As I was interviewing her, she shared a bit more about her families history and I thought I would share those memories as well before starting the official “Your Life in Food” section:

My father (Adam’s great-grandfather) was drafted into the Russian army at 15. They threw him into jail when he refused to go. He was in a dark place and it affected his lungs. My grandmother got him out after two years. The doctor suggested living near water and they moved to Liverpool, England where the family lived for ten years. My parents got married during the Boer War (1880-1881). Two sisters married two brothers. This was common in those days as families were very close.

Morris (Morrie) and Bessie

Bessie H (Shubb) – Born in 1911 (mother of Lenny, Bubbe of Adam)

If you were given a dollar to buy treats when you were a kid, what would you buy?

I don’t remember getting $1. It cost a nickel for a candy bar. In junior high school, my mom would pack me a chopped liver sandwich. My girlfriend loved it and she would give me 5 cents in exchange. I would buy a candy bar with nuts in the cafeteria.

2009 - Bubbe with Adam at the Medallion in Houston

Was dessert a special treat or a nightly ritual?

My father was a fruit peddler. We had apples often. My father would buy a huge gunny sack of raw peanuts and my mom would roast them in the oven. We ate bananas and oranges when they were in season, along with strawberries and other types of berries. My Uncle Borach and my father were business partners.

We lived in a suburb of Sioux City, Iowa. Dear Abby and her twin sister went to the local school. I think their name was Friedman [Ed. Note: I checked and she is correct]. Anyway, my dad and Uncle Borach had a big warehouse. They would buy goods off the train and put it in their horse-drawn wagon. We had a big picnic table in our backyard and my dad and uncle would pick out the green produce that wouldn’t sell and make it nice and presentable [basically -- ripen them].

Bubbe and her 99th Birthday Cake - 2010

What food do you throw out? Do you eat leftovers?

My mother never threw out anything. It makes me sick to even say it [Adam and I laughed when she said this. Bubbe's deadpan delivery is hilarious].

Who did the grocery shopping?

My aunt – who was a widow – opened a small grocery store in her kitchen with staples for the neighborhood. Her husband (who was my mother’s brother) was killed inside a Jewish bakery in Sioux City. There was also a corner grocery store.

What did you feed your kids when they were babies or toddlers? Did you restrict your diet when you were pregnant?

I came home from the doctor and drank a glass of milk the day I found out I was pregnant,. I hated milk all my life. I was a lousy eater. It was during the war and I couldn’t nurse.  Lenny (Adam’s dad) was on goats milk. You were only allowed two cans of goats milk a week. Anyone who came into the house would bring me cans of goats milk.

L-R: Great Great Nephews Drew Goldblatt, Ryann Goldblatt, Bubbe, Adam - 2010

What was your life like as a newlywed?

I lived with my mother and she cooked for us. We lived with her until Morrie got out of the army.

Did you share food with your neighbors?

Once, my mother told me to go to my aunts and come back quick with some salt. I decided to run and even though it was right down the street, I was huffing and puffing and out of breath when I got there. My Aunt Sarah got scared and thought something was wrong at home but I told her between breaths that my mom had just sent me for salt. She said “thu thu” and spit on me – a superstitious thing that Jewish people do.

What did your mom make you when you were sick?

I used to get chest colds all the time. The first order of business would be to take Vicks, wear flannel, and go to bed. My mom made me chicken soup. For the cough, she used to get a Hershey bar, broken up and put on the stove. She put honey in it and stirred it up [sounds like Gogol Mogol!]. When I coughed, I would get a spoonful of medicine. We all used to stand around the store coughing. My brother Hai would stand around coughing – she would say “get out of here!”

Previous posts on “Your Life in Food” can be found in the “Memories” category or by using the search box.

Next time I’m sick, I’ll be asking Adam to cook me up some Gogol Mogol after reading about Lenny’s Bubbes’ recipe below. Nice to know that my mom isn’t the only one that added alcohol to hot drinks when the kids weren’t feeling well.

Lenny and his sister Judy - 1949

Lenny H. – Born in 1945 (Paula’s husband, Adam’s father, Bessie’s son)

If you were given a dollar to buy treats when you were a kid, what would you buy?

Baseball cards, the gum sucked.

Was dessert a special treat or a nightly ritual?

Dessert was more of a treat.

What food do you throw out? Do you eat leftovers?

We eat leftovers except for salads which get too soggy.

Lenny as a young boy

What kind of cooking did your father do when you were growing up?

My dad did not cook.

Did you say grace?

Only on Shabbos, and we usually had a good size crowed depending on who my uncle Ben showed up with.

Where did you buy your meat?

From a Kosher butcher. My dad owned a butcher shop that had very fine meats and we supplied some very good restaurants but he never brought any in to our house as we kept strictly Kosher.

What did you feed your kids when they were babies or toddlers?

We fed Adam only the finest Gerber foods money could buy until he got old enough to eat and appreciate my cooking.  His favorite was a morning meal called a Lenny’s Special.

1985

Did you restrict your diet when you were pregnant?

Paula limited her sodium intake so drastically during her pregnancy that after Adam was born she had a seizure and went into a coma for 3 days.

How did you accommodate your wife/husband’s foodpreferences when you first got married?

My wife has few food preferences, but CHOCOLATE is always GOOOOOD!

Did you ever steal a pack a gum at the store?

Never stole a pack of gum, but there is still time.

Lenny and Paula - Nov. 2006

Have you ever made your own beer and wine?

I made beer in college.

Did you share food with your neighbors?

Yes we shared food and could always borrow sugar. It was a much different time.

What did your mom make you when you were sick?

My Bubbe took care of me and she had an old country remedy called a “Gogol Mogol” which consisted of melted butter, melted chocolate, honey and a little whiskey.  We tried to get sick as often as possible but she caught on to us.

For other stories in the “Your Life in Food” series, check out the Tasty Touring homepage.

Paula H. – Born in 1948 (Sylvia’s daughter, Lenny’s wife, Adam’s mother)

If you were given a dollar to buy treats when you were a kid, what would you buy?

Don’t remember being given a dollar to buy treats, but if I did, it more than likely was for Butterfinger.  Butterfinger is my all-time favorite candy bar!

Paula - 3 years old - 1951

Was dessert a special treat or a nightly ritual?

It was not a nightly ritual, but when we did have dessert, we’d have jello, pudding, or ice cream for dessert.  My sister called ice cream the “I” vitamin. One of my fondest memories of my father was him going into the freezer, pulling out the ice cream, and at the kitchen counter, singing “Ice cream, ice cream, we all scream for ice cream, who wants ice cream?”  My brother, sister, and I to this day really enjoy and love ice cream.

What food do you throw out? Do you eat leftovers?

We throw out the soggy salads.  Yes we eat leftovers…..but usually after 2-3 more meals of it, I’m sick of them.

What kind of cooking did your father do when you were growing up?

My father baked chocolate chip cookies for the family, and he’d also make french toast and waffles for breakfast.  Whenever my parents hosted a party, my mother did most of the preparations, but my father would help her out all the time.

1980 - Paula and her mom

What was your life like as a newlywed? How did you accommodate your wife/husband’s food preferences when you first got married?

Our life was good as newlyweds.  Lenny doesn’t have very strict food preferences, other than he likes his meals homemade from scratch, not from a box.  He’s always been the cook in our house; I’m the baker.  He enjoys cooking and is very good at it.  So now when Adam calls about a recipe, he doesn’t call me; he calls Lenny.  As with me, Lenny loves CHOCOLATE!

What was the first candy bar you remember eating?

My first candy bar was probably a Butterfinger.  Those are my favorite!

Did you ever steal a pack of gum?

I never stole a pack of gum.  Don’t remember if I was in junior high or high school, but one day a friend and I went to Woolworth’s to the soda fountain area, where we both ordered a Coke.  She didn’t pay for hers, and I didn’t pay for mine.  To this day I wonder why I followed what she did.  I’ve never forgotten that, and I’ve always paid for everything since then.

1985 - Paula, Lenny, and Adam

Did you share food with your neighbors? Could you borrow a cup of sugar from them?

Don’t actually remember sharing food with our neighbors, or borrowing a cup of sugar from them.  However, if need be, I know we would have.  Neighbors back then were friendlier with each other.

What did your mom make you when you were sick?

Because I didn’t remember anything particular, I asked my mother about this, and her answer……”you were never sick.”

We recently spent a weekend in Tulsa, OK with his maternal grandmother, Sylvia (AKA Grandma), where I interviewed her about some of these questions. Others, she answered in an e-mail until she had to sign off to head out to her poker game with the ladies.

This photo was taken around the time Sylvia met her husband, Milton

Sylvia O. – Born in 1922 (mother of Paula, grandmother of Adam)

Jodi, you have asked some great questions and I would love to answer them, but it would be like writing a book.  First of all [my parents store] was not a grocery store as you no doubt picture it,  it was a general merchandise store that had everything from clothes, food, feed for animals, seeds for gardens, tobacco, you name it, and much more. I was assigned to be in the store when I was 7, so I could just watch and see that nothing was taken.

I don’t know how my father’s brother and cousin happened to have a store in Stonewall [Oklahoma], but I have always thought it had something to do  with them being peddlers and ending up there. World War I was coming and they would have to go into service, but my father was exempt because he was married and expecting a baby.  My parents were living in  New York so they decided to come and run the store.

Milton's (Sylvia and Milton's store in Tulsa) - mid 1940s

My mother moved from Oklahoma to Cleveland with the children to live with my grandmother. She was hoping my father would leave Oklahoma and come to Cleveland where she was. After a couple of years, he broke down and took the train towards Cleveland. A few stops in, he met a man who sold him a bushel of apples and he went back home to sell them. Eventually, she came back to Oklahoma with their children, bringing her mother with her.

My father had a grocery store, so we didn’t go grocery shopping.  If my mother was preparing a meal and needed something, one of us kids went to the store and got it.  We didn’t stock up on staples in the house as a result and when the store burned to the ground we had very little in the house to eat.  In later years, my mother made sure there was always food on hand. You see, it was a different time, and also  was the depression years.

Milton at his store (mid 1940's)

You asked if we had a dollar what would we buy? First of all, who got a dollar?   We didn’t have to buy a treat as we could always go to the store and get some candy or an apple.

Was dessert a special treat or a nightly ritual?

As I remember we did have dessert at night.  It might have been canned fruit, pudding or jello.  Fifty cents would buy a quart of ice cream at the drugstore near the general store in Stonewall. We would buy vanilla and the clerk would pack it right there.

What food do you throw out? Do you eat leftovers?

Food was never thrown out, not even today.  I eat leftovers. We were raised with the admonish that there were starving children somewhere in the world and we had to think of them.

Sylvia with Adam - 1978

What kind of cooking did your father do when you were growing up?

Also I do not remember my father ever cooking.   He worked very long hours.

Did your family say grace before meals? What was said and by whom? Where did your family get meat from when you were a kid?

We did not say grace at meals.  My grandmother lived with us, and was always saying a prayer over the food.   Since she was kosher we had kosher meat sent to us in Stonewall by bus from Oklahoma City.  My mother did not keep kosher, except at Passover. We ate the meat from our grocery store, as we had a butcher shop too.

What was your life like as a newlywed? How did you accommodate your wife/husband’s foodpreferences when you first got married?

We were married in April 1944. When I was first married, I moved to Florida to be with Milton, who was in the service and stationed there. We rented a room with no burners allowed so we couldn’t cook. There was a shared fridge in the rooming house and we had to put our name on things. We drank a lot of orange juice.

Sylivia in front of her Florida condo - 1998

Back in Tulsa in 1945, we bought a grocery store and were both working. We used to make waffles and strawberry syrup when strawberries were in season. We would take the ones home that were going bad. It was war time and everything was rationed.  At one time there was no bread. We sold cigarettes and kept them under the counter – selling them only to our best customers.

Milton’s [the store]  ran on credit and delivery and there was a Safeway across the street that was cash and carry. The Safeway was cheaper and we had to sell the store after two years. Milton went to work at the Associated Grocers warehouse.

Sylvia and Adam enjoy Braum's ice cream - 2010

What did you feed your kids when they were babies or toddlers? Did you restrict your diet when you were pregnant?

My son David could not digest fats when he was a baby. I would feed him skim milk with nutrients added. Paula [her daughter and Adam's mom], was premature and I fed her breast milk. The Catholic nuns at the hospital gave me a pump and Milton [her husband] would take a 2-3 oz. glass to the hospital in the middle of the night.

When I was pregnant, I ate peanut butter and crackers because I thought I was gaining too much weight. I felt nauseated with Paula the whole time and chewed gum to help calm my stomach. Paula was born in 1948.