Tag Archives: funeral

“Au Gratin” Ramblings from Linda Knight Seccaspina

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“Au Gratin” Ramblings from Linda Knight Seccaspina

Linda Knight Seccaspina

Perth Burying Grounds, Perth, Ontario that day when my outfit ‘bled” lol

“Au Gratin” Ramblings from Linda

Linda Knight Seccaspina

This week my friend Bobby Lyons from Cincinnati posted a Facebook ad that Walmart in the United States is now selling “Funeral Potatoes”. I was gobsmacked to learn that this beloved old recipe was now being sold in the Walmart frozen aisles.

Believe it or not, “Funeral Potatoes’’ is not actually the technical name–it’s usually called Cheesy Potato Casserole in your recipe Rolodex. This casserole is often found served with ham on festive holiday dinner tables as well as luncheons following funerals which is how they got their name.

Why are funeral potatoes so delicious? I chalk it up to the heartfelt care and sympathy with which they’re prepared. In reality, you’re eating tons of carbs and fats which do make us quite happy. Though they have a sombre name; Funeral Potatoes are truly the ultimate comfort food to show your support and sympathy for a grieving family.

To make them yourself, you could follow the Pioneer Woman’s go-to funeral potatoes recipe on the internet. There are countless variations of the casserole-type side dish, but the general recipe calls for: ‘taters’, cheese, some kind of cream soup, sour cream, and a crunchy top made of breadcrumbs or potato chips. While you are at The Pioneer Woman website also has a funeral cooking episode you might want to take a gander at. 

Of course this reminds me of an elderly friend that was cremated and I went to the services to pay my respects. As I inched my way up to the Urn that held the departed ashes I heard an elderly man say as he glanced at her remains.

“You know looking at her now she seems to be a lot smaller than I remembered.”

Last summer while shopping in a store in Perth,ON. someone looked at my hands and asked if I’d been to the doctor to see about my circulation problem. I gave them a quick look. My hands were as blue as the ocean from my outfit and I knew if my hands looked like that my face probably had shades of blue dye on it too. Admittedly, it was probably because the poorly dyed black lace jacket caught in the rainstorm stained my face and hands.

Like so many afflictions, dye leaks don’t discriminate by age, location or background and it can strike anyone at any time. Parked outside of the Perth Old Burying Grounds I looked in the car rear view mirror to see if any of the blue dye was on my face. I shrieked in horror that in exactly 5 minutes I was expected to join the Mahon Family Reunion at the Old Burying Grounds as a speaker. I looked like I had died with shades of black and blue around my eyes and cheeks. Also wearing a traditional black Victorian Mourning outfit this was not a good look for a cemetery!  With a very used Kleenex I attempted to get the ‘death warmed over’ look off my face.

According to the web the only cure for this situation is to wash your garment inside out, three or four times, in cold water before you wear it. Never, and I repeat never, wear something like that on a rainy day and never put your stained hands on your face.

How did black turn into navy blue? Seems that good-quality black dyes were not known until the middle of the 14th century. The black dyes produced were often more grey, brown or bluish. Also, and still done today they first dye the fabric dark blue, and then dye it black

Anyway, it was all fine, no one thought I had climbed out of any plot in that cemetery, and that night at the buffet line some older gentleman looked at me quite intently. As he heaped huge spoonfuls of Funeral Potatoes on his plate he said, and quite seriously I may add,

“I like you, because I like my women like I like my potatoes, Cheezy and Au Gratin!”

See you next week!

Iveson Funeral Original Photos

The Last Man to Let you Down? Political Leanings at Local Funeral Homes?

Embalming 1891 – A Local Report

Cemetery or Funeral Cake

Just a Field of Stones Now? “The Old Perth Burying Ground” Now on Ontario Abandoned Places?

The Old Burying Ground — Perth

Iveson Funeral Original Photos

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Iveson Funeral Original Photos

​From the Iveson Photo Collection

CLIPPED FROM
The Lanark Era
Lanark, Ontario, Canada
09 Nov 1910, Wed  •  Page 2

I have an idea where the funeral was for the Iveson child– but it was not in Strangfield. Because Tillbury, Ontario was 8 km from Comber/ Strangfield, Ontario, I assume that is where these photos are from. These were given to me to some research by a local Lanark County family.

Name:William Robert Iveson
Birth Date:1909
Death Date:1910

Until the 1900s, folks were buried only in a shroud (aka winding sheet) or in a 6-sided coffin. The casket, that rectangle we think of today, was late to show up on the scene. The 6-sided coffin was favored because its special shape kept the body snugly in place, minimizing the problem of shifting weight. Perhaps more importantly, the 6-sided coffin (also called a “toe pincher”) allowed the family to literally cut corners by tapering the rectangle at both ends. This means the box took up less area than a rectangle so there was less dirt to move when hand digging the grave. Since one cubic foot of loose top soil weighs about 60 pounds, every shovel full counted.

vnvnnvv

From the Iveson Photo Collection

Family and friends cared for the body and kept it laid out at home for as many days as it took to build, dig, and in some cases, wait for signs of decomposition to ensure no one was being buried alive (a popular fear for many years). Economic resources, immigrant status, and religion all influenced what folks did during the viewing, but vigiling the body was common. Death care was a personal, handcrafted endeavor, and involvement in the process was a demonstration of compassion and emotional investment in town, village or prairie life.

The change from community-led funerals to the use of hired help was a change that rolled out very slowly and unevenly across the US as towns grew into cities, and community gave way to anonymity. Even close friends might not be able take time off from their new city-styled employment to personally assist in the potentially multi-day vigil, funeral and burial.

Miasma theory was finding a home in the public consciousness, supporting the idea that the essence of death which was present in air that surrounds cemeteries was dangerous. To counter this bad air, cemeteries were being moved to rural, bucolic spaces where the fresh air of the countryside could exert a cleansing quality on this dangerous miasma-filled cemetery air. City center burial grounds  were getting full, some as early as the late 1700’s following Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic, and by 1831 the town-centered burial grounds of big cities were being moved to the outskirts. The famous Mt. Auburn Cemetery, 4 miles outside the city of Boston, is the first cemetery built addressing the new sensibility: it was designed to be a magnificent park and garden, conducive to picnics, Sunday strolls, away from the heart of town and in fresh, flower scented air.

​From the Iveson Photo Collection

By the end of the 19th Century, the job of Undertaker was a trade which was regularly seen on census records, even in rural areas. Though transportation and coffin building were being outsourced in cities, dying at home and caring for the dead was still a community and family affair in rural areas, remaining common through the 1940s. In many rural areas of the country, family and community funerals never ceased.

Comber & District Historical Society Museum

How Heavenly Funeral Potatoes Got Their Name

The Young Funeral Home Part 2- The Buchanan Scrapbook

Also read-The Young Family Funeral Home Lanark County

William Patterson — Patterson’s Funeral Home

A Tale From the Patterson Funeral Home — Carleton Place

How Heavenly Funeral Potatoes Got Their Name

The Last Man to Let you Down? Political Leanings at Local Funeral Homes?

Embalming 1891 – A Local Report

Cemetery or Funeral Cake

The Woman Who Got the Dead End Sign Removed in Carleton Place

Ed Fleming — The First Funeral Parlour in Carleton Place

Funerals With Dignity in Carleton Place – Just a Surrey with a Fringe on Top —- Our Haunted Heritage

Blast From the Past–Remembering Alan Barker– July 4 1979

Signatures of the Past — William Houston

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Signatures of the Past — William Houston

All files from Jim Houston from April 1961

Houstons who lived at 11 Lake Ave East– This is a picture of Lake Ave East going towards my home. You can see the home on the left that is at the corner of Argyle and Lake Ave East.. my house is next so you can see trees. 1947 snowstorm. Photo Jim Houston–Jim GordonMy wife, Judith Houston GORDON, says this is her grandmother ,Elizabeth, with her eldest son Merrill, who is a brother to her father, James Houston.
The house they are standing in front of is the 2nd house east of the tracks on the south side.

Signatures of the Past —-Houston

The Snowstorm of March 1947 – Jim Houston

Cemetery or Funeral Cake

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Cemetery or Funeral Cake


Milwaukee Public Library Historic Recipe File

In a 2013 op-ed for The Baptist NewsDallas-based pastor Mark Wingfield recalled a disappointing post-funeral feast: “There was no green bean casserole, no fried chicken, no homemade rolls, no chocolate cake. Finally, someone in the family drove over to KFC to bring home the kind of food we all needed in the moment. And did I mention there wasn’t even a single piece of chocolate cake brought to the house?” “Is it wrong of me to think of chocolate cake as heaven-sent?” Not when it brings comfort at a funeral.

A funeral cake is served during the reception held after the service. While some areas have a traditional recipe, others now look to fancy, decorated options that honour their deceased loved one. There were funeral cakes once just as we still have wedding cakes. These funeral cakes were the result of mourners coming from long distances A large cake would be baked, generally with the initials of the departecd iced on the top, cut into slices and served to the mourners, who did then as we now do with the pieces of wedding cake preserved them for a long time, as souvenirs of the occasion. Funeral cakes are still in vogue at funerals in rural England.

The cakes were decorated with symbolic patterns. Molds carved from wood or sometimes made of iron or stone were used to stamp decorative impressions on the cakes before baking Weaver has several molds including one of marble carved by a gravestone-maker from Schenectady NY Weaver said the Hudson Valley was also a centre for the carving of wooden molds from apple or beech wood. “The rose and the heart were the most common designs” he said “The rooster symbolizing resurrection was also used as was the fish for Christ and the dove Designs used on gravestones frequently show up The three plumes that decorate a hearse and the Masonic symbol were some others” Among the Pennsylvania Dutch raisin pie was usually served after a funeral often brought by mourners as a gift to the family of the deceased a tradition imported from Germany– also read How Heavenly Funeral Potatoes Got Their Name

Ms. Eva Mae’s Funeral Cake-Anytime there was a church call for food (usually funerals and wedding showers) you automatically knew you would see this cake somewhere among the dessert table. It was clearly recognizable because it was the longest cake there. It was a pound cake baked in a 16 x 4 loaf pan. The cake was presented in tin foil. Somehow along my growing up days, the name changed to aluminum foil, I just cannot remember when it did. Read the rest here– Click

Uninvited but unobserved, the mourners, partaken of the funeral cake and funeral wine. Being Invested with the conventional black kid gloves, hatband and scarf, and so arrayed had been ushered into a mourning coach, and had followed to the grave the mortal remains of some fellow-creature whom he did not know from the man in the moon”. 

The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
24 Mar 1899, Fri  •  Page 4
The Morning Call
Allentown, Pennsylvania
19 Oct 1988, Wed  •  Page 71

read

How Heavenly Funeral Potatoes Got Their Name

How Religion Came to Richmond and the First Masonic Funeral

The Young Family Funeral Home Lanark County

The Woman Who Got the Dead End Sign Removed in Carleton Place

Ed Fleming — The First Funeral Parlour in Carleton Place

Funerals With Dignity in Carleton Place – Just a Surrey with a Fringe on Top —- Our Haunted Heritage

Blast From the Past–Remembering Alan Barker– July 4 1979

Dead Ringers –To Live and Die in Morbid Times

The Ashton Funeral to end all Funerals

The Last Man to Let you Down? Political Leanings at Local Funeral Homes?

Embalming 1891 – A Local Report

What was one of the Largest Funerals in Lanark County?

Things You Just Don’t say at a Funeral— Even if you Are a Professional Mourner

A Tale From the Patterson Funeral Home — Carleton Place