Thank you for sharing these great stories - and the humor! Marvelous! Kathy Cochran -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2011 1:24 PM To: ORLEANS MESSAGE BD Subject: [LAORLEAN] War Plate OMGoodness, I can still hear the echo of my grandmother's voice in my ears. Eat all THAT dinner. Remember the Starving Armenians. I was a little kid during the war and was maybe 18 years old before I realized that starvingarmenians was NOT ONE WORD, BUT TWO. I didn't even know what an Armenian was. And I never heard the word Armenian used without Starving in front of it. My grandmother saved EVERY MORSEL of food and once a week or so somebody (usually me) had to eat what she called the "Morrison's Blue Plate Special" for supper (Morrisons for the cafeteria that used to be in New Orleans.) The MBPS might have included as many as 12 or 15 different foods. A smidgen of this and a teaspoon of that. I had three uncles in the service and we were serious about the war effort. Something else I remember (I was only 2 or 3 at the time). All my adults were always talking about thewar--once again, it was years before I realized exactly what "thewar" was. My kiddy ear heard one word. Mama said I even talked about it (wanted to get into the adult conservation). Grandpa used to ask me, "Well, how do you think the war is going?" and I would answer, "Well, you know we can count on McArthur". I must have heard that from some adult conservation and knew it was an appropriate comment. I know now that he always asked that on Sunday at the dinner table when the whole family was at Grandma's house for dinner. When he asked, at least one adult would have to excuse himself from the table to go in the kitchen and laugh his head off at my 3-year old's support of McArthur. I can remember saying that with a great deal of conviction in my voice. Mama taught me to say, There's good news tonight America"--Heather, the reporter began his broadcast with those words. I was prone to say that at any time as the congregation at St. Stephens Church may remember. I said it out loud in the middle of Mass one Sunday morning and had people for 3 pews in every direction in hysterical laughter. "The Iron Man" used to pass around with an old wagon pulled by a mule. And everyone would take their old pots, pans, flatware, etc out and put it in the truck to melt down to build battleships. My grandpa alsways said the war ended just as my grandma gave away her last pot. If the war had not ended, our family would have eaten Peanut Butter and Jelly for the duration. We had no pots to cook in. Thanks for bringing up THEWAR. I have had a few good laughs today. Carolyn Tregre ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message