Heritage Dinner 2011-Grandma Alice

The Brubaker family has a heritage dinner every year, usually the week before Thanksgiving. We often come prepared to talk about our ancestors or memories for our own lives. Last night we met at Nancy's house for dinner and to honor my  Dad's Mom, Alice Frederickson Mortensen Brubaker.

We each told our memories, We remembered walking to the market, going to the tabernacle (she lived right downtown Salt Lake City in the Kimball apartments, where the conference center is now), sleeping in the Murphy bed, eating okra and parsnips-things we didn't really eat at home and therefore did not like.

We remembered the time she came to stay with us in Hurley while my older siblings and parents went on a trip-that was when Scott and I watched Cal put buttered soda crackers in the toaster and burned down the kitchen curtains and smoked up the sides of the cabinets. For all of my life and since my Dad was 8 she suffered the effects of a stroke and couldn't use her right side properly , she held her arm as though it were in a sling, she dragged her right food and spoke slowly, always, starting out with "I gon to say..." so people would slow down and listen to her. So you can imagine how flustered she was trying to put out a fire. Scott and Cal finally dragged the garden hose in through the back door and put it out.

We remembered the plaid quilt she made for Cal and the gingham apron she made for the girls. This even though she had little use of her right hand.

My Dad told his memories of a strong women who raised four children by herself. He did not speculate who's fault the divorce was when he was three years old, he only remembers that his dad left out the screen door of their house and when he asked his Mom where he was going she replied "he won't be back." Divorce was very taboo in those days and his mother never mentioned it- almost expecting him to forget he ever had that father- when she married Charles Grover Brubaker. They had three more children Charles, Margaret and Gladys. My dad credits him with being a hard worker and inspiring him to get an education. It was during the depression and Charles Brubaker was in and out of work, but trying hard. He finally got a job with the railroad and eventually found another women at the other end of the line. He left my Grandma Alice when my dad was a teenager. Her stroke was while they were still married and the recovery time was long and still going on when he left. My Dad has nothing but respect for the way his Mother held the family together. Things like her walking clear downtown, dragging her leg to pay the utility bill so as to save a stamp. My Dad started working and helping out financially at a pretty young age.

We talked about the raids of PanchoVilla and how her family had to flee Mexico-they had gone there in the first place after the manifesto because My Grandma Alice's father was a polygamist who had 3 wives; she was a child of the third wife.

We ate Pecan Brittle-the secret recipe that my Grandma Alice watched her sister Nana make and memorized the ingredients!

My Dad told a lot more details, Emmy's husband Josh recorded the whole evening so hopefully we'll get a copy somehow. I don't even have a picture of her because I left them at Nancy's last night. I'll correct that here sometime.

Everyone looks intently at my dad while he tells his story...

...except Laura who only looks intently at her boyfriend Neal!

Sitting: Emmy, Josh,Thomas, Desiree, Neal, Laura, Alice, Cal Tani. Standing: Myron Dorothy, Dad, Mac, Chelsea (Rob is taking the picture) Bob, Karrie, Nancy, Carol, Gary

It was a successful Heritage Dinner, one of our best.