©2006 Don Bacigalupo
I asked, my mother, Gert, what is your favorite childhood memory? "Without hesitation she recounted the following story with a twinkle in her eye and with as much energy and memory as she could muster, in her 89th year.
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It was August of 1929, Gert had turned 14 in April and she was living on the family farm with her father, three brothers and four sisters. Their 140 acre farm was located near Stillwater Minnesota about 30 miles north and east from the Twin Cities and about 8 miles west of present day Stillwater near the community of Withrow.
She had stopped going to school in order to care for the youngest children and run the home. This was a new job for Gert because her older sister Esther, (Called ‘Es’ by the family) had gone to Aw Guah Ching the Minnesota State TB sanitarium on Leech Lake in Northern Minnesota, hundreds of miles from their farm home.
Even before Es had left in May, Gert had been doing most of the cooking, cleaning and caring for the young ones, as Es was bed ridden much of the time. Their mother, Sarah and the baby she was carrying had died in the summer of 1927 after loosing a 9 month battle with TB, a common killer in families at that time. In December of 1926, Sarah and Joe,(Pa) learned that she had TB and was unlikely to survive the disease. They, then made a plan to move to a farm so that the kids could be away from the Cities and its influences when Sarah was gone. Gert remembered seeing her mom sitting on her fathers lap while Sarah asked him to promise to find a farm and move the children to the country. They moved onto the farm in August 1927 and Sarah died two days later.
They remained on the farm from that August until January or February of 1930. There were many adventures including dumping Pa through the trap doors from the hay loft, their goat eating the fabric top off a visitors car, Pa trying to train wild horses to a plow and ending up headfirst in a pile of manure, Hank filling the hat of an unappreciated admirer of Es with fresh chicken lice, just to mention a few. However this story begins in the few weeks between May 1929 and August of 1929 when Gert was learning how to cook with help from Es, her Aunt Auri and a neighbor.
Gert’s learning to cook was not without adventures. One memorable incident, prior to Es leaving, involved the visit of Father Arthur Durand, a cousin and a parish priest in St. Paul, (he later became a Monsignor and pastor of the Catholic Church in Little Canada, and leader in the French Canadian Catholic Community in the Twin Cities). When Fr. Durand came to visit it was a special occasion. Since he was known to love chocolate cake, Es and Gert decided to make a cake for him.
In this family they had learned to make do by substituting ingredients when they could not afford expensive store bought fixings. Es had learned to use coffee to create a chocolate appearing cake adding molasses and/or honey to give it the proper flavor. Es told Gert what to do from her bed without being in the kitchen to see how she followed Es’ directions. Gert dutifully added the coffee, ‘grounds and all’, to the ingredients needed for a cake, baked and frosted it. When Father Durand arrived he was served cake and claimed it was the best he had ever eaten. Later when Es ate some herself, she and Gert laughed as they appreciated Fr. Durand’s reluctance for a second piece of 'chocolate,' cake.
Times were hard for them in that summer of 1929. They had little or know no cash money and rarely bought things at a store. By August, Es was gone and Gert and her brother Hank,17 were running the home and the 140 acre farm while Pa and Rich,18 went to the Twin Cities to work ten hour days, six days a week as carpenters building Catholic Churches. Due to the distance to work and the poor roads Pa and Rich stayed with relatives in the Cities from Sunday night til Saturday night.
Since Gert was home, she had to do the house chores and care for Marie age 11, Leo age 10, Corrine age 9, Marjorie age 7, and Lorraine age 3. Hank took charge of the outside chores including milking cows, caring for the horses and chickens; tending the garden and general maintenance. They pumped water from a dug well that also provided what little refrigeration they had, pails containing cheese, butter and milk, were lowered into the water of the well to cool. Rural electric cooperatives would not bring electricity for another 15 to 20 years, so daily life was simple and uncluttered by modern "conveniences." The younger children helped as best they could.
One Sunday in August Rich asked Gert to package and mail a gift to Es. Rich brought out a white candy box with the images of Chocolate Covered Cherries on the cover. One of the pictured candies was shown cut in half exposing the cherry with cream oozing out from inside. Seventy five years later she could still picture the box, the luscious candy and the cream. The next morning Rich and Pa left for their work week and left the candy for Gert to wrap and give to the postman for its trip to the sanitarium.
Meanwhile the box sat on the kitchen table with everyone having seen it and knowing what it was and that it was for Es. Gert couldn't remember who had the idea first. She remembered Leo circling the table eyeing the candy and maybe he was the first to say that they should have just one piece. Or maybe it was all of them wanting and eyeing that beautiful box of candy. To be sure they made their own fudge and loved penny candy when they could get it, but none of them had ever had or seen or tasted Chocolate Covered Cherries. Gert, Hank and Marie thought it was foolish for Rich to leave the candy with them, a bunch of kids, on a farm, who had never seen store candy in a beautiful white box. It was too much temptation. Besides Rich was always taking Hank's cake, (That stopped when Hank learned to ball up his cake before washing his hands after cleaning the barn.)
Marge and Lorraine wouldn’t understand what was going to happen, but they would love the candy. Leo would be willing, eager and loyal to those involved in what was going to happen, but he could not be the leader. Corrine would be willing to enjoy, cooperate and keep the secret about what they were going to do. Marie would be unwillingly to cooperate, reluctant to keep the secret, afraid of the consequences of telling but she would enjoy what was going to happen. Beyond question, however, Gert and Hank would have to permit and be responsible for what was going to happen and they both knew they would love a Chocolate Covered Cherry.
The plan was to eat just one. After that one piece, they would refill the top layer from the bottom layer. Es wouldn't notice right away and Gert could write a note to explain. So it began. Gert remembered that Leo had the first piece and that he suggested that they all have a second piece since there was enough on the bottom layer to fill up the top layer. When they all had eaten a second piece Gert realized that they were beyond the point of no return and the rest of the candy disappeared.
When they were done they knew they were in trouble with Rich, at least. They knew he would ask Es when he went to visit her about the candy. So they had to do something. She recalled that it was Leo, (again) who thought of the rocks. He thought they should put a little rock in each of the candy cups so that the box would feel like it was full. Then Gert could write a little longer note to explain what had happened.
Gert was expected to make regular reports on the how the children were doing and how she was doing. It would be natural for her to be sending a letter to Es.
When she told the story to me, after all those years she could still remember the note. She remembered starting the note with a plea that Es not hate her. Gert was so afraid that Es would be terribly hurt because they had eaten her candy. Gert remembered using the words that she was, "So sorry, so very sorry ... she remembered that she told Es that once the kids saw the box they couldn't stop from eating the candy ..... and she begged Es not to tell Rich.
With the letter written and the box of, "Chocolate Covered Cherries," given to the mailman who came by the end of the driveway, there was no turning back.
After several weeks of frightened waiting she got a letter from Es. Es was not only, not mad but the box of rock/cherries and the note Gert had written, had been a great bright spot for Es on the day they arrived. Es wrote that the story was told many times and the box of cherry/rocks was kept by her bed, as an aid in telling the story to new patients, staff and visiting families. Many had heard the story and seen the box only to laugh and cry imagining the kids, the farm, the older brother Rich and the beautiful and ‘tasteee’ box of Chocolate Covered Cherries. Es wrote that the story had been the reason for a lot of laughter and warm feelings about family and home amongst the patients. Es promised to keep the secret and assured Gert that the tale of the box was a better gift than the cherries would have been.
The reception the box received at the sanitarium is only part of the story, however, because a secret had been lodged within the family. No one told Rich that summer or the next year when Es returned from the sanitarium. Es told Pa around the time of her marriage in 1934, but she never revealed the story to Rich, dying in 1935 of TB. As far as Gert knows, Pa never told Rich, either.
The secret of the Chocolate Covered Cherries was kept for over 38 years. During those years the rest of the children would marry and have children. Rich would marry Dorothy, the sister of Es' husband and they would have 10 children. Hank would marry Virginia and they would have two sons. Gert would marry Tom and have 4 sons, Marie would marry Tom's brother, John and have a son and a daughter, Corrine would marry Ernie and they would have two sons and a daughter, Leo would marry Mary and have three daughters, Marge would marry Cal and have two sons and a daughter and Lorraine would marry Bill and they would have two sons and a daughter.
The families remained close, most living in the St. Paul area. They socialized together having holiday gatherings together, the men would hunt and fish together, there were bridal and baby showers and a variety of card parties, (Penny-Ante Poker, Canasta and 500). In addition there was regular visiting between families. There was also an annual Father's Day Picnic in mid June each year. It was a celebration of the family. Besides the father's versus the son's softball game, most of the time was the telling and retelling of family stories. Despite all these times of family story telling and all of the other socializing, the story of the Chocolate Cherries was never told around Rich.
It was after most of the children of the next generation were grown, when the brothers and sisters as elders, gathered to play cards or go out for lunch before the tale of the Cherry/Rocks was told to Rich and Dorothy. It happened at Gert and Tom's home when they had gathered to play penny-ante poker and were again telling family stories.
Hank said to Gert, "Go ahead and tell him, (Rich), about the Chocolate Covered Cherries. Gert thought Hank's was right. Rich had had his own family with all that goes with that, the laughter, the sorrow, the births and the deaths. She felt he would understand and besides his wife Dorothy was there and she could keep him in line. When Gert told him, Rich laughed, and Dorothy laughed, saying, "He was a fool to give a bunch of kids a box of candy." They all laughed and took the story of the secret back to the rest of their families. The story was told and retold many more times each time, with a richer appreciation of the true warmth and love in the story.
If you think about it, that box of "Chocolate Covered Cherries" was given many times, each time becoming more precious.
First Rich gave it to Es, who was hundreds of miles from her home and family, a truly loving gesture.
And, next Rich without knowing it gave that box to Hank, Gert and the little kids who found his gift of candy irresistibly delicious.
Next Hank and Gert gave the candy to themselves and their sisters and brother as a secret treat.
Next the box and rocks was Given to Esther and all the patients, staff and families in her ward at the Sanitarium, becoming a wonderful gift of laughter and family love in that somber place of illness and death.
Next it was a gift of a loving conspiracy amongst Esther, her brothers and her sisters, in some ways, the most loving gift of all.
Next it was a gift to Rich from his brothers and sisters when they revealed their thirty eight year secret.
Next it is a gift as oral family history as it was and is told and retold to the next generations.
And finally it is a gift to all of us who know that 14 year old daughter sister mother grandmother – great grandmother elder who, 75 years later still remembers the picture of the cut open bon bon, oozing cherry juice and cherry on the cover of that white candy box of rocks.
P.S. By the way since she retold this story to me and gave me permission to write the story down, she has had several hospital stays and now is living in a nursing home. So whenever I get a chance I "specially wrap and pack" a box of Chocolate Covered Cherries and give them to her. She always knows what to do with them and she always checks for little candy size rocks.
Don Bacigalupo, Her Son
2006-01-30