L a m b e a u! Hallowed Lambeau Field. Home of the Green Bay Packers. The center of the football universe. L a m b e a u.
Your Mom and I were there yesterday. Your Mom met with her older sister and younger brother. It was a family reunion and spouses (including me) got to listen to all the shared experiences as Mom and her siblings reminised. Your Mom had an additional agenda of trying to collect historical things about her family like pictures, memoriabilia, and unique stories.
We met at “Curly’s Pub”. I had heard about the great food at Curly’s. Sure enough, there on the menu was the “Horse Collar”. It is a 22 inch long kielbasa sausage shaped into a semi-circle (i.e it looks like a horse collar). It is nestled in 24 inches of a bun of the same shape covered with sauerkraut, melted cheese, onions and somesort of tomato based sauce over the top. It is guaranteed to clog your arteries instantaneously. No, nobody in our group ordered one. I think it costs about 25 bucks.
It was interesting how many conversations included some mention of Mom’s Mom (Nana). Her core values, having been raised on a farm, seemed to permeate all her children. Her ambivalence to the death of animals came up a few times. Yes, chickens laid eggs but you butched them eat. Of course. Pet pigs could be on the dinner table any time. If your favorite cat got hit by a car, grief was short because there were plenty of other cats. That was the way things were on the farm.
Nana’s penchant for saving things was obvious. You collected buttons in a jar because you might need them some day. You never threw curtains away because her Kids or Grandkids might end up wearing them. Leftover food never got thrown away. The family would eat some clever concoctions of uneaten food “forever”. Coffee sat on the stove all day long and got reheated over and over (eventually turning to mud). The end result was that Nana was a leader by example and the result was intelligent frugality.
And so it went. Stories. Lies. Laughter. Of course because that is a reunion.
We left Lambeau with memories. Sister-in-law Mary went looking for some Packer history because her brother was a trainer for the Packers somewhere in the 1970’s or 80’s. I don’t know if she found the pictures she thought existed but her family definitely left it’s imprint on the “Pack”. Her brother’s name was Jim. He is part of “Lambeau lore”.
Love,
Dad