A New Treat at Piney Point

A NEW TREAT AT PINEY POINT

Having come from a poor shtetl in Poland, Gila had never enjoyed the bourgeois luxury of going on vacation.  So Jane went with her up to Piney Pointy for a couple of weeks in August.  Jane had been supratemporally transmigrated to 1904 from 1594, and although she was still trying to get a grasp on the Twentieth Century, she had been to Piney Point before, and knew all the things to do there. 

            They went hiking the forest trails.

            Neither of them knew how to swim, but they dutifully put on their bathing costumes and splashed and paddled and floated in Goose Lake.

            And of course, they just sat around reading.  Jane had always meant to read Spencer’s The Faerie Queene, and now, without the other girls pressing “must read” books into her hands, she took the time to do it.

            One day, on one of their excursions, they came to a marsh at one end of Goose Lake.  Since they spent a lot of time together, and modern English was a second language for them both, when alone they often conversed in a mixture of Yiddish and Elizabethan.

Gila noticed some flowers growing nearby.  

“See!” cried Gila, “Those blummen called zumpmalva are!”

            “’Tis also called mash-mallow.” said Jane.

            “Of its vortsl a nashvarg I ken the making.” Said Gila.

            “Something to eat from the roots?” Jane asked for clarification.

            “Ye, geshmak maykholim, sweetmeats, candy.”

            Not afraid to get her feet wet, Gila went into the rushes, and with a stick, dug up some marsh-mallow roots.

            Back at Piney Point, she washed them and cut them into small pieces, which she then dried in the sun.

            Then she ground the pieces even smaller.

            The next step was to boil the ground roots in water, and skim off the sweet, sticky juice that was boiled out.  This she mixed with sugar and gelatin, and poured into a pan.

            When it had set, she turned it out onto the cutting board and cut it into bite-sized pieces. 

            That evening, Jane made plans for supper.

            “Of all farvaylung, or pastimes, in which we at Piney Point do partake, one is called by the other girls a ‘wienie roast.’  We do sup al fresco on vurshtl that over an open fire are kohkn, together with other nashn.” 

            They put everything they needed in a basket and went into the woods towards the lakeshore.  They had a pound of kosher frankfurters (the vurshtl, or little sausages, Jane had mentioned), a bottle of lemonade, and other treats.  With some head shaking and tongue clucking, Gila had to lay and light the fire.  Jane had been raised in a noble household with many servants, and had never had to lay a fire or even strike a flint in her life, and she found the sudden flame at her fingertips that came from striking a match greatly unnerving.

            They skewered the frankfurters on long sticks, roasted them, and ate them with lots of mustard.

            They had brought the candy which Jane had dubbed “confit of marsh-mallow,” and Jane’s favorite snack, milk chocolate bars from Hershey’s brand new factory.  Fearing that the two girls would not eat a healthy diet on vacation, Leah had sent with them a big box of Graham crackers, a nutritious health food.

            “Of doziker crackers, Leah us volt to khap a nash,” said Gila.

            “But they like sawdust farzukhn.”

            “Then let us them nash mit the confit of marsh-mallow.”

            “And chocolate therewith!” Jane exclaimed, “An we put another Graham cracker over all, what the girls call a sandwich will we have. ‘Twill keep our fingers from stickiness beshmirn.”

            They made some, they ate some, and they found them irresistibly delicious!

            Jane licked her lips. “Of some of this nashvarg would I have the more!”

            “Du veln some more hobn?”

            “Yea!  I will have the same again!” declared Jane.

            “Ikh oykh veln the same again hobn!”

            “Then let us call this nashvarg ‘Same-Agains’,” said Jane, “and so they shall be called from this day forward!”

            With that, they both had some more.