Keeping His Mother's Memory Alive

 

Back when I was a child, I thought everyone's Dad baked.   I can't exactly recall
my age when it dawned on me that my Dad was an exception when it came to a
guy baking,  I would have to guess I was in my teen years before I figured that out.

I knew from an early age what Dad was a baker in the Air Force.
He used to speak of recipes that called for massive amounts of ingredients. 
40 some eggs, pounds of flour per recipe.   He even had a hard bound book of
those recipes.  

Dad could NEVER have baked alone without the assistance of my Mom.  
The credit seemed to fall to Dad, but without Mom at his side it would have
never worked.
They baked for every holiday and I can say for certain that I never ever had
a store bought Birthday cake.  

Christmas was HIS time of the year and to say baking at that time was an
obsession would be an understatement. !!!

The baking started the day after Thanksgiving. 
The first thing was his ~ Fruitcake ~.  

In a recipe book that my Uncle Rollin and Auntie Anne Rothacker compiled in 
2005, Dad added his ‘Williamsburg Style White Fruitcake’ recipe.  
Dad footnoted it saying….
“This recipe came from the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1964. 
I have made it every year the weekend after Thanksgiving to be able
to use on Christmas eve”.

Margaret Rothacker Posted on our Family Web Site - November 30, 2003

Gil made his annual Fruit Cake yesterday,   He has been making it for 41 yrs.
He makes it on the Sat. following Thanksgiving. It usually weighs about 18 lbs.  
He wraps it in cheese cloth soaked in Harvey Bristol Cream (sherry) until Christmas.  
It costs just about $25.00 to make.  
When he first started making it in 1962 it cost about $14.00 to make.  
Prices have really gone up!!!!!,   Once we get the fruit cake done we start
on cookies. We make 15 different kinds of cookies and 2 different kinds of fudge.  
Gil mixes them all and I bake them.

I guess as long as Gil can stand up, we'll make the cookies.  

The only thing I do to make the fruit cake is I cut a lining out for the Angel Food
cake pan.   Cut it from a brown grocery bag and grease it on both sides.
We line the whole pan, tube and all.   We make up about 15 plates of cookies
and give away.   Everyone looks forward to getting them each year.  
We only give the fruit cake to   special people. The Holidays are almost here.

I don't do Christmas shopping anymore, give the our kids money and they buy
for themselves and then they go out shopping for the Grandchildren,
except the 3 older ones, they shop for themselves.
They wrap everything for the Grandkids and bring it all here for Christmas Eve.
It will be here before we know it  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We don't know what we'll do for Vinny, we don't have an address for him
and it is too late to send a care package for him to have it by Christmas.  
Guess we'll just send a package whenever we get an address.  
I really feel bad for him.   A heck of a Christmas he'll have....
Being away from home, and not getting anything.......  
He knows our love and prayers are with him.....

(Vincent had arrived in Iraq just a few days before Mom wrote this)
In her note, Mom said 1962 and Dad wrote he got the recipe out of the paper in 1964.
I’m not certain, but maybe he made a different fruitcake in 1962 – 63. 

Dad kept yearly hand written lists of the Christmas holiday cookies they made. In 2007 when Dad was 77 and Mom 75 they baked 97.3 dozen – 1168 total cookies. The season of 2008 was the last year Dad would bake.    In that year they did make the choice to cut back.    They baked 80.9 dozen – 971 cookies.

 Mother and I talked often about his holiday baking mania.   In their later years it really took a huge physical toll on both of them.   STILL they baked. !!!

 With Dad’s passing in early November of 2009 he did not have to live knowing he had failed his baking traditions.   For as long as he could HE DID IT. !!!!

I had warned my Dad many years in advance that I would not be carrying on his Fruitcake tradition.    It was only in later years that I even ate a bite of it.    My hubby Michael and children are not huge fans of fruitcake.   My sister in law BethAnn had gotten Dad’s fruitcake recipe from him in advance of his passing.    HE KNEW it would LIVE ON !!!!   Last Christmas eve, Dad would have been bursting with pride at BethAnn’s fruitcake !!!

 Mom and I decided last year that neither of us felt like doing any Christmas cookies. We agreed for the Christmas of 2010 we would work together and make some of the family favorites.   God had other plans, and Mom joined Dad when she passed on February 20, 2010.

In the afternoon of November 30^th, I had been at Mom and Dad’s house with Brian
and Nicole.   The kids had come over with me to help me set up some furniture to
stage the home.   It’s surreal for me to be in their house.   I can hear the laughter
of family gatherings, and as I turn corners I expect to see or hear them.
While driving away, I was thinking to myself … ‘WHY was Dad so driven about
his Christmas baking’ ?      THEN it came to me ….. 

You see it was not the Air Force that gave my Father his love of baking.   It was
his Mother – Laura Cowles Rothacker.    I was 4 years old that June of 1962
when my  Grandmother died.  Grandma was 58.   My Dad was 32 that June.  
Sometime before that Christmas season in 1962 Mom transcribed
Grandma Laura’s recipes and typed them out on large index cards.  

WHY IT NEVER HIT ME SO FULLY UNTIL THIS YEAR I DON’T KNOW !

It was my Dad keeping his Mother’s memory alive !!!!!   

That's the reason he was so driven about the baking.  

That next day, I scanned over 30 pages of holiday recipes to share with the family.

On that afternoon of the 30^th I also decided that I was going to CELEBRATE these
coming holidays.    It’s what Mom and Dad would both want.  !!!

Dad's last Fruitcake - Photo taken Christmas eve 2008.