Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's Dinners

TODAY I was thinking about some of the dinners we used to have at Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's house. Usually it was one of their birthdays or an anniversary, but sometimes it was because relatives had come to visit from out west (Washington or California). Or maybe we just all wanted to be together.

When Gma and Gpa had one of these dinners, if it was warm outside, we would have the dinner outside. They would set up 2-3 tables in the front yard and everyone would sit outside in lawn chairs, the porch swing, on the ground, wherever they could find a comfortable place to sit.

Everyone brought a dish or two or three, and a dessert and there was always lots and lots of food. One funny thing I remember about these dinners, to my mind it seems that a LOT of people brought bean salads. These were "salads" that had none of the usual salad ingredients. There were green beans, kidney beans, maybe lima beans, usually 2-3-4 different kinds of beans, all mixed together and served cold from the can with some kind of vinegary dressing on them. I know as a kid I didn't like these bean salads but seems all the grown-ups liked them fine, cause seems like everyone brought one! I still don't figure I'd like one!

There was always several casseroles containing hamburger and/or macaroni and maybe with tomato sauce, different kinds of veggies, lots of corn, green beans and potato dishes, sweet potatoes, lots of pickles, sweet pickles, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, lime pickles, beet pickles, always different kinds of chips, potato chips in different flavors(Kitty Clover was the preferred brand), and probably Fritos. Doritos and tortilla chips hadn't been invented yet....to my knowledge anyway! Always lots of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers if it was summertime....cucumbers in salt water and cucumbers in vinegar...

There were always lots of cakes and pies. White cakes, yellow cakes with chocolate frosting, chocolate cakes, angel food (Maybe filled with cherry pie filling), apple pies, cherry pies, mincemeat pies, chocolatepies, coconut cream, banana, well, almost anything you could think of! 

We drank water, coffee, tea, milk, pop, whatever was there. 

It was a great time of visiting with our relatives, eating, visiting, eating, visiting, eating....all afternoon.

Sometime in the afternoon, Grandpa would bring out his fiddle and maybe a mandolin, or maybe his little electric organ, or everything he could think of and he would fiddle several tunes for us, and play each intstument a little. I liked his fiddle the best and Grandpa was known as a good fiddle player and played for many square dances. Sometimes one of the other relatives would bring a guitar and join in, maybe sing a little. Mom's cousin, Leon Boyd came by several times and sat in the yard and visit and play his guitar.

Then, as if we needed any more entertainment, Grandpa Toad would go get his ponies out of the pasture behind their house and bring them up to the yard for rides. Anybody, young or old, if you wanted to ride the pony, you got to ride the pony. Grandpa loved his ponies and all the attention.

All in all, these dinners are some of the most precious memories I have. I don't even know all the names of all the people that came to these dinners, most were relatives, but after Grandma and Grandpa passed on, everybody just drifted apart. Once in a while though, I meet up with some relative and we get to talking about these dinners, and it seems it is a precious memory to everyone that ever remembers one.

Ahhhhh......good times, good memories, precious, precious, precious.....