The Southern Pecan: the Critical Ingredient for Holiday Baking

            Tis the season to harvest pecans. That skill I have honed since I was able to toddle along behind my mother and grandmother, picking up pecans that had fallen from the pecan trees canopying the corner of Harrison and Jefferson in Camden, Arkansas.

            Tuesday afternoon, we gathered pecans from Mrs. Gatewood’s trees in her back yard and were able to gather about half a bucket full. The trees are still heavily laden with the delicious symbol of fall harvest.

Rock Fest 2008

            Every holiday dessert I was raised on contained pecans. Even fruit salad had chopped pecans. Cookie tins brimming with salted pecans were a constant throughout fall and into winter. Fondant ovals colored deep pink and mint green were sandwiched between two pecan pieces. Karo Nut Pie, erroneously called Pecan Pie by my northern friends, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Icebox Cookies, and the Gordon family’s famous Rocks are filled with the nutty delicacy. Oh, pecans!

            I’ve used all the pecans I had in the freezer, so I purchased a bag of chopped pecans, a bag of pecan halves at each of my grocery store ventures. Now, any recipe calling for any amount or style of pecans is under control.

            Until today, that is. I’d read a recipe in the newspaper during early November. The ingredients of a delicious sounding pecan pastry were listed and knew I had all items available and was ready to bake today. It’s a good thing I was planning a day at home because what I did not read was “this recipe will take you the whole live-long-day.” The newsprint continued with “pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal…” “You may have to divide the recipe into two parts,” the fine print suggested.

The dough formed quite well as did the filling, but here came the kicker. “Cover the rolled out dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 – 40 minutes before transferring the trays to the freezer for another 15 minutes.”  After all that rig-a-ma-role, I was instructed to roll out the dough into a rectangle at least double the size and shape it originally formed. Spreading the filling and folding the dough came next and then another stint in the refrigerator for the two crescent shaped pastries.  “Refrigerate the formed crescents for between 4 and 12 hours.” 

Say W H A T!  Will I be awake?

            I gave the critters 4 hours and then brushed them with an egg wash and popped them into the preheated oven, rotated them, turned them, flipped them alternately every 15-20 minutes for a total of 40-50 minutes. After they came out of the oven, they were to cool on a wire rack for another 30 minutes then be glazed and “allow the glaze to set” for 10 additional minutes. Whew!

            They tasted great. As they baked, they gave the house a holiday aroma. But, when God made pastry dough and filling, He also made pastry chefs and bakeries.  As long as I can throw a few fingertips of flour in my face, as long as I can heat a pan of water with delicious smelling cinnamon sticks, and as long as Wal-Mart and Bath & Body Works make caramel vanilla and cinnamon spice heat activated aroma devices, I’ll use my time to harvest pecans and prepare for making Gordon Rocks, 

            It's almost time for Rock-Fest 2015!

The House on Harrison Street: The Ritchie Files

Just when I thought it might be safe to upload my creative nonfiction book to the cyberworld of CreateSpace by Amazon, I decided I better check one more time with the cousins. Someone might have one more thing to share.That one thing could be a major game-changer.

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Today, I was able to speak with my cousin from Ruston, Louisiana. Not only does she have photos, she has journals.These journals are like nothing I’ve even imagined I could touch. The one from which she read seems to be an accounting of finances and donations to various charities around Camden.

John Campbell Ritchie 

The writer was either former Mayor John Campbell Ritchie or cotton merchant George Louis Ritchie, as the writer listed an entry about “sister Ella" and the Ouachita Valley Bank. Since J.C. Ritchie is Susan’s great grandfather, I’m thinking these journals are his, once in the possession of his son, Stith Bearden Ritchie, her grandfather.

She is boxing up these photos and journals and putting them on the road to my house via Wilderness Express. I've promised to copy them and return the originals to her. She has a treasure and did not know it. It may be that a major re-write in some sections of the book will be forthcoming.

Waiting for the box to arrive is like waiting to meet a long-lost relative, someone I’ve known but have not made contact with in years.Touching what they touched, reading what they wrote, learning what they believed to be important all make these ancestors come alive to me.Their decisions, the names of the individuals in the journal, the places mentioned give life to historical genealogy.

To affirm that the book I'm putting together is important for our family and for Camden, I recognized the names and knew their relationships and how they were significant to the family and to Camden. The failure of the Ouachita Valley Bank during the 1930s impacted the brothers and the family and there is information in the journal about the bank. She did not know what I have learned through research. That is the focus of the book; if I don't share the stories and the information, everything will be lost, because the information is fragmented, scattered among the cousins.

What my grandmother would have possessed went up in smoke from the fire in either 1941 or 1959.

I’m so grateful to these cousins who have unearthed the archives and have chosen to share what they found.

Way Back with Arkansas and Ole Miss

"I'm old enough to remember the Arkansas-Ole Miss games from the 1960's; in fact, I remember the 1960 game. No I was not there. I was hiding in my grandmother's bathroom, waiting for the final score, fingers in my ears because the radio volume was turned up full blast. No amount of wishing and hoping changed that result. Even Lance could not save the day and I'm sure I cried from disappointment and coming face to face with a flagrant violation of the rules of fairness.  

                         Ole Miss 10 – Arkansas 7

The 1960 contest between the teams was won by Ole Miss 10–7 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas, on their way to a final record of 10–0–1 for the 1960 season and the second of their three claimed national championships. Sometimes called the Tommy Bell game by Arkansas fans, he called a timeout in an attempt to quiet Razorback fans. Rebel Allen Green did not hear the whistle and kicked the ball through the uprights. After the timeout, fans swear Bell signaled that the kick was good as soon as Green connected with the ball. Fans also swear that the kick was no good. Fighting broke out all around the stadium and because of this, the annual series between the two schools was played the next year in Jackson and then canceled until the two teams renewed the series in 1981.

It seems no Arkansas-Ole Miss game is without some kind of down-to-the-wire heroics or villainous call by referees paid by scoundrels. Remembering seven overtimes with Matt Jones and a one point victory comes to mind in the arena of heroics.

Like the victory being savored tonight, this win is one Hog fans will be celebrating and Ole Miss fans lamenting for years to come. Our old family friend Billy Newton in Heaven called on many Razorback Saints, including my parents, to avoid a tragedy that almost befell the team when a throwback flip was caught and Alex Collins piled up more yardage during the overtime period.The RazorSaints in Heaven danced a jig and helped conclude the game. I'll say this, "It was a flagrant face-mask violation and Brandon Allen did go for two and make it!"

Hogs Win Again in Overtime

The House on Harrison Street: The Gordon-Ritchie Saga

It’s time. Time to launch my new book: The House on Harrison Street: The Gordon-Ritchie Saga

It’s not a novel. Neither is it a non-fiction recounting of dates and events on a timeline.

The book contains speculation and stories which are “just a tad” subjective. It’s told from a narrator’s point of view: I am that narrator. My cousins have provided incredible insight into portions of the family story that I did not know. I’ve written letters and received responses along with their insights. Several cousins have provided photographs for use in the book.

The family tree has reached into history, dating to the mid-1600’s.  Neither you nor I ever met any of those individuals, but you, like I, have heard their stories, time and time again, so many times that we feel as if we know them personally. I’ve brought that feeling to the manuscript.

Perhaps you’ve read about the Tooke family from England who arrived in the Virginia plantation to begin a new life. It was the Tooke ancestors who were some signers of the Magna Charta, The Great Charter.

You have read of the Ritchey family (also spelled Ritchie) along with the Caldwells and Calhouns of South Carolina. Dig into your US History class notes and conjure the vision of John C. Calhoun, noted SC senator. His middle name was Caldwell. Old District 96 in South Carolina was home to these ancestors. Find out how the Caldwells, Calhouns, and Ritcheys are related.

How about the Gordon family? Revolutionary War soldiers, plantation owners from South Carolina and Georgia. Then, learn about the Campbell family of Virginia who emigrated to Tennessee and then to Alabama. From Alabama’s Black Belt came groups of pioneers and settlers into south Arkansas. Learn why they chose Arkansas and why Ouachita County which was formed out of the once larger Union County.

These four families combined to establish a lineage of greatness that eventually provided leadership and substantial influence in Union County and ultimately Ouachita County, Arkansas.

In this book are stories told from my perspective, based on research as well as family lore. Included are end notes, a full bibliography, a Family Tree, photographs, and an index.

My brother and I agree that the book should be made available to family members, extended family members, the Ouachita County Historical Society, the Arkansas History Commission, those interested in genealogy, and Ouachita County residents who have even a minor connection to the county’s history. It is not a book which would command a commercial audience, however.

Look for its release before the first of the year, hopefully around Christmas.

What a wonderful gift it would make! Wouldn’t you like to read an oration by Professor Charles T. Gordon? Would you like to glimpse the wedding of John Campbell Ritchie to his second wife Minnie Barker, the young socialite who came to Camden to help care for her brother’s child and remained, marrying the former Mayor of Camden?

Be present at the Oil Boom in Union County and Ouachita County. Witness the results of the horrific gas explosion that claimed the life of three young Camden ladies, one of whom was a cousin, Margaret Ramsey. Meet for the first time as a young teen our little known aunt Janie Gordon. Grimace at the demise of a family brought on by the untimely and tragic death of an only son. See Camden change and grow from photographs taken in the front yard of The House on Harrison Street.

Those stories and more are included in The House on Harrison Street: The Gordon-Ritchie Saga.