52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy/History- Week #1 - New Years Memories

Did your family have any New Year's traditions?

Yes we do, and of course it centers around food. Don't so many traditions?  I cannot say when this special meal started, and ironically, after spending the day with part of my family on New Year's Day when I was asking a million questions about everything under the stars, I can't believe I never asked about the origins.

But this is what I do know:

My parents (actually my father) sold Wearever cookware for years before I was born and when I was very small. Actually he won an award one year for being the top salesman in the nation, but even today he just shrugs that off. He and my mother would load up the cookware and go to a person's home and cook them a meal in it, then Dad would go back the next day and cook breakfast in the Wearever for a second meal to show them how they could easily cook a meal on top of the stove with good cookware.

Now I can tell you that in my own household I have personally gone through 4 sets on non-stick cookware and too many skillets to name, but my parents are using that same set of Wearever and it still looks brand new.

Every year on new Year's Day we get together at their home for a meal of roast, cabbage, turnips, black-eyed peas (for luck), cooked raisins, steamed carrots, and my favorite- riced potatoes with gravy. Riced Potatoes are actually baked potatoes that have been put through a special collander that turns them into rice. The meal always ends with granny cake.

It's a good time to relax after all the craziness that came from Christmas, a chance to sit back and enjoy family and a still moment before the daily grind gets back in the way sending us all in so many different directions. 

Thank God for Wearever.