Cracker Jack Research Paper
Summer picnics taught me the most valuable lessons of my life. I learned that Cracker Jacks are disgusting, discrimination can create love, and that I would never be beautiful.
My great-grandmother Tillie died a month after I was born. Ottilie “Tillie” Berndt was born in Berlin and came to Minneapolis in 1893. She met Johann “Fred” Kobs in a section of Minneapolis that would be home to generations of immigrants from Sweden, Ireland, Poland, Germany, Tibet, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Somalia, and Syria. Tillie and Fred got married for the simplest of reasons, they were both from Germany.
A quick scan of the, now annual, Kobs Family Picnic attendees reveals that we are built for windstorms and not beauty. The ladies wear practical shoes and have permed …show more content…
Doug brought a 5-piece KFC snack pack and, one year, there were a dozen White Castle sliders. Cousin Bruce put a Domino’s pizza on the folding table, two slices already missing. He can do whatever he wants—Bruce is one of the few family members that still smokes. I mostly remember Bruce because, the first time I felt dread was when I thought, “I am never going to see you again,” when he shipped out for the war. Bruce came back from Viet Nam, but there are never enough cigarettes. These days, the church that Bruce’s part of the family goes to has sponsored dozens of Hmong and Somali refugees. No one really talks about it; discrimination, acceptance and love I mean.
After lunch, the “formal” part of the picnic begins when Beverly and Gretchen get out their accordions. Everyone stands and we sing the National Anthem. Uncle Fred, who lied about his age to enlist in the Navy after Pearl Harbor, puts his thick hand over his heart. Bruce stands, looking absent, with a burning cigarette at his side. Uncle Jerry, a career Army Staff Sergeant, is buried just two miles away. His wife, Arlene, does not get up. Children fidget waiting for this song to
My great-grandmother Tillie died a month after I was born. Ottilie “Tillie” Berndt was born in Berlin and came to Minneapolis in 1893. She met Johann “Fred” Kobs in a section of Minneapolis that would be home to generations of immigrants from Sweden, Ireland, Poland, Germany, Tibet, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Somalia, and Syria. Tillie and Fred got married for the simplest of reasons, they were both from Germany.
A quick scan of the, now annual, Kobs Family Picnic attendees reveals that we are built for windstorms and not beauty. The ladies wear practical shoes and have permed …show more content…
Doug brought a 5-piece KFC snack pack and, one year, there were a dozen White Castle sliders. Cousin Bruce put a Domino’s pizza on the folding table, two slices already missing. He can do whatever he wants—Bruce is one of the few family members that still smokes. I mostly remember Bruce because, the first time I felt dread was when I thought, “I am never going to see you again,” when he shipped out for the war. Bruce came back from Viet Nam, but there are never enough cigarettes. These days, the church that Bruce’s part of the family goes to has sponsored dozens of Hmong and Somali refugees. No one really talks about it; discrimination, acceptance and love I mean.
After lunch, the “formal” part of the picnic begins when Beverly and Gretchen get out their accordions. Everyone stands and we sing the National Anthem. Uncle Fred, who lied about his age to enlist in the Navy after Pearl Harbor, puts his thick hand over his heart. Bruce stands, looking absent, with a burning cigarette at his side. Uncle Jerry, a career Army Staff Sergeant, is buried just two miles away. His wife, Arlene, does not get up. Children fidget waiting for this song to