Last week was my grandparents’ 65th wedding anniversary. The two were married in 1945 when they were both serving as marines. They started a family and got into Dartmouth with the GI bill but went to Middlebury because it offered family housing and they had a baby to cheer on daddy at his football games. In a time when more marriages end in divorce than not, I find this pretty impressive and think it worthy to explore their particular recipe for love. Humor is definitely the definitive ingredient and in their older years all the more important...
2 summers ago, I bravely orchestrated the meeting of my grandparents with my boyfriend’s parents over a summer lunch in Massachusetts, where the two families only live an hour apart. Things were going well and my future father in law was discussing his job as a professor at Harvard. My grandfather, upon hearing the word Harvard was very excited to tell the table that he had always dreamed of going to Harvard Medical School, so he had decided to do the next best thing… Donate his body to Harvard Medical School when he died. “It’s good for science and it’s free!” Unfortunately, he explained that Harvard told him that after a cadaver is used the family still needs to pay to have the remains cremated. He was of course indignant that this would cost anything. “So”, he paused, “I’m going to UMass. They’ll cremate me for free, ship me home to Kay and then she can just sprinkle my ashes on the steps in the winter so her boyfriend doesn’t slip on the ice!” My grandmother, Kay, giggled and said, “Oooh honey you’re so good to me!”
Lately my grandparents have had a habit of being at their most amusing when I bring visitors to their house. This summer I went up to my grandparents house in MA with my boyfriend for a weekend and drove up their wooded driveway at about 2pm on a Friday. As we pulled in and looked over to their pool we saw them swimming laps: my grandmother, wearing a humongous sombrero to shield her 85 year old skin from the sun. My date strained his eyes over the car wheel and then looked at my slowly saying, “Um… are they????” Knowing my family like I do, I didn’t even need him to finish his sentence. I looked harder at the pool and finished it for him, “Oh my god, yes, they are totally naked! Turn around!!!!”
We exited the car, facing the opposite direction and shouted, “Hello!!!”
“Oh dear! We didn’t know when you’d be arriving! We’re naked as Jay birds over here!! Just give us a minute!” My grandmother shouted gaily.
“We’ll just go inside and put our stuff away, we’ll see you in there” I replied. And they happily finished their laps before dressing and greeting us.
So in honor of these octogenarians I am sharing a delicious old school dish with a healthy new recipe fit to keep you ticking wayyyy into your 80s…
