Inklings

Category: traditions

  • Weddings

    wedding

    Weddings are certainly a blessed tradition. It’s a time for families and friends to witness and celebrate the union of two committed individuals. Sometimes the weddings are short. Sometimes they’re long. Some are on Fridays, others Saturday. Some have elaborate receptions, others do not. Among the various wedding traditions, there’s one that seems to be consistent – the clinking of glassware to summon the married couple’s kiss.

    I’ve witnessed attempts over the years to thwart this longstanding tradition. While it seems logical that this ‘clinking’ is not allowed to prevent breaking the water glasses (most likely at the request of the venue’s food service staff) I think it’s more a way to make the summoning a more difficult process so that the bride and groom can actually enjoy their meal. I’ve been to receptions where entire tables would have to stand and sing a song with the word ‘love’ in it before the couple would kiss. Others just replace the glassware with table decorations like bells.

    Just yesterday I attended my cousin’s wedding. They too, tried in vain to avoid this noisy tradition by requesting a dollar be placed on the head table for each kiss. Unfortunately they made only two dollars before giving in to the clinking glassware.

  • Graduation

    graduation

    Time again to dust off the old gown and don the mortarboard. Today is the 70th Commencement of Bismarck State College thus marking the end of many students’ college educations and the beginning of their careers. Best wishes and congratulations to all those graduates out there!

  • Remembering

    There is no shortage of ways to remind oneself to do things. One of the most ridiculous symbols of remembering is the infamous image of a finger with a string tied around it. I wonder if anyone ever used that technique. It seems like it would take a lot of work and dexterity to tie a small string on one of your fingers. I guess if you are able to do that, remembering what it is that you shouldn’t forget should be relatively simple.

  • Egg Hunt

    What would Easter be without a good old-fashioned egg hunt? It’s odd, but I can remember more egg hunts that took place indoors. The combination of Easter fluctuating between the months of March and April and the often splendid Midwestern weather it’s really no mystery.

    We plan to do an egg hunt this year at my sister’s in Minnesota, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. With four grandkids, there will be plenty of eggs to find. I have to admit – any snow would make them easier to hide.

  • Easter Bunny

    It’s interesting how varied the Easter Bunny tradition is in families. As a kid growing up I found it much easier to believe in Santa Claus. After all, Santa wasn’t a buck-toothed, long-eared lagomorph that hopped into your house to deliver Easter baskets while you were sleeping. I mean, come on! An over-sized rabbit delivering candy? Really? That simply didn’t seem believable. Now, flying reindeer – that was different.

    I also never quite understood why the Easter Bunny pretended to be Santa Claus with other families. As far as I knew, there was no behavior prerequisite that the Easter Bunny followed when determining the size of his offerings, so it didn’t make sense why some kids got bikes and stereos. The Easter Bunny I knew only delivered candy in plastic eggs, and if there were any gifts they were sure to fit in that modestly-sized basket covered with plenty of that extra special, plastic grass. Strange. Maybe we were supposed to write letters to the Easter Bunny.

  • Baking

    Nothing in the glutenous world beats freshly-baked bread. If you’re yearning for that homemade taste, store-bought frozen bread dough will do in a pinch, but I have to say, nothing beats mom’s homemade bread recipe.

    If you’ve never witnessed the making of homemade bread, it’s quite a process. I remember the long hours mom spent mixing all the ingredients in her large black kettle; how she covered it with a flour sack towel (or heating pad) waiting for it to rise; and the violent punching and kneading that was necessary to work it over before forming it into little loaves and buns. All that work she put into it was well worth it and our reward for being ‘helpful’ was a sampling from the first batch.

    Us kids would wait patiently near the oven for the first loaves to come out. As soon as that oven door opened, the intoxicating smells of yeast filled the entire house. After sternly reminding us to stay safely away from the hot pans, she would take a paper towel, swab it with butter and gently rub the golden brown tops of the piping hot bread. Waiting for the bread to cool was the hardest part so we often risked burning our lips to taste what had been teasing our taste buds for so long.

    It’s not often that we get to enjoy mom’s homemade bread but we can usually count on Thanksgiving to get a taste of those incredible buns. They’ve become so popular that she usually doubles her normal batch (half of which always seem to go home with someone very lucky). Maybe, just maybe, we can hope to have homemade buns for Easter this year.

  • Practical Jokes

    Who doesn’t like a good laugh now and again? Practical joking has always been a creatively effective way to make someone laugh – providing no one gets hurt. A lot depends on who you’re pranking, too. I’ve been the victim of a few practical jokes – some unknowingly (much to the chagrin of the pranksters) – but most of the time I can appreciate the humor of the situation.

    One of the traditions of the building I work in was an initiation of sorts. One of the old wooden signs outside our building was replaced years ago with a more modern metal sign. As a memento of the old sign, one of my former colleagues kept a 2 foot section of a 4×4 post. Whenever a new instructor was hired my former colleague and his cronies would lodge said post under the back tire, just out of sight, of the victim’s vehicle. Around quitting time they would all lag behind and congregate around the windows of the shop garage door that overlook the parking lot. As you can imagine, they had a good hearty laugh watching the poor fellow trying to leave after checking his parking brake repeatedly.

    When my colleague retired, I inherited that post. We’ve since hired some new people in this building… hmmmm. April Fool’s is coming up.

  • Rodent Weatherman

    Button up! It looks like we have six more weeks of winter to endure. The Groundhog’s Day tradition is one of the most interesting and ridiculous ceremonies in American history. I’ve always felt that the conditions leading to the predictions defied logic. In my mind if the groundhog sees his shadow that would mean that there is plenty of sunlight outside — a condition more typical of spring-like weather. Instead it means we’re getting six more weeks of winter. And that six week length of time ain’t exactly something you can bank on either. It certainly isn’t adequate for North Dakota. I mean, look at last year — we had a blizzard a whole eight weeks after Punxsutawney Phil made his prediction. But then, how accurate can a weatherman who forecasts the weather once a year actually be?