Author Archives: Mark Winn

Recipe

Original script/version:

Receipt:

Cinnamon Apple Salad -Mom

Syrup:

Karo light corn syrup

Water

Sugar

Cinnamon sticks

Imperial red hot cinnamon candies

Red food color

Peeled and cored apples

Combine in a large sauce pan.  Bring to boil and simmer until slightly thicken.  Place apples in simmering syrup a couple at a time.  Cook until apples are slightly softened and a nice red color.  Remove to a dish to cool.  Continue until all apples are cooked.  Refrigerate to chill.

Filling:

Chopped celery

Chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

Raisens

Mayonnaise

Combine all ingredients.

To assemble:

Place lettuce leaf on plate.  Put chilled apple on lettuce.  Fill with filling mix.  Allow some to overflow onto lettuce.  Serve.

This is a neat appetizer that my family has done for years. My mother got the receipt from her mother when they lived in Los Angeles in the early 1960’s. My mother is the one who always makes the apples. The first part of the process, when all the apples need to be skinned, is often left to the kids to do. The whole process takes a long time and is often started early in the morning. Unlike the family chocolate pie receipt, these apples are only made at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.

Tradition – Greek

Original script/version:

“At weddings, a tradition is to take the groom away from the reception and then put the bride in the center of a circle of dancing people, apparently. Then, the groom comes back to ‘rescue’ the bride (I kid you not)… and he has to “red-rover style” break through the circle.”

Allison said she witnessed this even first hand at her older brother’s wedding three years ago. Her family is Greek originally but she did not know about this tradition. She was surprised when it happened because she had not been instrumental in planning the wedding.

This wedding ceremony seems to coincide nicely with many other European wedding traditions that involve separating the bride and the groom. After the groom is separated, he has to come back, break through a wall of people, to then rescue his bride. This could symbolize how the two are now going to be combining their lives and the groom is responsible for the welfare of his wife. Breaking the chain of people could also be symbolic of “crossing the threshold” that is seen in other European wedding folklore.

Remedy

Original script/version:

“Another was I was taught to get rid of the hiccups was to eat apple sauce or drink water from a cup while hanging upside down.”

“I must have gotten the hiccups often when I was younger because I have so many way for getting rid of them. Both of these suggestions came from my best friend. We were both 12 at the time, I think. We were hanging out at her house and I had a case of the hiccups. First she suggested eating apple sauce. I did, and it didn’t work. Then she suggested drinking water upside down. I don’t know if the water actually helped or I was so distracted by the whole process that I forgot about my hiccups. I have used apple sauce since then and it has stopped my hiccups.”

“I sometimes wonder if these techniques are successful only because of the placebo effect. Because I believe they will get rid of my hiccups, my hiccups stop.”

Eating foods is not a bad guess for stopping the hiccups. Because hiccups originate in the diaphragm, it is only logical that the first attempts to cure them would be directed at the chest. Drinking water inverted could be a way to change someone’s breathing pattern, or the more forceful swallowing action required to drink water upside down could also account for the effectiveness of this folklore remedy.

Game

Original script/version:

Game:

“We call the game the Ammo Can game. What you do is, you take two old military ammunition cans, the rectangular box-like ones, and you set them 20 or 25 feet apart. Then you get a rope that’s about 30 feet long. Now one person stands on each of the ammo cans and each has an end of the rope. The point is to get the other person to fall off the ammo can. You have to be quick, by pulling and letting go, you can cause the other person of fall off and its really funny. “

“I became a river guide when I was 20, back in 1967. I’ve learned all sorts of things from other river guides and river runners. The whole community is really pretty close. I probably learned this game 25 years ago from another guide. I used to play this game all the time. When I would take big groups of 17-25 down the [Grand] Canyon, while the guides were setting up tents and cooking food, the guests would be down on the beach with a couple ammo boxes and some rope. It sounds easier than it is. When you get those ammo boxes set up in sand, they are already pretty unstable. It was popular because it was really quick and easy to set up, and everyone could play. You’d have 12 year olds playing adults, guys verses girls. Its really just a good group game.”

I actually played this game a little bit a few years ago. It is definitely a game that originated from the supplies on hand. When on a week long or multiple week long river trip, you don’t have the room to pack lots of games to entertain people. You do however have a lot of air-tight ammunition cans and a lot of rope. The neat thing about this game is as you raft passed other camp sites on a river, you can see other groups playing this game, sometimes with minor variations. A few times there have been drinking rules involved.

This game is also fitting for the rafting culture because it tends to be a more competitive crowd. There is also an element of outsmarting your opponent involved. Rafters tend to be every egotistical and think they are always the smartest. So while this game is not only a duel of strength and balance, but also a battle of wits.

Game – Colorado

Game:

The Rope Game.

Rope game. For the game, you need two 4-5 foot pieces of rope and two people.  First, you tie rope around the wrists of player one.  Rope should not be too tight on the wrist.  Then, tie rope to wrist of player #2 and then pass the rope through the arms of player #1 before tying to player #2’s other wrist.  Object is to get separated without removing the rope from the wrists.

To simplify the instructions, one person makes a big O with their arms. Then the second person makes another O, interlocked with the first person. Then both players have their wrists tied. Then they try and get separated without untying each other.

Peter says, “Like the Ammo box game, this is another game I learned from other commercial river guides in the 1970’s while guiding trips through the Grand Canyon. It was popular once again because of its quick, easy set up and minimal supplies needed. I don’t actually remember how to get untangled, I’m sure I could figure it out if I played around with it.”

This game is another example of the culture that has developed around the sport of white water rafting. Although the sport has changed quickly in the last several years, it has a long and colorful past on such rivers as the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, or the Snake River in Idaho.

This game would be played as camp was being set up or as post-dinner entertainment. Rafting is a very social sport and any activity that gets multiple people involved is usually popular.