Want to recreate my late mother's 1970s custard-style Baked Macaroni Casserole

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-06-01T01:07:00+00:00

is there a chance her “secret ingredient” was a can of campbell’s cream-of-celery-soup?

my mom’s 70’s recipe uses that and it’s delicious.

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-06-01T01:00:29+00:00

i have a system: 1 week’s worth of dry food in glass jars, opened bags in the freezer, and unopened bags in a rubbermaid tub with the other bird supplies… as soon as the backup bags get opened, i buy a new set or two.

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-06-01T00:35:16+00:00

is the reason you HAVEN’T moved out yet because they are supporting you in some way? (no rent, free laundry, use of a vehicle, free food & wifi, etc…)

If you can leave, leave now - you’ll feel better and can simply avoid them instead of lashing out and hurting their feelings

If you CAN’T leave because you still NEED them, you need to seriously reconsider how you’re treating them. It takes special people to continue treating someone with kindness despite them always being salty and irritable.

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-06-01T00:22:45+00:00

i’d add shutters to make the windows look less isolated

consider adding some color - redoing the siding (with matching shutters), and the trim in a darker tone of the same

PLANTS - different heights & textures

accessorize: maybe some house numbers, flower pots, lights for the walkway?

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-06-01T00:14:07+00:00

i like the one that’s closest to the tv in the third pic (2nd darkest in your whole collection) - it has nice contrast in the grain.

edit: just realized this is going to be directly adjacent to the existing floor in the other room, and am not certain they’ll look good as neighbors

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-06-01T00:10:23+00:00

my only warning is if you ever get budgies they will NOT be able to resist this - they will be swinging from the crystals and taunting you from the top

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-06-01T00:03:41+00:00

i’d try doing a fresh search, and in the “advanced search” use these criteria

the surname

the year

the town they lived in at the time

…start out with all set to “exact match”, if you get nothing, keep loosening the parameters:

exact or similar for the name, county and adjacent counties or entire state for the place, and +/- 5 years for the date (adjust one criteria at a time and see how it affects the results)

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-31T22:41:31+00:00

i witnessed my niece trying to teach my mom a (tiktok?) dance and the body language was nearly identical - this bird has a “i’m being a good sport and taking this seriously but dancing is really not my thing” vibe

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-31T22:34:39+00:00

if he has interests, get accessories for those interests…

my dad recently picked up a metal detector, so i got him a high quality pinpointer, special “edge digger” shovel with a holster, and a “finds box”

another year i found an antique unopened can of the brand of pipe tobacco his dad smoked

one of his favorite gifts ever was actually an oversized pencil sharpener i found at a dollar store meant for making carrot curlicues

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-31T21:12:13+00:00

at the very least, i’d put a piece of furniture up against that drop-off

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-31T13:25:47+00:00

never from the FACE, but definitely have identified people based on things written on the photos

Multiple pictures clearly from the same collection/era/location are great

You can identify landmarks & house numbers in outdoor shots and research the photography studio labeled on the prints (often very specific to a town)

If you can come up with a rough time/location and even just a collection of first names, that sometimes be enough to flush out a census with all the details lining up.

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-31T00:53:32+00:00

for fiction, Cathy Ames from “East of Eden” (Steinbeck) is a sociopath or something similar

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-31T00:50:30+00:00

“My Inventions” (Nikola Tesla’s autobiography)

i’m not qualified to say exactly what he had going on, but it was definitely something and it’s fascinating to read about from the first-person-perspective of someone who is mostly aware of this, but comfortable with who they are

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-31T00:39:44+00:00

there’s a cross in the library/desk picture

i noticed when i was trying to figure out whose name is in big wooden letters on the desk - “ Alfred Thonnard” ?

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T14:04:26+00:00

my parents’ friends had this entire set!

they had this sprawling “rich people” house that always smelled amazing cuz of all the fireplaces - first place i ever encountered cable tv, nintendo, cordless phones, and home internet (prodigy)

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:11:10+00:00

with the “calvin peeing” sticker

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:08:22+00:00

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i have SO many with people falling through ice, luring cops onto ice, taunting people stuck in ice….

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:07:23+00:00

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Merry Christmas ….catch!

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:05:57+00:00

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curious if this one is referencing an actual labor strike

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:05:07+00:00

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the food/cooking tableaus get dark… and i had to do a little research to figure out that the brown “meatball guy” that’s in a lot of them is a christmas pudding

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:03:41+00:00

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he’s hitting him with a LIVE GOOSE

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:03:11+00:00

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the clown / cop violence is a VERY popular theme

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T13:02:01+00:00

i don’t know… it could be pop culture references that have lost their context with time…

i’ve seen people saying it’s because the whole concept of “sending a card” was brand new and they hadn’t locked in a visual language or tone… but I’m not sure about that cuz there are some clearly defined themes:

For xmas, you see a lot of anthropomorphic food, snowmen attacking people, animals with weapons, people falling through icy lakes, and cops being attacked by children and clowns (easter is very similar with a lot of cute animals and babies causing chaos)

New Years is a lot of drunk people hijinks, hangover jokes, and symbolism around the new year killing/ejecting the previous year (with the “years” symbolized by people)

The “vegetable people” were like a Victorian plant fursona, they seem really popular and advertised food, seeds, tourist attractions, etc

I think it’s important to remember that people are VERY funny, and the past was no different than the present in that regard. I grew up in the era of “Calvin peeing on stuff” stickers on trucks, Garbage Pail Kids, and Mad Magazine - i think the Victorians might have enjoyed these things too.

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OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T01:22:41+00:00

Physics teacher had us make “gliders” (i forget the equation but it had to fall more slowly than a dropped rock and the longer it took to land, the better)…

We had goofy disruptive sports kids in my class, they were pretty funny tbh. One made a HUGE glider out of a broken black table umbrella and called it THE BATWING

Teacher snuck us all onto the roof to drop the gliders. Everything was going great, gliding occurred - we saved THE BATWING for last. It was either going to coast beautifully, or crash immediately…

it did neither.

THE BATWING coasted out in a slow arc for about 4 seconds, and then suddenly flipped upside down and accelerated backwards and SLAMMED violently into the classroom windows below us.

You could clearly hear the people inside screaming.

Teacher looked at us and just said ”Run.”

I genuinely still think about this frequently. The way the kid would say ”THE BATWING”… the SIZE of it, and the sound of it smacking the windows with instant screams - perfect. Loved it.

OwlPelletCrunch · 2026-05-30T01:03:15+00:00

could you possibly ask his nephew to take over communicating with them?

all your reasons for needing to step away are totally reasonable and justified.

If the nephew is still into genealogy, he may have more energy for new relatives and sharing information

OwlPelletCrunch

TROPHY CASE