Ollie: So true - we went to Ireland to find the old stories that were never told at home..I think they wanted to forget the "sad times"...my favorite story is walking in some town in Ireland- an old old gentleman with cane asked "are you from AmeriCAR? and your family name?" I said "yes I am from AmeriCAR and my name is....." - "Oh and now you are coming home!!!!" :lct:

Yes, Joanna, when I met cousins in Ireland, they used the same phrase "coming home!"

I remember Ebinger's...they had positvely the best black-out cake anywhere!!!

Hey, Nini,

I lived on Palm Drive, just south of Wilshire and grew up at Pico/Robertson on Bedford Street.

We had our West Coast Version of those games. Pickle was big on our block. Actually, my kids from the neighborhood are still my friends - we gather for dinner and to tell stories all the time of growing up in our 'hood.

We had Pico Poultry - they slaugtered the chicken in the back. We still have a kosher butcher on Ventura that for the Holidays has live chickens. I still get the feet for soup at the store. What I miss are the eggs you can't get any more to put in the soup.

Kathy - I remember those eggs, too. I seem to remember a man that delivered chickens with all the extra parts that we don't get today. In fact, several years ago, Bud and I were having Dim Sum in Calgary and they brought around chicken feet. I got very excited - Bud was more or less grossed out. (He just didn't have the right grandmother to cook for him when growing up).

What schools did you go to? I know I am much older than you so we probably wouldn't know the same people, but I went to Beverly Vista and Beverly High.

Melinda,

Oh, yes! Their black-out cake was THE best!

Kathy/Nini,

I remember those eggs, as well. I thought they were very small and hard-boiled type egg yolks. My mother had told me that those were "unfertile" eggs. I loved them in the soup.

Since there is a fair amount of reminiscing going on here, thought I'd add this link:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/special/ppcs/ppcs.html

As a young lad, I loved the architecture of the old Omaha Post Office Building, downtown. Unfortunately it was torn down years ago and replaced by a hotel/federal building. However I saw it plus some other sites that brought back many fond memories.

Cheers! Ray

Nini,

I went to Hamilton High (Class fo 1973)- my sister went to BHHS, but, she is 6 years younger. My mother went to Fairfax but for the last year, BHHS - class fo 1949.

Yes, the eggs were unfertile and are not allowed for human consumtion anymore. They were the eggs still in the slaugtered chicken.

Not sure what I've been doing to be too busy to log onto LCT recently, but here I am again.

Welcome Al from another LAwnGuyLinder! I noticed you said your location was LawnGuyLand - with an A.
As Arlene will be quick to point out, it should be an "i" at the end, not an "a" (It was such a conversation that led to our meeting).

Reading all the reminiscences about the "neighborhood", I am struck by how much alike it was in other places. Although I grew up in NE Philadelphia, it was pretty much the same atmosphere - you left the house in the morning to go o ut & play (stickball, baseball, fort, whatever) & got back for dinner. The kids were just THERE. No need to make play dates, arrange carpools, have adults set up teams, etc.

As for BAgels/Bialys, I'd like to recommend Let There Be Bagels in Port Washington. And, of course, H & H in NYC.

I'm surprised that Nini & Bud describe themselves as loners. Elly & I thought we were the only such on something as socially tuned as LCT. Unexpectedly, I have become very fond of it, as witness my frequent participation.

In fact, Elly & I are beyond loners. We have completed 2 previous cruises on VOYAGER, +7 or 8 before that, all but 1 on Celebrity (our favorite until we found Regent).

On every 1 of these we have been voted the most boring couple aboard, & we have every confidence we shall retain our title on CROSS.

We never lie by the pool; never play bingo; never play cards- never play any games'; dislike Las Vegas-style shows; never participate in any organized mass activity; etc. We take occasional walks (my walking is called staggering), stare at the horizon, sit on our porch counting wavelets & thinking profound thoughts, &, much of the time, reading.

We do enjoy talking with others, over coffee/drinks/dinner, 1 or 2 other couples at a time. I have lost some hearing (& vision), & with any greater numbers find myself unable to decode what is being said. This leaves me frustrated & on returning to our cabin I may beat up Elly, if I can catch her.

We are astonished at having been given so warm & flattering a reception & want to avoid injuring any feelings. If we sometimes do not join you please never take it personally.

Some of you mentioned slaughtered chickens, chicken feet, & immature eggs. My mother sometimes took me to a nearby poultry market. Offered several live chickens she would grope each, fingering it fore & aft in a way I thought unnecessarily humiliating for the birds. A price settled, a slaughterer would slit the bird's throat & set it on the floor to wobble about, gurgling on its own blood, until it fell dead. It still fills me with horror. For pennies more a crone wearing clothes a half-step from rags would pick up the corpse & pluck it.

Like Bud, I cannot think of eating chicken feet. My Chinese daughter-in=law & her family however love them for their crunchy texture.

If you love Chinese food I strongly recommend having a Chinese in the family. (Just how you accomplish this is your business.) Mine takes us to wonderful, often tiny, not too neat places where nothing is in English & Big Noses seldom are seen. She discusses options with servers, & sets before us endlessly varied & wonderful dishes. (We have learned not to ask what anything had been before it was served us.)

Another chicken story. I came home from school 1 day to find a live chicken resident in our bathtub, clucking & defecating. I soon learned its purpose. A day or 2 later the bird was compelled to take part in a barbarous ritual, as irrational as it was cruel. Grasping it by its crunchy feet, my father whirled the chicken in a circle 3 times above my head & that of my brother, reciting a prayer asking that all our sins & the divine punishments that would inevitably follow them be transferred to the chicken.

Shortly afterwards I returned from school to find the bathtub clean & our resident chicken gone. When asked about it my mother gave evasive answers, but that evening we had chicken soup & boiled chicken. I refused to eat it on the grounds of cannibalism. My father grew angry, said we could not afford to waste food (true enough, but still....), & forced me to eat it all. I've never entirely forgiven him. Probably because of the opposition of my brother & myself (but possibly because the attempt to shift blame didn't seem to work), my parents never tried this again.

I'm surprised that ChatKat reports immature eggs are no longer allowed for human consumption. I'm not expert here, but to the best of my knowledge the problem with these eggs is the same as that with chicken flesh & livers- possible salmonella or campylobacter infection. If properly cooked, all should be safely edible. (??)

Has this infection spread to flocks on the west coast too?

Gil, you're right! Lawn Guylinder, not Lawn Guylander! I surrender to more discriminating ears.

I see you grew up in another city & in another generation. The leave-em-alone Theory of Child Rearing thus was spread beyond Brooklyn & lasted beyond my childhood. I wonder where, when & how the current fearfullness for one's children & mistrust of their good sense began.

Al (from Elly & Al)

"We never lie by the pool; never play bingo; never play cards- never play any games'; dislike Las Vegas-style shows; never participate in any organized mass activity; etc. We take occasional walks (my walking is called staggering), stare at the horizon, sit on our porch counting wavelets & thinking profound thoughts, &, much of the time, reading."

I do sit at pool - same likes/dislikes you and Elly have for cruising - "most boring" I doubt it!!!! - this board had been boring for a few weeks - thanks for joining - I see in your profile retired Prof - hope it is math or science and NOT writing - the pressure will be on if it is writing - oh Professor Bernstein an "A" please - my husband,too, is hard of hearing but will not admit it - huh? what? what'd you say?? you never told me that fact - yada yada (denial) - again, a big welcome!!!!!!!!!! Ok going to check spell check and grammar site for the Prof!!!

1st - I remember that Chicken in the bath story too from my mother's telling it...vaguely. I don't recall the why (I did get kicked out of Hebrew School for eating an ice cream cone and verbalizing my displeasure about it when my mother gave me money to buy it)

As for Chinese-Jewish relations, a friend of mine adopted a baby girl in China 13 years ago and is going to be a Bat Mitzvah this year. I have a side business of photography and I am photographing the event. I found a box of Kosher Fortune Cookies in Florida this week :D in a Take Out Box with Hebrew Style Writing. Fun, huh?

Al - you sound anything but boring to me - I think you are very funny and look forward to exchanging funny stories in person. I think these "chicken stories" are hilarious.

MY brother was married to a Chinese (actually Tawainese woman) - so we have 4 half Asian nephews with whom we have just reestablished contact. When we visited them in Taipei, they took us to some wonderful places to eat - with the exception of the 1000 year old eggs. Yuck!!!

Nini

Jumping in here to say Hi, Al...I am Nini's daughter, so also another generation from you, but I have to say I fall more closely to leave 'em alone than to micro manage my daughters' lives...mom, tell them. I'm quite different from my sisters in this regard, too. My kids did have play dates, I confess, but that is because there weren't any kids in our neighborhood. My kids are pretty well adjusted and have never played on teams that I arranged, though I must confess my older daughter doesn't eat Chinese food, which is almost a requirement to be in our family! You sound like a hoot, Al, and I know you and your wife will have a blast on Cross with my folks and all these people. I convinced my mom to introduce herself after reading posts and telling her how much fun you all sound! And Al, what kind of professor were you? I am an elementary school teacher in South Florida.
Melinda

Al,

I find your wonderfully written posts to be so refreshing. You have a fantastic sense of humor and I have no doubt that you and Elly will be a pleasure to meet and swap more chicken stories with. Hopefully, none of these stories "lays an egg!" OY!

Nini,

Really looking forward to meeting you, as well. I'm almost afraid to ask about those 1000 year old eggs. Now I'm beginning to question the expiration dates on the eggs I have in the fridge. Have I been tossing them too soon? Is an early expiration date a poultry/dairy conspriacy to drive up egg prices?

Melinda,

Sorry you will not be on CROSS with us. I sure would enjoy meeting you too! We can spend hours talking Ebinger's!

So glad you convinced your Mom to post!

Melinda and Nini,

The Chinese Fortune Cookies in the Take Out box were at Ben's in Boca, which is a Kosher Deli - "We're Meat" was the response when I went in for an Eggs and Bagels with Cream Cheese on Sunday.

"I find your wonderfully written posts to be so refreshing. You have a fantastic sense of humor"

Amen and halleuliah!!!!!

The fortune cookies are going to be quite a hit at the Bat Mitzva, Kathy. My younger daughter is in 7th grade this year and the season is still going quite strong as the school year winds down; we even have one Labor Day weekend! Not sure why, but after reading your post I starting thinking about chocolate egg creams, which you can't find here anywhere. There used to be a Coney Island restaurant on 163rd Street in North Miami Beach, and they were pretty good there. I guess if you get Foxes U-Bet you can make them at home, but it's never quite the same!

Love Fox's-U-Bet. When we moved to SOCAL, I couldn't find a decent egg cream. I managed to find Fox's U-Bet syrup, located a man who delivered seltzer and made my own!

Ok, Denise, we have some serious chocolate addictions I see!

Yes we do. A chocolate egg cream and a black and white and we're good to go!

Yes...black and whites are the best!!! And of course the afore-mentioned blackout cakes. Yummy. It is Teacher Appreciation week at school and my kids know I love dark chocolate, so they bring me Godiva's all the time!

I bet you're a great teacher and get lots of Godiva, Melinda. Well-deserved, I'm sure!

I need a trip back to NYC to satisfy my egg cream/B&Ws/black-out cake/Cantonese shrimp in lobster sauce/pizza cravings!

Denise - take me!!!!!

But of course!

Ray's Original Pizza...of course all the Ray's claim they are the original, but they do have amazing slices.

You're joining Joanna and me in NYC, Melinda!

Ray's is so great!!!

Have any of you ever been to Flushing (eons ago) and tried Gloria Pizza? OMG!

My bags are packed! Mom, you coming, or can I leave the girls with you? hahahahaha

My bags packed too!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're on! We need Nini, too. The more "fressers" the better!

Too much "Fressing" will put you on the Weight Loss thread....

I'm ready - when do we leave? The other day I was "killing" time in Borders and almost bought a diet book that claims that every day, you must have 2 ounces of dark chocolate, 5 oz. of red wine and 2 oz. of nuts. It's supposed to make you live longer - I figure you would live happier, if not longer.

Nini

Good to see you're joining us on the NYC Fresser Fest! Dark chocolate on the B&W's, red wine to toast and sip with our pizza and nuts on the black-out cake. Here's to a longer, happier life - L'Chaim!

Let's not forget the shrimp in lobster sauce -

Denise - I was thinking that on a cruise without mu daughters, I would not gain as much as I did on the Navigator during the holidays. I am beginning to suspect that I was wrong.

Do you know a good Chinese restaurant in NY (midtown Manhattan)? We will be there for one night before we board the QM2 in October.

Nini

How did I miss this thread until this morning! You all have made my day! Unfortunately I have no live or dead chicken stories but have truly enjoyed yours! And I too miss the 2nd Ave deli as they were great about shipping to us poor folk in the Midwest where good delis are hard to find. If we can add a deli I'm in on the New York "satisfy all cravings" jaunt!

Sue - of course we can add a deli - we're happy to welcome you to our jaunt.

Nini

Sue, You've been added to our fressing roster. A very welcome addition, I might add! Corned beef, chopped liver on rye, potato knish, Dr. Brown's Cream soda! Yes!

Nini,

Are you implying that I may be a bad influence on CROSS? I will certainly try my hardest! ;)

Sorry to say I don't know of any good Chinese restaurants mid-town. We visited the City about 3 years ago and I can't recall the name of the restaurant we dined in. It was not really mid-town. I can do a search on Zagat later today, if you like.

Joanna,

We could never forget the shrimp in lobster sauce!
We need to add duck sauce and crispy noodles, won ton soup with hot mustard, lo mein, and b-b-q pork spareribs!

The first time we put hot mustard in our won ton soup in Banff (we have a wonderful Chinese restaurant there, Silver Dragon), everyone looked at us like we were totally nuts. I'm so glad to see that we aren't.

Nini

Corned beef, CHOPPED LIVE ON RYE, bbq pork spareribs - I think I'm in heaven - We don't have any good Chinese restaurants here, though, and nothing close to a NY deli - :mad: :mad: