^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^
It's not often that one gets the chance to wish someone a happy 100th. We had a wonderful party for her-- just family and a few close friends-- and even though she's not fond of "hullabaloo" on her account, she did enjoy it. She must've been excited for all that she's been trying to act blase about the whole deal... I found out she was up and about with the dawn this morning. She got several calls from relatives in Germany, about a half-dozen bouquets of flowers (including one very cool one in the shape of a birthday cake), and, at last count, about 40 cards, including the traditional Presidential greeting and one from Willard Scott (of NBC).
And for those wondering what I finally decided to get her... Oma taught me last year how to make her hallmark dish, her German potato salad. Since I wasn't bring potato salad to the restaurant, I wrapped a raw Yukon Gold potato (those being the closest American equivalent to the German mauschen, although I hear there's something else they call the "German butterball" you can get now for gardens) in gold wrapping paper and gave it to her as a "promissory potato," which she was delighted to receive. It turned out she'd been hoping someone would think to make her potato salad, and she had been a little disappointed when none turned up on the menu (which was, otherwise, fabulous-- it was a German restaurant, and they did it *right*). So this weekend, I'll be making Oma's potato salad for *her,* which is sort of a neat turnaround, in my opinion.
And, in honor of her day, two new things I learned about my Oma:
1) Oma was not sent her ticket by her older brother (already in this country), as I had thought-- she was sponsored to this country by an American family who paid for her ship ticket over. She spent several years working to pay them back for the price of the ticket.
2) After Opa died, Oma kept the greenhouse business going for a full 15 years on her own, with the help of her kids. (The greenhouses finally came down the same year my eldest sister was born.) Pretty good for someone who didn't even know how to make out a check when she started.
Posted by gris at July 23, 2004 10:58 PM