Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Mrs. Imhoff's Apple Dapple Cake Recipe

Well, if all I want to accomplish gets finished, I think I will live a long time. CFS beating me up again. Wish I knew a cure, because it sure does hamper me in doing what I want to do.

This will be a post for an apple cake I make several times a year. I've shared it hundreds of times. It was handed down to me...oh....30 years ago. It's been brought to my attention that maybe I need to put all these handed down recipes in a book. I have a lot of collected recipes. As the family historian along with the pictures, etc. came cook books and scraps of recipes written on pieces of paper.  In the early 80's I took all those scraps of recipes and typed them on 3X5 cards. Filled 2 3X5 boxes.  I don't know if I have it in me to get a whole book together but it would be an interesting concept.  There are black walnut recipes, wild game recipes and fruit cake. Now I'm not talking about the hard as a rock fruit cake that you buy in the store. I'm talking about one you make starting 6 weeks before Christmas and soak in bourbon whiskey.

While I am pondering on this and what all that would entail... I promised my favorite apple cake recipe. I have about 5 apple cake recipes, one you make in canning jars to store. But this one is my favorite.



Mrs. Imhoff's Apple Dapple Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups cooking oil
Mix Well
Add sifted dry ingredients: 3 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. of baking soda, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. Add 2 tsp. Vanilla extract.

Mix well and add: 3 cups chopped apples, 1 cup chopped walnuts, (Optional you can add 1/2 to a 1 cup raisins. My dad liked raisins in his apple cake.) The cake batter will be thick to allow for the cooking of the apples. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes in greased and floured straight side tube pan.  Cool completely. Glaze over.

Glaze: In a small pan add,
            1 stick butter or margarine
            1 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar for the cake in the picture but it doesn't matter!)
            1/4 cup cream (I use evaporated milk)
Mix well. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Pour over cake taking a spoon to cover the entire outside of the cake. The glaze will slightly harden as it cools.

That's it!

Friday, November 15, 2013

Preserving Our Veteran's Stories

This Veterans Day, I wrote a blog post about my father and his military service. Since I am the family historian, along with that service comes many stories and photos. As usual I'm always trying to figure out how to tell those stories and what to do with all this family history.

I was going through the Yahoo news page on Veterans day and came across an article about Jane Bartow.  World War II Letters reveal parents untold love story. Jane found her parents letters from World War II and published them in a book.

But she also began a website called, World War II Daughters. On this site is space to tell these stories of our fathers and their experiences in World War II.  I was inspired. I contacted Jane and I've decided that several stories about my dad and his service are a better fit on her site, than here on Appalachian Heart Wood. I will be contributing a few of Dad's World War II stories to that website. I'll be posting on this blog when they are up with a link.  I encourage daughter's of World War II veterans with stories to contact Jane and consider telling their father's tales there.

Jane also told me about the Veteran's History Project through the Library of Congress. I worked as an assistant archivist and archivist beginning with the Holston Conference Archives during and after college and so all these letters, photos, etc. I have of family, I am always thinking about their preservation for the future. None of this hoarding of family mementos means a thing if they don't survive and the stories are handed down with them. Just one look on eBay will show you how some family members kept items for so long only to have another family member care nothing about them and discard them or get rid of them. Many times these items carry our history, not only of ourselves but of our nation.

So I have been in contact with the Library of Congress Veteran's History Project and this Thanksgiving I'm going to talk to my family of finding dad's mementos a permanent home where they can be shared, accessed by anyone and preserved. Better than a box in the closet.  I will scan all the copies digitally and share with the family. That way they can make copies of whatever they want. But to me this is a way that Dad's life will be honored and what he kept and did in World War II, Korea and Vietnam will be preserved.

If you have stories to share and mementos to preserve I encourage you to check out Jane's website and the Veteran's History Project at the Library of Congress. The project is collecting stories from Veterans of all wars including the most recent. Our Veterans and their stories deserve to be remembered.

World War II Daughters Stories

Veteran's History Project

In Honor of Veterans Day 2013

Monday, November 11, 2013

In Honor of Veterans Day

Old Warriors Never Die and neither do our memories of them. It's Veteran's Day 2013 and I would be remiss if I did not write something about my favorite veteran...my dad.

My dad, Don Bowling, was a warrior, and a soldier all his life. When he was a young man living in Appalachia, he worked on a farm, as a logger and as a lookout for a moonshiner. He joined the Army in Bluefield, WV in 1939.

The choice to him was simple. He didn't want to go under ground in the mines of the coalfields. He didn't want to work on the railroad like his father. He didn't want to continue farming like his grandfather and he certainly didn't want to end up in a Georgia Prison for making illegal liquor.  He wanted to see the world and in the military, see the world he did.

During WWII, for the duration of the war, he served with Patton's Third Army, the 5th Division, the 50th Field artillery unit.  He traveled from Iceland to the Russian front. After WWII he was discharged for a month or so and joined the Navy and served until 1970 making him a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. I asked him why he joined the Navy and not rejoin the Army. He said, "I lived in fox holes for 6 years. I wanted to ride in the rear with the beer for awhile."




He told us stories upon stories. Some not so good (and those he had to be pretty drunk to even talk about). Many stories of courageous acts that were amazing of things he did and things he witnessed. So many events he was very proud of and he always loved the military. He was very proud of his service to our country. On the day he died he would have returned to military service in a heart beat if he was ever asked.

I was thinking of him this Veterans Day. I remember the problems he had when he retired out of the service. He had problems getting medical care at the VA. He had problems to just getting his G.I. Loan papers processed. Then as now, it seems that politicians like to use the Veterans and military service people as a back drop for an election, but sort of forget the men and women who serve when they are in need.

So on this Veterans Day, let us not only thank our Veterans, Military personnel or our service responders for their service and wave a flag. Let us go beyond that by advocating for their needs to be taken care of.

If you hear of a bill in Congress that would benefit our Veterans and Military that you think is a good idea, such as a jobs, housing or training bill, write your Congress People and let them know that these men and women deserve our support.

If you know of an organization that is helping Veterans and military personnel or providing a service, pull out your wallet and send them a donation. 

One that I just learned about recently that is quite inspiring, is a foundation began by the actor +Gary Sinise called the  Gary Sinise Foundation.  He and the Lt. Dan Band are traveling in and out of the country performing shows and making a difference by raising funds and awareness for programs for our military personnel and veterans.  Whatever we do, let's do more to make sure that those who have served us really are not forgotten.

Later on I will do a few blog posts using a box of memorabilia of pictures and mementos of my dad's and relate some of the stories he told me about his military service. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge, (marching 125 miles in 3 days in sub zero weather to get to those guys) and his adventures as one of the oldest flight mechanics in the Navy when he retired. This blog could go on for a few years!!

Update: I will be posting his World War II stories and possibly photos on another blog World War II Daughters. His other stories and photos of his Navy service I will post from time to time here. I'm thinking Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag day etc. posts.

I welcome any comments or suggestions. Thanks for reading.

Friday, November 8, 2013

A Place Called Wolf Creek Indian Village Part 4!

It's been a whirlwind few weeks. Sadness in the local community of losing neighbors and friends, my birthday, (in my mind I'm 20, and my body says, "YOU WISH!),  doctors appointments and just trying to live and function the best I can with these "illnesses". 

This is the Fourth post for the Wolf Creek Village series of my blog. I have learned so much from that place that I'm sure it won't be the last mention of it.

Inset from John Smith's 1612 Map of Virginia
When I first became involved with Wolf Creek Indian Village, I began as a guide. The first thing they did was give you a leather costume and sort of tried to dress us up like what an Indian might have dressed in 500 years ago?  Yeah, my thought was how accurate could we be with that?  Especially when all the documentation in the early reports shows Europeans had a perception of the first Natives they encountered to be "savages" mostly because of their custom of dress or lack there of. Such can be seen in this depiction of Powhatan people from John Smith's map of 1612.

To see the entire map click Virtual Jamestown John Smith's Map
I'm trying to find the documentation of Pocahontas. She was recorded as a nine year old doing somersaults in Jamestown not entirely clothed. So dressing guides authentically as they did 500 years ago...sketchy at best, and probably would have had guides arrested for indecent exposure especially in the summer.

The purpose to dress guides and have them "play Indian," was for tourism purposes only. Because when people think of Indians or Native first people, they think of leather clad and feathered Indians of the movies. So much so that in reality, the differences in tribal clothing are so numerous, it is hard today even for REAL native people to wear their own real clothing and be accepted by the general public. Most judge Indians by the perceptions that were given from the movies. 

I know of one chief of an Eastern tribe who sent his children to college on money he made wearing a Plains head dress and charging to have his picture taken. He told me it is because the general public would not recognize the real head dress of his tribe but expected all Indians to wear the plains head dress. He wore the Plains head dress all the way to the bank.

My first Wolf Creek costume was leather pieced together in a hap hazard fashion. What I called "cave man" clothes. It was a requirement of the job to, "play Indian".  I fought this requirement so long it was unreal.  At one time I was threatened with firing if I did not wear the costume. It was that bad. I had to relent if I wanted to stay at Wolf Creek. There were many more reasons to stay and wear the costume.


So I tried to at least make my costume one that would be believable for a later time period of Eastern Woodland tribes with a more modest skirt, a cape and fringe. Fringe had a purpose and was adopted by the Long hunters for use. It was also recorded on women's dresses in the 1600 and 1700's. At least I wanted my costume to look more finished than cave clothes.  I had to prove that they could have fringe at the time of the village with no metal tools and I did by making it with a sharp rock.

The costume was not "regalia". Regalia is much more sacred than that. Regalia has a personal purpose, most times a ceremonial tribal meaning and affiliation. Some folks told me it would be regalia because how the dress was made out of leather. I have leather shoes and a leather pocketbook and we don't call those regalia.

After many years there, I successfully petitioned the powers that be to get rid of the costumes for the guides. Instead to invite real Native Americans to WCIV and let them teach about their culture, their tribe and their regalia.  After we put on uniforms, you still would not believe how many times I would hear when a visitor came through the gates of the village to ask, "Where are the Indians?" and I would ask them, "What does a real Indian look like?" And I would get the answer, "You know feathers and leather."   Though it was daunting, I took it as an opportunity to educate about the first people here and why we should not dress that way.

I had many experiences while in costume. Some visitors would actually talk down to you as if wearing that costume made you less than human. That was something I didn't experience in regular modern clothes. The prejudices against Indians really showed. Others would treat you with this mystical reverence that was bordering on, if not completely, CRAZY!

I once gave a tour to a man and after he finished, he said he planned on returning with his family. That he was very impressed with the tour. The next week he shows up with his "family".  A group of about 9 people, none really related when they introduced themselves, in which some were dressed with Egyptian type make up and carried staffs. It was all very strange.

What unnerved me after I gave them a tour was they said their purpose was to take "me" back, right then, that day, to their "shaman".  That their shaman prayed about it and said I was the person to lead their people on the journey to the "center of the universe".  Wherever we are, we are the center of the universe, so I had no idea where that journey was going to go!!!

That I was to live with their people and to teach them how to live without all the modern conveniences. This included teaching them about natural medicines. In their group was a lady that had Parkinson's disease and she was quitting her medications that week. It was so alarming! This occurred about the time of the Heaven's Gate cult out in California, so I always called them the Heaven's Gate visitors.

I was stunned!! Bless their hearts. I'm not even the guide who taught about natural local medicines at the village. I just looked at the group and asked them, "It's the outfit, isn't it?" and told them, " I'm sorry, but I'm not going anywhere with you. I go home to a microwave and electric heat."  The group was actually waiting for me at the gate at closing time. The director had to threaten to call the police to get them to leave. I was terrified driving home and for about a couple of weeks afterwards I was so much more cautious, making sure I wasn't going to be kidnapped.

This was just one incident. But there were many more positive visitor experiences. Many Native American Indians, not only graciously shared their how-to craft knowledge and history, but also brought back their families for a history lesson that the village itself taught. That was an HONOR!!!

The first group of guides Wolf Creek Indian Village hired were artisans.  We were teaching, "living archeology." We actually recreated the artifacts found using the methods the first people would have had available to them to furnish the displays in the village. We had a basket maker, a flint knapper/fire maker, a potter, hide tanner, tool makers and gardeners.

I began as the basket maker, then the potter, learned to tan hides, make bone tools, garden, (we talked about agriculture) and discussed different gardening methods as shown used by different archeology sites. We used the 3 sisters method for gardens around the village. We would take in "road kill" that would normally be taken to the dump. We used it to show how adept the skills of the first people were at processing animals using just rocks, no metal. We were teaching about the original village, the environment and the skills one would need to live there.

Oddly enough, if you go back in time far enough all over the world, people developed the same skills. The argument comes from why did the first people here not have iron?  Why were they not, as what is thought of as, "developed" as those from Europe.

I once saw a gold bead from a long string of beads, under a magnifying glass the Mayans or Aztec had created. It was the size of a pencil lead and had intricate designs carved into it and was absolutely amazing in detail. People who could create something so tiny and so perfect shows the technological abilities of the people on these continents were not primitive.  Their stonework rivals anything in Europe.


Reading about Cahokia Mounds I realized that it was a civilization that existed for over 100 years, much in the same way civilization ebbed and flowed in the old world.  I realized the first people did not lack anything that Europe had. They had technology, trade, government and agriculture.  I believe after working at WCIV for so long, what I had learned is the reason the iron age wasn't developed is....... because it wasn't needed.  That is, until those who had that technology, showed up.

My next post will be about my partner Eddie Atwell. I met Eddie when he was the head guide at the village. There were other artisans that began with WCIV but this mountain man stayed and it's his knowledge of these skills, which he gladly shared, (and others would take to developing to an art, like Sam Wright) that helped put WCIV on the map.

This picture to the left is the new uniform we wore and at the end of that rope was a small bear that had been hit on the interstate by a car. Brought to us by DOT personnel. We had permits and we processed and tanned the hide for an educational display. Most children never get to touch bear fur or touch to see how long even a bear cubs claws can be. At Wolf Creek they did.

Since it's fall, I have an apple cake recipe to share, that will be next and then a blog post on Eddie.

A Place Called Wolf Creek Indian Village Part 1