I have only a limited knowledge of
the Keyser side of my family. I remember some short incidents. The most amusing
ones concern Aunt Nell and my mother.
For starters here is a story about
my mother. On an evening soon after I returned from my first year at Yale to
Saint Louis, we were sitting in the kitchen talking about what I had achieved
during my freshman year (damn little) and somehow the question of the large
griddle that our cook had ruined by soaking it in sal soda came up. I might
not have been a star at Yale, but I thought I knew the answer to that problem.
I drove up to the neighborhood drug store and bought some pummis stone. With
that and some light oil, I spent about an hour polishing the top surface of
the griddle until all of the pits had been removed. Then I went to bed.
The next morning as mother was serving breakfast she complained that her hands were stiff. She said, "Last night when I saw how shiny you had got the top of the griddle I decided to polish up the bottom." That's a Dutch housewife for you.
A quick one on Aunt Nell. She lived in a large Victorian house and was the only
one of the Keyser gals who did not regard neatness as a primary virtue. Each
of her sisters tried to find some reason to "dig out Aunt Nell" whenever
they had the chance. Aunt Ta once came up from below and announced, "Do
you know that there are cobwebs in your den?" Aunt Nell replied,"As
long as I keep them out of my mind I'm not concerned.