Brush with greatness

One of the old standards in my family, all the years we were growing up, was a spiral bound cookbook with a yellow cover. It was a collection of recipes from people in AuSable Forks--one of those community collections, and was full of recipes from members of the Rogers family because my grandmother had put it together. It was probably either a fundraiser for something or she just thought it was something that should be done. Anyway, I used to use my cousin Susan's recipe for brownies, found in the "Teen Pages" section. Now I use my other grandmother's recipe, which is much better, but I used Susan's for years. Anyway, I come across the cookbook in a member library's collection from time to time, and there's a record for it in our data base, downloaded from the OCLC, the national data base:


Title: Adirondack hospitality : the bride's maid.
OCLC
7107877
Authors, etc.: Rogers, Ada H.
Publication: [Au Sable Forks, N.Y. : St. James Episcopal Church, 195-?]
Physical Description: 384 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.
Subject Headings: Cookery.
Dewey Call No.: 641.5 A235
Other Notes: Cover title."Ada H. Rogers, editor-in-chief.
"Includes index."

Wouldn't my grandmother be proud? No, she'd probably expect this, and would think her name should be more prominent in the record. I added another subject heading in our data base (Adirondack Mountains Region--recipes). I could always add Rogers family as a subject heading if I wanted to. or Rogers, Elizabeth S., 1952- heck, I'm an authority, remember?

I never knew her, she died when I was 2, but her reputation is legend. They had servants--maids, cooks, a general butler/chauffeur/gardener, etc. Apparently she was very demanding and hard to work for.

One of my father's favorite "Nan" stories goes like this: Nan was working outside and asked one of the maids to "skip up to the house and get me a glass of iced tea." Terrorized, the maid literally skipped into the house. My father loved telling that story.

He was the youngest of 5 and was named after his mother--she was Ada Hoffman Spaulding Rogers and she named him Adrian Spaulding Rogers. He dropped the Adrian when he was about 5 minutes old and was always called Spaulding. When people in town find out I'm a Rogers the first thing they ask is whose child I am. When I say Spaulding, there's a pause because he's the only son (of 3) who did NOT work at the mill. He left town at a young age, never to return, and chose a career in academia. This is not something the people of AuSable Forks can relate to. People will say either "I remember Spaulding," or "He didn't stay here, did he." Ken is always telling me that he remembers my father. Mostly he remembers my grandfather, Henry, though, and that Henry had the smallest hands Ken has ever seen. One of the things I really like about living here is hearing what people remember about my family. There are still people who worked at the paper mill--I meet them once in a while. I don't think I've ever heard anything bad about my grandfather (Henry). He was a very gentle man and no one can figure out how he put up with my grandmother, but he was devoted to her I guess.