1961 Nanny and Poppy

My maternal grandparents circa 1961. We referred to them as Nanny and Poppy. My parents brought them from 'back east' to visit once or twice/year. The first thing Nanny would do would be to put a popnoodle (quick cake full of raisin, nuts and cinnamon) into the oven. I have the recipe but I can never get it to come out right.

I don't have many pictures of my grandfather Poppy. You can see he still has his red hair in this photo. None of his children, grandchildren or great grandchildren inherited his red hair and green eyes though we all have strong red highlights in our hair.

They both came from wealthy german jewish New Haven families and their match was considered quite the deal at the time. My grandfather's family owned a company, the Baumann Rubber Company, which at one time, had 160 employees. But it failed during the depression and they never regained their financial footings.

My grandfather smoked cigars and every year, my grandmother would fill one of the cigar boxes with little gifts or political or business giveaways all individually wrapped up. The highlight was always a penny that was wrapped and wrapped in many kinds of wrapping paper. I remember really enjoyed opening up the cigar boxes from my grandparents every year.

Notice our cat Misty on the right.