Tag Archives: sisters

Feb18

hostage.

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ted’s

where i spent many hours of my childhood

famous to many as a woodward drive-in restaurant and hot rod cruising spot back in the day

famous to me as the scene of many family dinners and celebration spot

and that one suumer day

when my older sisters and i walked up to ted’s

all on our own

the hostess seated us in a booth

feeling very grown up

 pooling all of our change

looking at the menus

ordering 2 plates of french fries and lots of ketchup to share

when we finished, so proud of ourselves

the waitress dropped off our bill

my older sisters knew math

 realizing that we didn’t have enough money to pay the bill

my sisters somehow negotiated with the waitress

 to leave me in the booth while they ran home to get more money

 i sat in the booth quietly waiting for their return

feeling what it meant to be a hostage

without ever having heard the word in my young life

i’d still like to know

how they got the waitress to agree to this

how they talked my mom into letting us go up there alone in the first place

perhaps we snuck up there

and what they told my mom when they returned home without me to get more money?

i’ll ask my sister the next time we meet.

not at ted’s.

—

“every happiness is a hostage to fortune.”

-arthur helps

Dec23

strudel.

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the master-chef sisters of hungarian strudel

“You need an egg, two spoonfuls of lard, and a pinch of salt, followed by flour, a dash of vinegar, and just enough warm water to create a dough with a dumpling-like consistency.” This is part of the traditional Hungarian strudel recipe that Ilona and Erzsébet, elderly sisters and lifelong baking partners, learned from their late mother. In their small village of Tura, an hour outside of Budapest, the sisters regularly bake the delicate pastry for up to 500 people for weddings and community events.

In the short documentary Strudel Sisters, directed by Peter Hegedus and Jaina Kalifa, Ilona and Erzsébet share how a family tradition evolved into a livelihood. Their quirky rapport may as well be part of the recipe—no strudel-making session is complete without bouts of bickering and singing.

“I loved the sisters from the first time I met them,” Kalifa told me, “and I knew straight away that we had to make a film about them. They are really special people with big hearts and a great sense of humor and just have this warm, grandmotherly feel, which instantly resonated with me.”

Authentic strudel-making is a dying art. It requires a certain moxie: the dough must be worked vigorously in order to activate the gluten, after which it acquires a threshold of elasticity, allowing the baker to stretch it until it’s tissue-thin and nearly translucent. Then, the filling—most commonly grated apple, brown sugar, lemon, and cinnamon—is added intermittently between the pastry layers.

While making the film, Kalifa and Hegedus were lucky enough to taste five different types of the sisters’ strudel. “My personal favorite was the cheese strudel,” said Kalifa. “Strudel is part of their DNA. They’ve been making strudel all their lives, and you can tell.”

—

“first bake the strudel, then sit down and ponder.”

-austrian proverb

—

credits: emily buder- author, peter hegedus/jaina kalifa – video/photo, the atlantic

About This Series:

A showcase of cinematic short documentary films, curated by The Atlantic.

Dec6

where hobbies, hijinks, and capers go bad = my childhood #8

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as the youngest of 3 daughters

it took me a while to realize

that i was often being used

as the canary in the coal mine

sent in first to check

if the mud was sticky

if the place was scary

if it was wet

if there were spiders or alligators

if the others could squeeze in somewhere

if we were going to get in trouble

for whatever crazy scheme we thought up that day

i was curious and relished the adventure

excited to try things first

only to realize time and again

that it generally

had not

been a good idea in the first place.

whoever thinks they can fool me 267 times or so

has got another thing coming….

—

“a younger sister is someone to use as a guinea pig in trying sledges and experimental go-carts. someone to send on messages to mum. but someone who needs you – who comes to you with bumped heads, grazed knees, tales of persecution. someone who trusts you to defend her. someone who thinks you know the answers to almost everything.

~ pam brown

 

—

image credit: lets feast.feast-ed.org

 

Jun19

bands.

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happy birthday paul mccartney

and thinking back to when i announced

in no uncertain terms

that my sisters’ choices of favorite bands:

the beatles and the doors

were stupid bands that would never last

and were nowhere near the level of greatness

of my favorite band

the monkees

they really should have listened to me

i know pure talent when i see it.


“most bands don’t work out.

a small unit democracy is very, very difficult. very, very difficult.”

-bruce springsteen

 

 

—

image credits: apple records, elekrtra records, rhino records

Aug31

don’t forget.

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what a lovely coincidence

that on this day

as i continue on my city parks journey

and drive through a neighborhood

i am lost

until

i come to the intersection of

pamela and patricia

the names of

my two sisters

one still with us

 one gone forever

and today –

her birthday

i look ahead to find

they’ve led me

to the beautiful park right in front of me.

—

“don’t forget to leave your handprints on the ones you love

and your footprints around the neighborhood.”
― lisa c. miller

Apr27

‘our pleasures were simple – they included survival.’ – dwight d. eisenhower

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lee-and-wrightjpg-313672c0ca6cc332

LUCE COUNTY, MI — Two sisters who were missing for nearly two weeks in a remote area of the Upper Peninsula survived on Girl Scout Cookies and cheese puffs.

Lee Wright, 56, and Leslie Roy, 52, were weak but otherwise seemed to be in good condition when a state police helicopter rescued them Friday from a two-track road in northern Luce County, where their Ford Explorer became stuck in deep snow on April 11. The women stayed with the vehicle, which had died earlier this week.

The out-of-state residents relied on eight boxes of Girl Scout Cookies and cheese puffs for food, as well as snow for water.

“It is unbelievably remarkable,” said Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Jeff Marker, who was one of four rescuers aboard the helicopter. “They had multiple layers of clothes on and they were rationing their food.”

Marker said the helicopter had been searching in the area for about two and a half hours when a sergeant spotted a glimmer in the woods about 2:20 p.m. Friday. That glimmer turned out to be the SUV’s windshield.

“We circled and we could see the vehicle, and then they came out of their vehicle waving their arms,” Marker said.

Wright, from Oklahoma, and Roy, from Nebraska, were traveling in the Upper Peninsula and had visited family in Ishpeming. They were last seen by relatives April 10. The sisters had planned to stay at a Mackinaw City hotel the following day but never arrived.
Their SUV got stuck in snow along Crisp Point Road, about three miles west of Crisp Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior. The road, just wide enough for one vehicle, was impassable, Marker said. Trees line the road.

The women said they tried to call 911 several times but didn’t have cell phone service.
Friday’s rescue came after the second day of searching by helicopter, Marker said. One of the women earlier had sent a Facebook message to a relative inquiring about Tahquamenon Falls, so police homed in on the area.

“Basically there was some mention on a possibility of one of the things they wanted to visit was the Tahquamenon Falls,” Marker said.

Once they landed the helicopter on a beach, police hiked for about 25 minutes to reach Wright and Roy in the woods.

“When we pulled up, they grabbed their purses and Lee Wright clutched onto her Bible and both women were very happy,” Marker said. “It was hugs all around.”

After expressing their relief, the women mentioned that a bear had visited their vehicle two nights in a row.

“They knew it wasn’t rescuers coming for them because rescuers would have flashlights,” Marker said the women told police.

Police called for backup assistance so the women wouldn’t have to hike out the woods. Prior to help arriving, a Grand Rapids family driving four wheelers gave them a ride to the helicopter.

The sisters reunited with family at Luce County Airport and were transported to Helen Newberry Joy Hospital in Newberry for precautionary medical evaluations and treatment.
“The family’s very relieved,” Marker said.

—

story and photo credits: Angie Jackson and John Tunison – MLive

Feb26

i loved this. and then it got even better.

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IMG_2076

this was sent to me

by

my sister

and

i could

identify

with

every word

for it’s

an

approach

to life

that i share

with the small boy

in the words above

IMG_2077

and then

there was

the orange sticky note

that

she attached

to it

and i

saw

this

as

a

wonderful

compliment

and

a

precious

gift

for

it shows

that

she truly

knows

who i am.

Aug31

a sister is both your mirror – and your opposite. – e. fishel

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IMG_0315

beth and pam

sisters

room mates

best friends

suddenly

one

was gone

way too early

and

one

was left behind

way too early

and

still

missing the other

on her birthday

—

in french you don’t really say, “i miss you.”

you say, “tu me manques,” which is closer to

“you are missing from me.”

i love that.

“you are missing from me.”

you are a part of me.

yes, that is it.

– author unknown

May19

the tie that surprisingly binds

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Image

i was 6, and my middle sister and i shared a best friend. school was out and the whole summer was ahead for the 3 of us, with nothing to do but enjoy it together. our vision came to an abrupt halt when we found out that our best friend in the world was heading off on a vacation with her family to a far-off land called, ‘wisconsin.’ we couldn’t bear to be away from each other and so we came up with a plan to stay connected even though we might find ourselves in different states. we spent all day and gathered up every bit of string and yarn and twine we could find. we spent hours tying them all together to create ‘the world’s giantestbiggestlongeststrongest string ever.’ 

soon the big day arrived, the day of their departure.  as our friend and her family drove off, she was sitting backwards in her family station wagon and she kept the back window down. she held tightly onto one end of our magical string, while we stood on the street in front of her house holding onto the other end. after about 100 feet, at the corner, the string broke. my sister and i stood there dumbfounded and a bit sad as we realized our plan had not worked out as we expected. we could only imagine what she was feeling. when she returned 2 weeks later, we all laughed about it and went on with our summer together. the most wonderful thing is that through many years and many states and many life events, including the death of my sister, we still remain friends, like sisters, and forever tied together.