Hi Anne:
I always loved the blue Westinghouse pitcher, as well. I loved to see it sitting in the fridge, filled with my grandmother's lemonade, every hot day during the summer. She used eight lemons, sweetened it with God-knows-how-much sugar, and garnished it with freshly picked (by me) raspberries.
The first summer we went to the Harvey's Lake house, Nana took the pitcher. She filled it, as usual, the first two days of that first summer, and cooled it in the fridge for dinner. Damn, if Carl Leighton (note from Anne: my mother's uncle by marriage) didn't drink the entire pitcher of lemonade both nights before dinner! From the third night on, we had water for dinner. When he started drinking beer later on in the evening, she made the pitcher of lemonade for us kids. Oh my, she was, indeed, a great problem solver..........and after that, she never took the pitcher to the lake for the summer.
Love, Mom
So kids, there ya have it, right from Mom. A little known fact: For the first few years of my life, I called my mother "Miss Maureen" because she was my pre-school teacher.
Here's an old-timey picture from Harvey's Lake in Pennsylvania, which my mother refers to in her little note. If you look carefully at this old steamer,you can just make out the name, "The Wilkes Barre." Wilkes-Barre was my mother and great grandmother's (whom she refers to in the story) home town. I always thought that the blue pitcher was from MY Nana, but it had actually been my great grandmother's first.
I was named Anne after this great-grandmother. She only lived a short time after I was born, but from everything I have heard about her wonderful ways, she was a terrific person to be named after. We still have her little book of family recipes. I cherish all of my family's history.
