham.

Christmas Bookmark from Uncle Clarence

Christmas, Reeds

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My great uncle Clarence Elwood Reed was 2 years older than my Grandmother Pearl Doris Reed. While doing some scanning of old photographs and newspaper articles recently my cousin Jan came across a book mark in my grandmother’s journal. Unfortunately the only thing written in this journal was my grandmother’s name, address and the date – December 25, 1903.  Perhaps it was a Christmas present.

Clarence is something of a mystery to me. I wrote about him several years ago – Madness Monday.  I still haven’t found him in the 1920 and 1930 census but I did find him in the 1940 census with yet another name for his wife, Mamie Reed. This census entry is the most confused I’ve seen. The head of the house is listed as Clarence Reed, a female and all of the other data is really for Mamie. Mamie is listed as a male and all the data is really for Clarence. Pretty confusing. It’s just a whim that I decided to check out this Clarence Reed who was born in Tennessee instead of Kentucky.

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Picture 3 A photo of 4845 S. Michigan in Chicago, Illinois taken from Google maps. This was Uncle Clarence Reeds address when he sent the bookmark.

“A Christ To Carol” – Christmas Sermon 1966

Christmas, Cleages
67-12-17
Rev. A. B. Cleage Jr. Preaching and Teaching

While looking through the binder holding my father’s sermon notes I found these for Sunday, December 25, 1966.  Some were written on a small donation envelope. There is also a bulletin and two pages of sermon notes that are for the same Sunday.  Although page 2 and a possible page 4 are missing, I think that there is enough here to give the gist of the sermon.

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A Christ To Carol
Go tell it on the Mountain Jesus Christ is Born

II. Christmas Spirituals
= Carols written by slaves
= “Good News”?=
Glory Manger
Po’ Little Jesus Boy
Jesus first came first to down trodden and oppressed.
“Tell John…”

I.  Child waiting for Christmas thinks only of Santa Claus
= Child for whom Christmas means most – not one who receives most in terms of material gifts –

III.  “Gospel” was the Good News of the possibilities in human life –
Slaves may have been closer to realizing possibilities than many of us today.

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We tend to judge everything today in terms of materialistic value –
EVEN CHRISTMAS – Commercialized
(How much we can give)

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Henry Cleage – Christmas on Scotten

Christmas, Cleages

Henry Cleage Christmas
This photo was taken the same year and from the same place as my Grandfather Cleage’s photograph.

My uncle Henry. If it was during WW2 he had come in from the farm while Hugh stayed out there to take care of the chickens and cows.  They alternated holidays. One of the last stories I remember Henry telling was how he was coming back from Christmas in Detroit. There had been a heavy snow storm and the roads were un-plowed.  He was walking out to the farm when he passed a man walking into town and realized it was Hugh.

Warren’s Christmas Birthday Party, 1958

Christmas, Cleages, Photographs, sepia saturday, , ,
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Front row: Jan and Dale Evans  Middle: Pearl Cleage, Warren Evans, Ernest Martin  Back: Me (Kristin Cleage) If only Ernie had stepped a bit to the right you would be able to see both of our faces.  Why is Dale making that face? Must be because he’s 8.

My cousin Warren always had a party on his December 30th birthday. All of the Cleage cousins gathered at his house where his mother, my aunt Gladys, made a punch of Vernor’s ginger ale with orange sherbert floating on top. There was ice cream, chips, party favors and of course, cake. His cake, shown below, looks like a product of Detroit Awrey’s Bakery.  My cousin Jan corrected me and said it was probably a Sanders cake. Sanders also made cakes and the best chocolate miniatures ever. But I digress.

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Because I count 11 candles on the cake, I’m going to say it was his 10th birthday which would make it 1958.  The 11th candle would be 1 to grow on.  There is no sign of his youngest brother who wasn’t born until July of 1959.

Unlike the Sepia Saturday prompt, there is no bus and no Santa in my photo but the people are sitting facing each other and it was taken during the 1950s.

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To see more Christmas Sepia Saturday offerings, CLICK!

 

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Christmas
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Holiday foods and homemade food gifts.

An Australian reader asked me how to make candied sweet potatoes after reading about the food we eat for Christmas.  We have candied sweet potatoes at both Thanksgiving and at Christmas. The rest of the year I just bake them and sometimes mash them.  The recipe my mother used is the same one I found in her old cookbook, although I’m sure that the one her mother made didn’t come from a cookbook but they tasted similar. Maybe Nanny’s were a bit sweeter.

The sweet potatoes are boiled and peeled. They are sliced and arranged in a baking dish with brown sugar and butter laid on top of each layer.  They are then baked at 350 to 375 for about 45 minutes or until the syrup from the brown sugar and butter is as thick as you want it.  I remember that sometimes parts of the sweet potatoes were crispy with the syrup. These days my oldest daughter, Jilo, makes the sweet potatoes for family gatherings.

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Candied sweet potato recipe from my mother’s cook book with her note on the side. “Good, but not very sweet.”
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Candied sweet potatoes made by my oldest daughter for Thanksgiving dinner,2012.

You can read about the history of the sweet potato here. I was surprised to learn that people candy sweet potatoes all over the world. I thought it was a recipe from the southern United States.