Chester Chatter: From flag kids to money cakes

By Ruthie Douglas
©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC

For some time when my daughters were young, I became enamored with Women’s Day magazine. It was full of good ideas and advice.

During the summer of 1976, for the U.S. Bicentennial, it suggested buying back-to-school clothes for our in children red, white and blue and mixing and matching them so that it seemed that they had a larger wardrobe.  So that is exactly what I did.

After a month of wearing these outfits, my daughters let me know that they were tired of looking like an American flag.

So I slowly began weaving other clothes into their wardrobes.

During summer vacation, once a week I would bake a large cake and mix up some Kool-Aid for drinks then invite all our daughters’ friends to come over for a treat.

Each cake contained a quarter baked into it and the hunt for the prize delighted all the kids.  As weeks went by, there were many cakes and more and more quarters.

Just recently I ran into one of those long-ago cake eaters, who remembered being so excited about those Friday parties. He gave me a big kiss for all the fun he had had with those cakes.

Out and about

The Springfield High Class of 1959 is planning our first monthly get-together in more than a year under the Covid-19 pandemic. We gather at Riverside Restaurant once a month.

Deb Aldrich and her husband Jeff have returned after a two-week motorcycle trip down the East Coast.

My dear little friend Skylar Rogers had surgery recently for her appendix. She is doing well.

I finally got my special dress to marry my grandson Alex and his fiancee Kathrin. I have five grandchildren and I have officiated at all their weddings.

Happy anniversary Mert and Leslie Graham, who have been married 35 years.