Lift Up Your Hearts!

I love my father's sense of humor, and I love the way he write. I recognize that not everyone does, but as I write for those who enjoy my stories, and not for those who can easily pass them up, today you get another excerpt from one of his letters, written in January 1981, about a ski trip taken by the Boy Scout Explorer group he and my siblings were involved with.

We made it to Resica Falls Friday night without any problems, although we were in a rather intense snow flurry for about the last ten miles. We got the cars unpacked and the Health Lodge warmed up a little and then everyone went to bed at a reasonable hour to prepare for the coming day. John M., a neighbor and parent who also had driven a load of Explorers, and I stayed behind in camp while the rest went to the Camelback Ski slopes. I have long ago concluded that skiing is much too expensive a sport for me to take up seriously, and therefore there was no point in my getting battered and bruised on the ski slopes on a once-a-year trip. So I stayed in camp to make sure that dinner was ready for the crew when they got back.

After a certain amount of reading before the fire, I set about the preparations for dinner about 11 a.m., while John M. worked at rejuvenating the wood supply. I planned chicken curry for dinner and so the first five hours, more or less, were spent cutting the meat off 40 chicken legs. And since I had all those chicken bones, it seemed reasonable to make chicken noodle soup. And since I broke each of the 80 chicken bones before putting them in the pot, it can be said that I broke more bones on the ski trip than everyone else put together.

When the others got back, the soup was waiting for them and many proclaimed it the best soup they had ever eaten! Of course, I recognize that for people who have been exercising all day in the cold, anything tastes good, so building a reputation as a soup-maker was rather easy. The chicken curry also went over well—even the rice turned out well. So now I am thinking of retiring from cooking while I am ahead.