Latkes with Lois!
I had a great time getting to know Lois on Saturday. She is a lovely woman who I connected with through Cantor Jenna from Woodlands Community Temple. Lois also served on the temple’s finance committee with my father, so we had multiple connections. I was so happy to get to learn a little more about her.
Lois chose her mother-in-law’s latke recipe for her Meals with Memories experience. I LOVE latkes, so I was excited to cook them. Lois’s recipe is very different from my family's traditional latke recipe so it was so interesting to experiment with a different way to cook them. My family's latkes are made with thick pieces of shredded potatoes and you can see all the individual potato pieces when you cook them. When I made Lois’s family recipe I pureed the potatoes in a blender, so everything was more like a regular pancake. They turned out to be so delicious!
I brought the latkes to Lois’ house for lunch. Lois grew up on the West Side on Manhattan. She met her husband Jerry on a double-blind date and they were married for 45 years before he passed away. She has a daughter and a son, who both live in the tristate area with their children. She enjoys spending time with her two granddaughters and grandson. Lois and Jerry raised their family in Edgemont and they moved to Greenburgh after her kids graduated high school. We talked about what it was like for her kids growing up in Edgemont many years ago. When her kids were growing up, the school used to send all the students home for lunch. Lois was a working woman which was a bit unusual at that time, so she was not home to pick up her kids and give them lunch at home. She was eventually able to arrange for her daughter to stay at school throughout lunch time with only one other girl. I thought that was so interesting since we always eat lunch at school and it never occurred to me that it wasn’t always like this for students.
Lois is an inspirational woman who had many different jobs throughout her life. She majored in Journalism and English in college. She was a journalist for a while and then pursued several careers including art gallery owner, insurance broker, consignment store owner, real estate developer, president of WCT and eventually she served as the program director at the JCC before she retired. Her house had some gorgeous art from her time as an art gallery owner. It’s fun to see how people’s career paths are often reflected in their homes.
Towards the end of our lunch, we discovered a funny coincidence. One of my best friends' grandmothers who they call Honey (who I just happened to be seeing later that night) is one of Lois’ lifetime friends! Lois even set her up with her husband many years ago! It’s amazing how you can find random connections with people once you get to know them.
Overall I had a great time getting to know Lois and learning about her family history! And, I think she had a nice time too. I love this project because I get to connect with so many new people!