Hello Hessians - I just found this old posting of mine - and I cannot resist bringing it to you - it's hilarious! John Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 12:29:50 -0800 From: John Helmut Merz <hessian@cgocable.net> To: LUNEN-LINKS-L@rootsweb.com, NOVA-SCOTIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NOVA-SCOTIA-L] Nova Scotia food for thought. Hello, Nova Scotians, Lunies, Gansers, etc: Traditions, traditions, traditions! Ever since I learned about the early settlement of Nova Scotia by so many different groups of ethnic folks, from the Mic Mac, Acadians, Scotish and British, New Englanders, and last not least the Germans, I have been amazed how all those different cultures have nurtured and kept up their own peculiar way of life and customs. Being a German of very recent immigration (41 years in Ontario) I was particularly impressed with the traditions of the various German groups of Nova Scotian settlers, the "Foreign Protestants", the Loyalists, and the Hessians. And of course, there are a lot of my kind who came to your Province after WWII. I have visited Nova Scotia myself doing research about the settlement of Hessians in the Bear River area of Annapolis County, and bringing home with me a lasting impression. What was most noticable was how traditions and customs have survived in Nova Scotia for over 200 years. A recent discussion on these mail lists about food, cooking, and cook books brought the point home to me, that nowhere in Canada, and that includes Kitchener, Ontario (former Berlin), the old German recipes, customs, expressions, etc. have been preserved as much as in Lunenburg and the other German settlement areas in Nova Scotia. The only other area I found with such an abundance of German traditions was of course in Pennsylvania around Lancaster. Now there is an old saying in German "Liebe geht durch den Magen", a rough heartless translation would say: "Love goes through the stomach" but I would translate it more gentle to: "With good food you catch a man", a trick many old mothers with marrying age daughters have used on unsuspecting future son-in-laws. One example of that you can read in Ira Maxwell Sutherland's "Hessians in Annapolis County". A John Baptiste Dondale, a discharged soldier of the 60th Regt. wanted to settle and started to look for a cow. While passing through the Hessian settlement he heard that Henry Trimper (Troemper), who lived over in the Waldeck Line, might have one to sell. At the door he was welcomed by Elizabeth, the daughter, no mean beauty, and stating his problems, was invited in. Well, I bet the cooking did it, he went home with a cow and a wife. The moral of the story? You better watch what and where you eat. John ______________________________ ------------------------------