Stovetop Popcorn Is Still Possible

I love microwave popcorn, but I can live without it.

I suppose you've heard the bad news about microwave popcorn. Some people who've worked in popcorn factories have a serious lung condition from inhaling the chemical, diacetyl.

Opinions vary about how much a typical user of microwave popcorn is at risk. It seems prudent to avoid inhaling the steam as much as possible.

Due to the worker safety and possible consumer health issues, I've been thinking that we should give up microwave popcorn until they stop putting diacetyl in it. I have a couple boxes of microwave popcorn on hand, but when they're gone, maybe I'll just get a bag of regular popcorn.

On the other hand, I hope that microwave popcorn companies don't lose so much business that they go broke, causing all the workers to lose their jobs!

We used to make air-popped corn, and before that, stove-top popcorn. I don't think I have my air popper anymore, but I do still have my cast iron skillets.

All you need to make popcorn in a skillet is

• a little cooking oil
• popcorn to cover the bottom of the pan 1 kernel thick
• a lid
• medium-high heat
• patience and vigilance

It takes at least five minutes before the popping starts. When the corn finally begins popping, shake the skillet sideways constantly to keep the corn from burning. Listen carefully, and when the popping stops, take the popcorn off the stove immediately and dump it into a bowl.

With all that pan-rattling, stovetop popcorn is a noisy project. I'll bet many of us have happy memories of that sound, though.

My mother used to make caramelized popcorn. She added a bit of sugar, and she popped it with vigorous pan-shaking. I don't know how she avoided burning the sugar -- I can't do it! Sometimes, I get a bag of kettle corn at a fair or carnival, and it reminds me of my mother's popcorn.

Later, when I was in college, I had a little electric popcorn popper. It was an electric heat coil and a pan that fit onto it. Many of the girls in the dormitory had them, and every evening, the smell of popcorn filled the hallways. Often, it was the smell of burnt popcorn. Those electric coils had no thermostat.

We had an air popper when our kids were younger, and they made many big bowls of popcorn with it. Air-popped corn is bland, so they spritzed it with Pam® cooking spray and dumped salt on it, to add flavor. Most of the salt could be found in the bottom of the bowl when the popcorn was gone.

Unfortunately, the old methods of making popcorn produce dirty dishes. That's one of the reasons that microwave popcorn has become so popular in my home and across the nation. I hope they get this diacetyl problem solved soon.

Related:
Popcorn popularity high despite cautions

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Concerts -- Real and Fantasy

What concerts have you attended? What concerts would you like to attend?

We ate supper last night with Keely and Taurus (her boyfriend.) The conversation turned to concerts and music stars. Keely asked an interesting question:

If you could see anybody in concert,
whom would you choose?

She named some bands of the past that she wished she could see -- the Beatles, the Beach Boys in 1970, Guns N' Roses, and others.

I've been thinking about that. I don't follow popular music at all. But of the musicians and groups I like, who are still performing, I'd choose Asleep at the Wheel.

Some musicians of the past whom I'd like to see in concert are:

• I agree with Keely that it would be fun to see the Beatles, and I think 1966 or 1967 would be a good time.
• I would like to see Steve Goodman.
  
• I'd also like to see Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys during the 1930s or 1940s.
• And I'd enjoy seeing the Blackwood Brothers when Wally Varner was playing the piano and J.D. Sumner was singing bass -- maybe about 1960.

Here's a list of some people and bands whom I did see in concert (back in my younger days.)

• Mac Davis in 1970 or 1971, in Chadron, NE, when I was a college student in that town
  
• Henson Cargill, also at Chadron. Actually, he played at a dance, not a concert.
• the Beach Boys in the late 1970s at the Missouri State Fair, an unforgettable experience
• Neil Diamond, twice in Kansas City (1977? and 1983?) and once in West Berlin (1990?)
  
• Linda Ronstadt, in Kansas City (1980)
• Kris Kristofferson in Kansas City (1984)
  
• Arlo Guthrie, in Kansas City (1985)
  
• John Prine, also in Kansas City (1985). (Arlo Guthrie was his warm-up act.)

Of this group, Linda Ronstadt was the only one that I organized a trip to see. She has a great voice, and I really liked her music (up to that point.) But at the concert, Linda sang only a couple of her past hits. She was in the process of changing from country/rock style (Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits Volumes I and II) to punk rock.

I was a little disappointed by that concert, but it foreshadowed Linda Ronstadt's future style -- eclectic. Through the years since then, I've enjoyed only a small number of her recordings (most notably, those with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton). However, I suppose she has enjoyed her musical adventures, even without me.

My husband was the organizer of the trips to see Neal Diamond. I had a great time at the concerts even though I am only a lukewarm Neil Diamond fan. (I like his music OK, but I've never bought an album.) He is a dynamic performer. If anyone ever offers you a ticket to see him, you should take it.

What concerts have you attended? What musicians or groups (from any era) do you wish you could see?

Technorati tags: concerts, rock stars, country music stars, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond

The Need for More Storage Space

And What I Think About It...

Some things don't change much.

I read a few of the little stories and comments on life in my farm women's book tonight (This Way of Life, edited by Maude Longwell and published in 1971.)

As I've mentioned before, this book is a compilation of 25 years of letters to the editor from farm women. The letters were written from 1944-1971. I had to smile about a note that was titled, "Husband heard from."

Mr. George S. Whipple wrote that women were always "asking, cajoling, pleading and yelling" for more storage space, but they just need to clean out the storage space they already have. He suggests that women should throw some stuff away, "which no female seems to be able to do."

He goes on to say that women should also clean out the freezer from time to time, because that would solve the lack-of-space problem there, too.

Mr. Whipple is giving the same advice I've read in dozens of home-organization articles: get rid of the junk. He was a man before his time! But he'd never make it as a professional organizer with his snotty remarks about how women can't throw anything away. Don't we all know that can be a problem for either sex?



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Be Yourself

Another Trip Down Memory Lane... And What I Think About It...

In a cookbook that my mother-in-law's church published in 1975, I noticed that some of the ladies used their husband's names as their signatures -- "Mrs. Donald Woods", "Mrs. George Lewis" -- instead of simply signing their own names -- "Rosemary Woods", "Carolyn Lewis."

It reminded me of the elementary school in central Missouri where I taught in 1982-83. It was a small-town school, and the principal was a tall commanding woman with a withering gaze, a steely demeanor, and an obsession with micro-management. She had worked in the same building since her first day of teaching.

When she was in her late 40's, she married, and from thence onward, she signed her name as "Mrs. Nolan D. Windsor*." Unfortunately, Mr. Windsor had a heart attack and died when they had been married only a few years. Mrs. Windsor had been a widow for about a decade when I taught under her scrutiny, but she still signed every correspondence from the principal's office with "Mrs. Nolan D. Windsor."

When the time for the first report card grew near, I began to wonder if I was expected to sign my report cards as "Mrs. Dennis L. Netz." I questioned a young co-teacher, and she told me that she and most of the teachers did sign their report cards with their husband's name. She felt it demonstrated a spirit of voluntary cooperation with Mrs. Nolan D. Windsor.

Well, that seemed absurd to me. My husband had absolutely nothing to do with my classroom or my teaching, and in fact, no one in that town even knew him. So, I signed my report cards with my own name as I had done through previous years of teaching -- "Genevieve L. Netz."

If Mrs. Windsor had any objection to my signature, she didn't ever mention it to me.

I think the days of ladies identifying themselves by their husbands' full names are nearly finished. I honestly can't remember a single time that I've signed my name as "Mrs. Dennis L. Netz." I have always been convinced that I am myself. On the other hand, I do sometimes write "Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Netz" on guestbooks and similar things.

My church's cookbook, published in the late 1990's, doesn't have a single recipe signed in the Mrs.-Husband-Name style. That's not evidence of a trend, though, because I was the editor. If any lady did submit a recipe that way, I'm sure I changed it to her real name.



*Names in this article were changed to protect the innocent.

What do you think? Comments are welcome.

Remembering Pony Lake School

All In The Family... Another Trip Down Memory Lane... Life in The Nebraska Sandhills...

I was much surprised a few days ago to read in the news about a tiny rural school where I taught in the early 1970's. In an AP article titled, "Small schools fading away with rural populations", the following was reported:

BASSETT, Neb. (AP) -- Twenty-five miles off the main highway, deep in a cradle of sand dunes bound together by prairie grass, a one-lane ribbon of asphalt southeast of town ends abruptly at a barbed-wire fence.

Cattle roam on one side, and on the other sits a school that's in danger of becoming a relic in this wide-open, north-central Nebraska region that is among the most sparsely populated in the country...

... [F]ive children comprise the total student body at the 120-year-old Pony Lake School.

Source (includes a photo of Pony Lake School)
Another source

As Nebraska's rural population has dropped over the last few decades, the number and size of rural schools have decreased proportionately. Pony Lake School's enrollment has dropped from 23 students in 1988 to only 5 today. Still, Nebraska is exceeded only by Montana in the number of country schools still serving rural families today.

The AP article includes the following statistics for the United States: "About 24,000 one-room schools existed in 1959; 840 in 1984. [Neenah] Ellis estimates 300 remain." ( Neenah Ellis is an independent documentary producer, writer and editor who previously worked for NPR's "All Things Considered" for ten years. She has spent a year researching country schools.)

I'm sorry to hear that Pony Lake School may have reached the final chapter of its history. However, in the article, the superintendent of the Rock County schools sounds committed to keeping Pony Lake School open as long as there are two or more students in the district. I hope his commitment does not waver, because it would be a hardship for the families of Pony Lake if their community school closed.

- - - - - - - - - -

When I came to Pony Lake School, it had recently consolidated with the Sybrant School, an even more remote district, and built a new two-room schoolhouse. My first year there (1971-72 school year) was the first year in the new facility. I had about 10 students in my room during the two years that I taught grades K-4. During my third year there, I taught grades 5-8, and because of a dip in enrollment, I had 6 or 7 students.

We had several families with children who were landowners (permanent residents) in the district, but the enrollment fluctuated as hired hands came and went at nearby ranches. If the hired hands had families, they went to school at Pony Lake School. If they didn't have school age children, our enrollment dropped.

Pony Lake School sits in the middle of a broad expanse of hay meadows at the end of the "one-lane ribbon of asphalt" mentioned in the quotation above. That asphalt road is known in Rock County as the "WPA Road" because it was built by Depression-era work crews. (Note the haystacks in the background of the photos below.)

I drove about 25 miles out in the country and 25 miles back each day when I taught there. I had an apartment in Bassett, the county seat. In the winter, we had school on many days when the roads were terrible, but we were always mindful of the weather and if it seemed that wind-driven snow or new snow might make the roads truly impassable, we dismissed school and went home. No one wanted to be snowed in at the schoolhouse, even though we did keep cans of soup there for such an emergency.

Pony Lake School, south of Newport, NE, about 1973

Recess at Pony Lake School, January 1972

Related post:
Ghosts of Christmas Past (11) in which I write a little about Christmas programs at Pony Lake School from the perspective of the teacher.

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Nebraska Sandhills
Rock County, Nebraska
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one room school
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Ghosts of Christmas Past (11)

All In The Family... Another Trip Down Memory Lane... Life in The Nebraska Sandhills...

In the early 1970's, I taught three years in a two-room school out in the Sandhills south of Newport, Nebraska -- Pony Lake District 30. I had taken the required 60 hours of college credit for teacher certification for rural schools (in those days) and returned to Rock County as a teacher. I learned then that the school Christmas program was an exciting, but exhausting and nerve-wracking event from the teacher's point of view.

The photo at right was taken at the Christmas program of my first year there. I'm pulling the curtain, and I have the script in my hand. (I still have that little notebook into which I hand-copied everything in the program that my students and I were responsible for.) Behind me, one of the shepherds is exiting the stage. (Of course he's a shepherd: he's wearing a bathrobe.)

My parents, my sister, and my brother and his wife-to-be were all in the audience that night to give me moral support. I think my sister probably took this photo.

A few days after the Christmas program, I received a Christmas card from one of the school board members and his wife. She wrote in the card that they had enjoyed the program so much. I really felt like I had passed a test. The importance of that compliment to me is indicated by the fact that I still remember it today! In those days, the quality of the Christmas program influenced the community's opinion of the teacher -- and it was a fair assessment because the Christmas program reflected her ability to teach as well as the student's natural talents.



Related post:
Ghosts of Christmas Past (10) in which I write about some of my childhood memories of Christmas programs at Duff Valley School in Rock County, Nebraska.

Remembering Pony Lake School in which I write a bit about the current status of Pony Lake School and about the experience of teaching there in the early 1970's.


Why am I still writing about Christmas on January 2? I am a Lutheran and to Lutherans, Christmas is a season not just a day. It begins on December 25 and continues through January 5, the day before Epiphany. These are the twelve days of Christmas, referred to in the familiar Christmas song ("a partridge in a pear tree," etc.)


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Happy birthday, Sammie!

All In The Family... Life in The Nebraska Sandhills...

Me on left, Sammie on right.
About 1973 (I think.)

My dear friend Sammie had her birthday on Wednesday, May 17. Please note that I did not call her my old friend, even though I've known her for over 40 years. I would never refer to her as old because she's approximately the same age as me.

I tried to post these photos on Wednesday but I couldn't scan them. I had to find the CD and reinstall my printer/scanner because for some reason, it thought it no longer had a scanner.

I met Sammie in the first few days of my freshman year in high school (fall of 1965). We were both funny little country girls, straight off the ranch. We had both attended one-room country schools, and we were both a little overwhelmed by high school. We became close friends and made lots of crazy, silly teenaged memories together that I won't even attempt to summarize here!

Many of the high school memories include that wild child Ricky who became Sammie's husband 33(?) years ago. Sammie and I stood up with each other in our weddings, and through the years, have kept in touch. She is better at writing letters than I am, and I am thankful that she forgives me when I don't communicate.

When I go to Nebraska and visit Sammie and Rick, it's like going home. In many ways, Sammie has been a second sister to me. We still have lots of fun and silliness when we get together.

Sammie is a strong Sandhills lady who drives huge tractors in the field, raises a big garden, and loves her flowers and Nebraska history. Until recently, she had her own herd of sheep. This spring she had no ewes to help through lambing, for the first time in at least 20 years. She and Ricky have two sons, and now two grandchildren.

Happy birthday (a little late), my dear friend, and I hope you enjoy the "then and now" photos.

(Sammie has a terrible dial-up internet connection out there in the Nebraska Sandhills. I am sure this page loads slowly for her, but I'm glad she visits here, anyhow.)

The girls, still giggling
Taken in Sammie's flower garden in 2004 (I think)

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