Grandpa Ray and the Orange

I made a comment on Facebook yesterday about how badly I wanted a chocolate orange...I'll send out my address if you want to send me one or a box of chocolate orange sticks. :) Anyway, I haven't seen any in the stores yet and love that chocolate/orange flavor. That sparked a conversation between Brett, Andrea and myself how the love of this candy flavor might be a Schulthies thing. I told them it was because of Grandpa Ray and asked if they had heard of Grandpa eating the orange peels. If they had heard it they couldn't remember...so here it is according to the best of my memory ( which is admittedly sketchy these days) of what my mom remembers. I thought it would be fun to see how many cousins love this candy too so I decided to put it on the blog as well.

This is how the story goes according to my memory from what I remember from my mom. When Grandpa was a child during the Depression he saw that another boy had an orange. He asked the other boy if he could have the orange peels when he ate his orange. He gave them to Grandpa and it had been a really long time since he had had anything like that so he ate the peels. My mom thinks he must have really been craving some vitamins! She also thinks that is about the same time that Grandpa's family butchered a hog for Christmas and he and his brother got to use the pig stomach for a ball. They also got a red wagon and it was a fun Christmas.

My mom said that no matter what the circumstance that every Christmas Grandpa always would buy a box or bag of oranges for Christmas and that was his contribution to the day. Every year his mother, Grandma Schulthies to my mom, would send a box for Christmas. It always held the same things. A quilt made from Grandma Evelyn's scrap pile. When Grandma Schulthies would visit in the summer she would always take the scraps back to make the quilt. My mom said that she would also bring a phone book from the salt lake area so that they could use it for toilet paper. But back to the box...it held a quilt, candied orange slices for the kids, a box of Sweet's chocolate covered orange jelly sticks for Grandpa Ray, some of that old fashioned holiday candy (my mom has a name for it but I can't remember what it is) a small toy for each kid, nuts, and candy from their Mercer cousins. I might be missing something, but I think that is it. My mom says that Grandpa just LOVED those orange sticks.

It all makes sense now, doesn't it! Our parents probably all grew up watching Grandpa eat his box of sticks and wanting some! So now our parents all do the same thing. Isn't it interesting to be connected together by a love of a candy that our Grandfather loved? I know my mom has to buy several boxes of those candies because they never last long! My mom still makes sure to buy a box of oranges for Christmas, nuts and candy. All because they are what she had as a child. Micah always think I am nuts because I like to buy nuts and candy for Christmas too.

My mom also said that she remembers every time that they visited Uncle Rendell (Grandpa's brother) he would always have those candied orange slices too. She also says that Grandma Schulthies was always so good to Grandpa because Grandpa had been so good to his parents. I think we were born into a family that has a strong heritage. How fortunate we all are!

I know that love of family was important to our Grandparents...all three grandparents. Not too many people have the opportunity to have such a fantastic family. My mom has always told me how important that was. Recently many of my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins have been especially loving to my parents and I don't have the words for my gratitude, but I am grateful! I feel especially blessed to have such a wonderful extended family!