Many people will remember Helen’s cooking. No one went without food if they visited our house. She was even known to invite friends walking down the street to return for dinner, When asked by another friend what she intended to feed them; her reply was “Not a problem as there is a frozen pie in the freezer as well as a casserole dish”. Typical Helen!
Helen was always prepared. Pies, cakes or desserts in the freezer where common, maybe even a loaf of banana bread. She had a freezer full of meat and could whip up dinner fast in the days before microwaves! The oven was her friend! The Cookie Jar was always full.
If there was a death in a family of friends, she was probably the first to arrive with food. It was common knowledge in our house when the green pistachio salad (Watergate salad) appeared in the refrigerator or on the counter that someone had died.
Helen was also the bookkeeper and sometimes receptionist at the Veterinary Hospital. Dad’s work as a veterinarian was hard with various hours. Somehow with her schedule, volunteer projects as well as teaching piano lessons, Mom had dinner ready every night.
Dad was also a rancher. We lived in town; the first ranch purchased, Grasshopper Creek, was 10 miles away with a “cabin”. The cabin had a barrel stove for heat, wood stove and a pitcher pump. Mom never cooked there but served many a “meal” after branding or pregnancy testing cows. That meant she hauled the food, precooked from the house in town. She began her collection of coolers, plastic containers and boxes to haul the food in.
Cows were always trailed to summer pasture, which meant Mom provided breakfast (often at 3 AM) and sack lunches for the crew as we walked out the door in the dark. And of course dinner that night for the family which often included the crew. Summer work often involved a week’s worth of work gathering cattle as well as the trail to summer pasture. Each day Mom had breakfast and sack lunches prepared.
The sack lunches are remembered by many! A few giggles (never in front of Mom) about the contents of the sack lunch. We all learned to eat everything or we might find in the next day’s lunch. (Because we had to return the plastic sacks & paper sacks daily). Her lunch was sandwiches (only butter on bread in case of spoilage), cookies, maybe potato chips, a candy bar (usually Salted Nut roll), often a small can of fruit, including a plastic spoon and a hard boiled egg which she had peeled. The egg was in a baggie, complete with salt and pepper! Sometimes extra salt packets were included, but it was in the era before water bottles were packed by everyone. Sometimes we got a can of soda pop. And sometimes the water was from a stock tank and sometimes lunch was eaten while in the saddle while trailing. (Cows don’t stop for meals). We considered ourselves lucky if we got to eat near a water tank filled with spring water. Not all of the crew knew to go easy on the extra salt when eating their hard boiled egg! As they looked around for more water, we laughed!
If we were trailing along a road, Helen arrived in her car with food. The trunk opened and she spread out the fare; usually a hot casserole dish. That was a treat as we then got to stop and let the cows drift while we ate. Since breakfast was a 3 AM, the sack lunch might have been eaten by 9.
The upper ranch was also a “cabin”, again no cooking facilities. Thus Mom hauled food 50 miles (give or take few) to feed the crew. Or maybe a party was hosted there. Her trunk opened and the containers came out. She always had coolers of water or iced team and a thermos of coffee.
Once dad & I were moving cows across the creek on a very hot June day. I was 4 months pregnant but still had to flank a calf or two to get the rope off as some were dragged across the creek to reunite them with their mothers. It was a miserable day, hotter than expected and full of issues. The hired man claimed he was having a heart attack (he wasn’t but a good way to get out of work) as Mom rolled up in her car. Now to get her drive up this road took a lot of courage for her as she was not brave on the “ranch roads” and this may have been the only time she drove it by herself. She was very pleased with herself that she had brought “hot coffee”! She was immediately ordered to take the hired man back to the cabin and return with ICED TEA and COLD WATER. I think the only mistake she ever made while hauling food to the crew!
Her legacy may have been the meal she provided after the Parade on Labor Day. It was a big 4 event over Labor Day weekend in Dillon, Montana, with the parade and rodeo ending the weekend. During the weekend festivities Helen provided meals as payback for Dad’s clients (which were more friends than clients) who had provided him a noon meal when he worked cattle on their ranch. Because Dillon is small and few restaurants, our friends & relatives had no place to eat between the parade and rodeo. So Helen fed them! It was common knowledge about Helen’s & often people brought their friends! I think it was normal to feed 50 people after the parade! Somehow Mom made the food stretch for the “extra’s” that showed up, but no one ever felt they were an “extra”! They were a friend of a friend, so thus a friend!
A true legacy of her kitchen and caring spirit was the others invited to her table. A couple older friends were widowers, Helen often included them at her dinner table. My grandfather, Dad’s father, was also a recipient of Helen’s kitchen. He always had dinner with our family but when could no longer venture out of his house, Mom took him food. He lived to be 103, living in his own house!
Whenever we host a gathering, set a nice table, feed a crew; a remark might be heard: Helen would be proud of us!
Her kitchen legacy remains in many of her friends and families memories.
