Two Noras: August 12, 1914 and August 12, 2021

Nora Bauer: Wednesday, August 12, 1914

Was down to Uncle John's tonight. Uncle John and Aunt Minnie are here. We played the spelling game. Had a real good time. 

Nora Spitznogle: Thursday, August 12, 2021

Worked this morning. Went to the State Fair with Kassie this afternoon. I entered the Heirloom Recipe Contest. Had a pineapple whip in Dad's honor. 

The time I spent in this entry! At least I had a breakthrough....Grandma Nora's Uncle John is her papa, Felix's brother. I was stumped about who Aunt Minnie was. Uncle John's wife, Anna Kunz, died in 1910. I thought that maybe John had remarried....then it dawned on me that another way Minnie could be Nora's aunt is if she was her dad's and John's sister. Bingo! And I suspect that Minnie is a nickname for Philomena. That said, I've found two different birthdates for Minnie and Philomena, both in 1872. It's clear that I need to dive deeper. 

In my defense, Great-Great-Grandpa Felix and his wife, Suzannah had NINETEEN (or twenty) children. You read that right. 19 (or 20). Even if I've miscounted, that's a boatload of kids. 

Actually, let's count....

1. 1855: Maria, lived two months. 
2. 1856: Twin A stillborn
3. 1856 Twin stillborn 
4. 1856: John Jacob (the Uncle John of this post)
5. 1859: Valentine
6. 1860: Elizabeth
7. 1862: Felix - twin (Nora's papa)
8. 1862 Suzannah - twin (I think it's funny that their parents gave the twins their first names)
9. 1864: Anna
10. 1865: Lana (who I suspect is really named Helena...therefore Aunt Lena!) 
11. 1867: Frank
12: 1868: Joseph - twin
13. 1868: Mary - twin (I giggled at Joseph and Mary as twin names)
14. 1869: Nicholas
15. 1872: Bernard - twin (died at birth)
16. 1872: Philomena - twin
? 1872: Minnie (born nine months after the twins, but I suspect IS one of the twins) 
17. 1874: Francis - twin (died at birth)
18. 1874: Adam - twin (died at birth)
19. 1876: Clara 

That's five sets of twins.
Six children that either died at birth or didn't live to be more than a year old. 
Thirteen (or fourteen) times being pregnant. 
Twenty-one years of pregnancy. 

God bless Suzanna Senior. 

I had a nice day at the Indiana State Fair. My favorite contest was today. The Heirloom Recipe contest sponsored by the Greater Midways Food Alliance, working to preserve family recipes.  The contest is judged 50% on the recipe and the rest is on the history and story. I got second place - with a recipe and story about the Gremelspacher side of the family in 2013. Here is my story and Irish Soda Bread recipe from 2014. 

Even if I didn't enter Dad really enjoyed the contest. I would press him for a favorite Spitznogle recipe, but he could never come up with one. He would always talk about what good cooks his sisters were, but not a favorite family family meal...and that always made me sad. I'm guessing that as the youngest of 10, not a lot of time was spent making food beyond the basics. 

I have an idea of what to enter next year, Mom found a recipe card with a recipe for ice cream written in Dad's hand - and we know how Grandma Nora felt about the frozen treat. 

Anyway, I wanted to enter something in Dad's honor, but I didn't have a lot of time and am still feeling pretty raw. I'll share the recipe and what I wrote another time...this post is getting pretty long. 

Kassie and I stopped for a Pineapple Whip on the way out. It was a State Fair must-have treat for Dad. It was my first one ever - it was delightful!