Amen!

Hamburgers have been special to me ever since I can remember. The menu of my lifetime has undergone change but the one constant has been a good hamburger.

Grandmother Laura Foust used to fix some great food on her wood stove on a farm close to Moline. When my Granddad Phil Foust would come in from chores she would have a steaming bowl of oatmeal and "real" cream ready for him along with homemade butter and biscuits. Along with those good things she would have fried eggs and bacon and perhaps gravy from time to time.

Grandad would have already milked the cows, separated the cream from the milk, fed the calves, and slopped the pigs at that quite early time of the morning. It was so much fun watching him stream a jet of milk directly from the udder of a cow to the waiting mouth of a cat! Later, my Grandmother would have me help her in the process of preparing dinner. The first chore would be to catch a chicken and chop off it's head. Then it would be necessary to boil some water to ease the process of removing the chicken feathers. (As you might remember feathers were used for bedding.) Potatoes from Granddad's large plot would be peeled to prepare the mashed potatoes to complement the wonderful fried chicken, gravy, homemade bread and butter, green beans from the garden and a scrumptious cherry pie removed from the wood fired oven.

Sometimes Granddad and I would roam the pastures looking for wild strawberries to serve as treats. Spending time in the summer at the farm allowed me the luxury of "bringing in the cows" and riding with Grandad on the workhorse propelled machinery. It was fascinating to watch the threshing process and to be part of Grandmother's huge, delicious and special meals prepared for the large group of threshers. Granddad would allow me (with his close presence) to drive the workhorse team while hitched to the hay wagon. When my Dad and Uncles would come to help Grandad with some of his special chores (IE cutting pigs or shocking kaffir corn) all would be the beneficiaries of some of his special home brew. This beer would be kept in the cellar and sometimes I would notice smoke coming out of the bottle after hearing a bottle cap removal explosion.

At the home of Sally and Brit, (Grandparents Britton), there were similar foods along with some subtle variances. Brit was a section foreman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in the small town of Riverdale in Sumner County. They had a jersey cow for milk and cream and Sally raised Plymouth Rock chickens as a small commercial venture. Sally was a wonderful cook and her fried chicken would have made the "Colonel" jealous. She had fishing buddies and her catfish catch of the day quite often made it's way to her table. Just as her chicken was delicious I have never to this day tasted such good fried catfish! As an accompaniment her cottage fries were without peer! She had a large garden for canning and she also canned various meats. One of Brit's favorites was Spanish Rice and I quickly learned to enjoy this (to me) foreign food. No one could come close to Sally's Blackberry Cobbler! Though I didn't enjoy the harvesting of the wild blackberries I most certainly could not get enough of the resulting product. After the butchering of a hog Sally would render the lard and make the most super doughnuts. Often, their attic would have the wonderful aroma of smoked hams. Brit took a lunch pail with him to work and once in awhile would take me along on the rail car. In retrospect it is doubtful that MoPac would have thought this wise. It was so much fun listening to the bawdy stories of the section hands and at lunchtime enjoying a boiled ham sandwich along with all the goodies that were included in the lunch pail filled to the brim by Sally. (We never had boiled ham at home!) Brit wasn't afraid of snakes and would not move out of the way should one be traveling on a collision course with his resting body.

Though Mom was a good cook she perhaps had not the expertise (or the want to) of Sally. Dad would shoot a squirrel or a rabbit and I can remember them as being fried in a delicious way. We had corn meal mush quite often and I especially remember the resulting fried mush the next day as being scrumptious. One of Mom's specialties was chocolate cake and I can still remember enjoying some still warm cake with a glass of milk from a "real cow". She also made cottage cheese occasionally and I can remember it hanging on the clothesline encased in cheesecloth. Our water supply was a cistern and we surely had clean water as a piece of cloth was attached to the spout supplying the water. What made the water "clean" was that the bugs in the water were trapped by the cloth. My Dad was forced into doing quite a lot of the cooking at home along with many of the other household chores. Guilt is still in my mind for not helping him more as I matured into high school. He would get up and prepare delicious homemade biscuits for breakfast along with eggs, bacon and his signature juice of apricot nectar. Standard fare in the evening was the most mouth watering fried round steak ever experienced. He always had a big slab of Longhorn Cheese available for snacking.

What Mom could really do was to fry an outstanding and delicious hamburger. So could Herb! During grade school and high school and any other time "Herb's" was like a magnet to me. Dad gave me a quarter for lunch and rather than using it at the school cafeteria I headed to "Herb's". Not only were the hamburgers grease dripping super but the chili was beyond description. He perhaps bought the chili "off a truck" but he did something to it that made it unlike and better than any chili that I have since tasted. The Cedar Vale Cafe (as I remember it) was run by Merl Sartin. After moving to Dexter I would oft come to Cedar Vale to visit on Sundays and before a resulting date or a trip home I would stop for a quite satisfying hamburger steak. Hilltop Cafe was a popular meeting place and I suppose the best full menu cafe in Cedar Vale. Many good times were spent there and "Hilltop" was the destination for me of a few dates. The Dexter school cafeteria was excellent! My meals were taken there and I managed to become friends with the cooks. Sneaking out of class I would visit them and they would allow me the sampling of their wares.

High School dates were taken to Ark City for delicious BBQ or to "The Harbour" in Winfield. My "Cedar Vale" jacket was forgotten there at Winfield one night never to be returned. The United States Air Force had good food. Many of the servicemen would not agree to this bold pronouncement but I hardly missed a meal. At the same time I must admit that no food stands out as being of gourmet quality. "SOS" was one food that was detested by many but I found it quite acceptable. It actually was hamburger gravy and I looked forward to those times when it was served. The first time I tasted Pizza was in Savannah, Georgia. Some of my friends invited me to go with them for "pizza pie". They were incredulous when I admitted that I had not a clue as to what they were referring. Growing up in Cedar Vale and Dexter without television did not exactly qualify me for much in the way of urban knowledge. My first taste was a disappointment but that brief encounter left me wanting more especially from that fine Italian restaurant, "Porzios".

After we were married we lived in an upstairs apartment. Funds were somewhat scarce as Pat even did the washing of clothes in the bathtub. Our standard food fare was bologna, 19 cents per pound Whiting, and three pounds for a dollar hamburger. She learned quickly to become an outstanding preparer of food! Our first knowledge of Tacos came from tasting them at the home of friends. Through the years among her specialties would have been the best homemade pizza ever experienced. She has long since ceased the preparation of this delicacy but our family looked forward to Friday nights when the wonderful aroma of pizza was followed by the quick consumption of same. I don't remember spaghetti in my early years but she has certainly allowed me to be a connoisseur of this wonderful dish. She has had few failures in the many meals that she has prepared for me and I am appreciative of each and every one of her efforts.

After a lifetime of sampling so many good foods it would be difficult to choose my favorite. Boiled shrimp comes to mind as does a properly prepared medium rare Kansas City strip steak. Pizza and spaghetti along with most Italian foods would rate high as would an authentic quality Mexican meal. Oriental foods are quite enjoyable but only upon occasion. Homemade head cheese is seldom available to me but it still has a special place in my memory bank. But let's face it for me it's still hard to beat a good hamburger! Ideally, it should be a bit greasy and be smeared with mustard. Adding dill pickle slices, a thick slice of onion, and a slice of homegrown tomato gives it an appearance and taste of what must be somewhat akin to manna from heaven.

Amen!