It's me again!! I have no Scotch Irish Christmas suggestions. Alas, my maternial granddad (the Scotch Irish one) was lapsed RP and he HAD no traditions, apparently. My grandma took over, as in most homes. She was half Irish/Ulster Scot and half German. She had an intense Irish identity, Presbyterian to the DNA, Free Stater politically, but what do you call a Protestant Free stater with ancestors from Tyrone and Down? I think Unionist! She didn't know...... Alas, grandma's dad died young and the kids were put out with relatives so her mom could work. We sank to the servant class and grandma was raised by her Luthern grandparents. So my mother reports her Scotch Irish Christmases were German. This illustrates that Scotch Irish is an American ethnic group.... However my dad is half Scots and half English, a second generation American. I found out what we ate for Christmas was exactly what my Ulster friends were eating: Turkey, succatash, potatoes, gravy, stuffing and figgy pudding! Often my grannie made Chocolate pudding too with raisins, cooked the right way -- for hours boiled in a flour sack in water. But our hard sauce wasn't as grandma descended from Scots Presbyterian dissenters who had found a nice home in a typical Western PA church founded by Irish dissenters 200 years before. My Scotch Irish granddad DID bring the family a Scotch Irish Thanksgiving every year. He went out on the back porch and shot something. That's what you ate. My mother said people dreaded Thanksgiving. One year they had possum. Raccoon, goat, etc. You name it, they had to eat it. It was the Depression. Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net

There we go back to the traditions. I've seen blood soup, pickled pigs feet, etc. in German households. The Polish/Slavic had other foods that are favorites. And so forth with all nationalities. There's a recipe for a pie that my grandmother made and a relish called chili sauce that others in Texas have never heard of. Where did they come from? I've found the pie is called an Osgood, but Grandma never knew that. I don't know where the chili sauce came from, there's nothing hot about it; just a tomato relish with pickling spices that's great on a variety of peas and beans. And yes, during the depression many ate whatever was available. But raccoon is pretty good if fixed right. The colonists learned that turkey was edible too. I guess the problem today is that ethnic foods have become so blended in today's society we've lost the origin of many. Ludie ----- Original Message ----- From: Linda Merle To: Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 10:40 AM Subject: RE: [Sc-Ir] SCOTCH-IRISH Thanksgiving It's me again!! I have no Scotch Irish Christmas suggestions. Alas, my maternial granddad (the Scotch Irish one) was lapsed RP and he HAD no traditions, apparently. My grandma took over, as in most homes. She was half Irish/Ulster Scot and half German. She had an intense Irish identity, Presbyterian to the DNA, Free Stater politically, but what do you call a Protestant Free stater with ancestors from Tyrone and Down? I think Unionist! She didn't know...... Alas, grandma's dad died young and the kids were put out with relatives so her mom could work. We sank to the servant class and grandma was raised by her Luthern grandparents. So my mother reports her Scotch Irish Christmases were German. This illustrates that Scotch Irish is an American ethnic group.... However my dad is half Scots and half English, a second generation American. I found out what we ate for Christmas was exactly what my Ulster friends were eating: Turkey, succatash, potatoes, gravy, stuffing and figgy pudding! Often my grannie made Chocolate pudding too with raisins, cooked the right way -- for hours boiled in a flour sack in water. But our hard sauce wasn't as grandma descended from Scots Presbyterian dissenters who had found a nice home in a typical Western PA church founded by Irish dissenters 200 years before. My Scotch Irish granddad DID bring the family a Scotch Irish Thanksgiving every year. He went out on the back porch and shot something. That's what you ate. My mother said people dreaded Thanksgiving. One year they had possum. Raccoon, goat, etc. You name it, they had to eat it. It was the Depression. Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net