Left to right: Cheesy Chicks Joan Krause, Rosemary Weinstein, Gayle Coe, Jan Utzman and Peggy Crandell
Jan Utzman
“A blast from the past” was the theme that was used when the Rockin’ Red Ranchers met on September 16 at the home of Gayle Coe. The ladies were asked to bring a picture of themselves from sometime in those days long ago, before moving to Robson, when none of us knew each other. Each lady was met at the door to draw table numbers to sit at while reminiscing with each other as they waited for lunch to be served. Tables were decorated with items from the past, like pick-up sticks, spinning tops, jacks, Go Fish games, Cracker Jack boxes, wax cola bottles and candies from their youth. The house was decorated with a red and white theme featuring Campbell’s soup cans full of red and white flowers, red and white checked paper chains and various other items from the past. Since the main focus of eating when we were kids was lunchtime, and waiting for Mom to come to the door and yell “Soup’s On!” the hostesses planned the perfect lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. First came made-to-order sandwiches, each person going down a buffet line assembling their own creation for their cheese sandwiches.
Offered in the buffet line were six kinds of cheese, five kinds of meat, two kinds of breads, many sauces, veggies, potato chips and much more. At the end of the line the sandwiches were given to the two chief “grillers” to be finished off with more cheese before being grilled. Soup was served to enjoy while you waited for your sandwich to be finished. The hostesses decided to “tweak” the plain ol’ tomato soup of yesteryear and gave it a fresh taste with a recipe from the Pioneer Woman show. Everyone thought it was delicious.
After lunch games were played by remembering names of nursery rhymes and old fashioned games we played as kids. Prizes were awarded to those remembering the most. We then turned to the pictures, and each lady told something about when and where her picture was made and the story behind it. There were many laughs and “I can’t believe that’s you!” was said many times.
A dessert that was reminiscent of a Dreamsicle was served and then the party was over. Everyone seemed to have a good time but not as much fun as the hostesses did planning the event. They had scouting excursions to restaurants to sample grilled cheese sandwiches, run through parties to see how it would best work and lots of fun creating decorations and games to play. The hostesses for the day were Gayle Coe, Peggy Crandell, Joan Krause, Jan Utzman and Rosemary Weinstein.