A Fry Bread memory... 

When I was growing up, in a large family (ten of us kids) fry bread was one of the staples that mother made us.  We had it at least, it seemed, once a week.  Ah, but it was the best.  The smell of  fry bread takes me back to those days.  I can remember the plates we ate it from, the kitchen where  I saw it made.  The bowl mother mixed the ingredients in, the cutting board she kneaded  it out on.  I can see her cutting it into squares and then the most important part, the slice in the middle.  Then into the hot oil.  The oil was heated in a huge cast iron skillet, the fry bread would sizzle in it.  
That wasn't the only part of the meal, there was more.  Mother had also made a huge kettle full of beans, these were navy beans.  Dad's navy beans, those that he had grown in our garden.  I know this was important from dad's childhood foods.  He loved navy beans with his fry bread.  We had sliced bacon too.  Us kids would literally pour catsup on the beans for flavor (ever eat navy beans as a kid?).  Then on the fry bread we would have syrup, sometimes honey.  I thought everyone had suppers like this. 

I told mother about this FryBreadLove stories and asked her about her fry bread.  I told her I remember going to grandma Gillespie's and walking into her log house (this was by the White River close to Oglala, South Dakota). The first smell was of fry bread (grandma's house always smelled of fry bread) and kerosene (grandma always lit her house with kerosene lamps- that was so neat).  Mother told me that dad asked her if  she could make fry bread like grandma's.  This was back during the second world war, both of them were in the Navy (I really thought that was why she made "navy" beans with the fry bread).  Mother said she would give it a try, but needed to know what was in it.  Dad told her and she made it. Dad told her that it reminded him of home when he ate it.  That same recipe reminds me of my childhood.  The smell of fry bread can take me back....such happy memories.

                                                                                                   Charlie Gillespie / MatoSha    10/02