Wintertime Eggnog Reminiscences

My Grandmother was fond of telling stories and one of her favorites was when she lived in a logging camp in Northern California and a sudden heavy snow storm made it impossible to even get the log train to move. The loggers gamely dug paths from cabin to cabin and out to the outhouses, and made sure that Grandma could get to the cook shack where she reigned as queen for all the unmarried loggers. It was almost Thanksgiving when she realized that she was almost out of eggs and milk and would not be able to prepare the Traditional Eggnog for the crew. These were hard working, hard living men who would do without alot of things, but going without their eggnog was going to make them a tad bit touchy.

Now my father was a young teenager at that time and spent every free moment sking. It was decided that since this was an emergency situation that he would ski into the nearest town and bring back the needed supplies. They outfitted him with a sled and off he went with instructions not to return if he couldn't get the eggs and milk. It took him a full day to ski into town, a distance of over 60 miles and another full day to make it back to camp. It was getting dark and he was cautious with where he was going, the temperature was dropping way below zero and he was having problems pulling the sled through the drifts. He knew if he stopped he would not survive the night. He kept up a slow steady pace that brought him back into the camp after midnight where he found all of the logging crew waiting up for him. They cheered and made a great fuss over his journey making my father proud of what he had done.

When I found an eggnog recipe in a cook book that was published in 1915 I immediately thought of how hard a life our fore fathers lived to bring us to this modern day and what a rich heritage they have left us!