Links with the past

Over the past two days I have been making pasta e fagiole (pasta fazool) the old fashioned way, from an old family recipe (OK, I downloaded it from the internet, but I?m sure it?s somebody?s old family recipe). Anyway, as I was picking through the dried beans and soaking them overnight it struck me that this was all something that my great grandmother would recognize. OK, so she?d have a problem that her great grandSON was doing it in a house dress and an apron, but still. Anyone else ever feel a connection to the women who came before us?

Genealogy is a hobby of mine so I know her name and some of the circumstances of her life

By the time I was born my grandmothers were 59 and 66. They were immigrants in the early 1910's. I only knew them as aging old world women. They dressed the part. I do not believe they had any effect on my desire to wear women's clothing. I do love to cook and bake. My earliest forays into the kitchen was learning to make breakfast. My father worked the grave yard shift. When he got home from work he taught me to make omelets, crepes and pancakes. I learned through him cooking was not "women's" work. I passed that concept down to my son. I think my grandmothers would be surprised to have found out I like to wear women's clothing.

My grandparents on my Dads side were deceased and my grandparents on my Mothers side seemed to be ten days older then water so neither side had any effect on me. My Mom did teach me to cook and in turn I taught my wife, she was clueless when I met her. She has always been a good person but definitely not a cook. She actually tells people she married me cause I knew how to cook.
Now if I could only cook in a house dress and apron like Barb.
PS: Barb send me that recipe please.

Hi Barb, I do feel some of that connection. Tonight I will be cooking ?granny?s fried chicken? for my wife using her grandmother?s method. I never met Granny but apparently she was a real Southern Steel Magnolia ? farm wife in Arkansas during the depression. I will be wearing a peasant dress and apron to cook, and quietly in my own way honoring my wife?s memories of Granny.

Vale

Barb, my great grand aunt lived with us, she was 71 when I was born and 99 when she died. She wore these full body corsets. So yes, it did have an affect on me, I love corsets.

Except for my mother, the women in my family all sewed. I think of that when I am using my sewing machine, or working my cross stitch or free hand embroidery. Like them, I make my own aprons to wear while cooking.

Yes I feel that way a lot.