The tradition continues

Way back almost 60 years ago Grannie Annie had a next-door neighbor (across the carport) who taught her how to make krantz. Possibly my spelling is incorrect but Carol told that her mother had immigrated from Poland and it was a holiday pastry tradition form the old country. Grannie’s handwritten recipe is dated 1966 and my wonderful wife has made multiple batches every Christmas since and sometimes at Easter. The outside crust involves copious butter (the real stuff!) flour, egg yolks, whipping cream and yeast. Whipped egg whites with more sugar with additions of nuts, poppy seed, maraschino cherries or other delicacies that are folded inside or maybe with “solo” pie filling and then baked. The elongated package is then frosted with more frosting and chopped nuts.  Not exactly for weight watchers but what the heck it only comes once a year!

Saturday morning granddaughter Mo came down and Grannie passed along her secrets to making the delightful pastry treat. That plus a lot of laughing and talking about a thousand things as loving ladies do. So the tradition continues. I’m a lucky papa.

Grannie Annie and I enjoyed our local Peace Lutheran Church’s presentation of the Nativity last evening—as I write. One of the arenas at the Fair Grounds was the setting. The appropriate building backdrops and collection of animals from real camels to a regal rooster all led by costumed children and adults. The script was well read and a soloist and small choir made it special. Oh to enjoy a local production and we also visited with at least one lady who came from Colorado Springs to watch and record the whole production. Yes it was well attended.

Obviously, I love visiting with people and was sent out to purchase whipping cream for Grannie and Mo to make krantz. I struck up a conversation with a lady working at our local grocery store. The lady told me that she liked my hat—the red “Make America Great Again” hat that I occasionally wear in public. She spoke that she and her husband had moved here just three months ago. “Welcome to McCook” was my response. “Where did you come from?” Her response was interesting when I observed that several people I knew had moved here from Colorado.

The couple had lived in Fort Collins. Then their Fort Collins changed politically to become the new Boulder. The liberal progressive movement from the College had taken over. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) think Senator Elizabeth Warren was now infected by the political ruling class. She said that there was even a Satan after-school program for young children! They didn’t want any part of that so it was time to leave. Welcome to McCook.

To your old columnist’s knowledge, none of that kind of rot is taking place in our wonderful community. For example, the Gazette recently published an article about our public schools.  I quote: “Superintendent Grant Norgaard shared the news Monday, that the McCook school district has been classified as a “Great” district and its students consistently outperform not only the state of Nebraska but also schools within its peer group. Norgaard told the school board that McCook students surpassed the state average on every assessment at every grade level, the first time since the state began assessing students that the district has accomplished such a feat. In years there was always one area where they were slightly under the state score and it was a different area each year.”

I’ve seen no marching or demonstrations supporting Hamas or the Palestinians in their war to annihilate Israel. I am also not seeing any support for President Biden’s open borders policy and am not aware of any NGOs inviting and supporting the illegal immigrants in this area. Our policy here seems to be the time-honored advancement by honest labor and personal improvement. May it ever continue.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail