Mountain Laurel & Coal

  Forest Vance Ross was born 106 years ago today on July 22, 1915, in a house on Main Street in Clarksville, Pa. I was blessed to be his granddaughter.  I’m traveling today, so I’m not able to write a tribute that does him justice. So, here’s a photo of a great man who dedicated his life to his family.  Once, I asked him how I could ever repay him for all he did for me. “Paying it forward” wasn’t a term back then, but he told me to provide for my own children. 

My Grandfather George H. Phillians wanted to be an electrical engineer, but the Great Depression killed that dream. He was born on October 17, 1910, in Millsboro, Washington County, Pa., to Harry Ernest and Olivia Horner Phillians. He graduated from East Bethlehem High School where he studied Latin and science. He was a very gifted carpenter, a talented artist, and he was a man who enjoyed a good laugh and an off-color joke. He drank Rolling Rock beer, he only ate homemade bread, and he always took a Peppermint Patty in his lunchbox. In 1929, George was studying at Fenn College in Cleveland, Ohio, where he stayed at the Central YMCA on Prospect Street. He was a reporter for the school newspaper and was having a grand old time, writing regularly to his younger brother Russell Irwin Phillians and his mother. He completed one year and then the Great Depression crippled the economy. He didn’t return to school because he was needed in Millsboro to care for his mother. Eventually, George was...

Did anyone else’s mom make syrup out of coffee? When I was little my mom made it all the time. I can’t be sure, but I think she put it on pancakes and French toast. My little sister Kelly and I didn't care about those traditional uses, we loved the rock candy that formed in the bottom of the jar. In our opinion the sole purpose was to make rock candy. My dad would use a knife to scrape the hard sugar out of the bottom of the jar for us. For some reason, I started thinking about this coffee syrup. I did a Google search to see if there was such a thing or if I was remembering things wrong. To my surprise,  I found several recipes. The one that sounded like my mom’s consisted of three ingredients: instant coffee, sugar, and water.  One recipe that I found online from Robin Gagnon, who writes the Mom Foodie blog , provided a little background about how coffee syrup is used to make Coffee Milk. “If you have never heard of Coffee Milk before, you have never lived in Rhode Island. It...

Forest Eli & Lelia Sanders Ross My Great-Grandfather Forest Eli Ross was born 133  years ago on Independence Day, in Clarksville, Greene County, Pa. He was born on July 4, 1888, the youngest son of Amy Pryor and Eli Bailey Ross and he had one older brother John Leslie Ross, who was known as J.L. Forest Eli married Lelia Levine Sanders, the daughter of Daniel and Lucy Sanders of Lone Pine, Pa. and they had six children: Lucile, Daniel Guy, Forest Vance, Keith, Donald, and Betty. Forest Vance was my grandfather. Lelia told the story about the day they met at a box social. She and other young ladies had prepared picnic baskets that were auctioned off to eligible young bachelors. Forest Eli made the highest bid on her basket and the two enjoyed a picnic lunch together. She agreed to marry him on October 29, 1908, because he was carrying a Bible on their picnic lunch. She said he tricked her into thinking he was a Godly man.  In 1917, he was a rural mail carrier when he r...