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Issue Date: December 7, 2003
Home for the holidays with America's hero, Jessica Lynch
USA WEEKEND travels to West Virginia to sample traditions that fill the Iraq war's most famous ex-POW with her enduring spirit.
By Dennis McCafferty
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The Lynch family's hometown, Palestine, is a quiet cattle-farming community of about 650 people.
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To get there, you snake along state Route 14, a spectacular thoroughfare that bends and dips like a roller coaster, unraveling majestic views of crisp hills and icy shards on the Little Kanawha River with every turn. You drive past dump trucks loaded with limestone cut from these mountains, past Stone House Road and Thirsty's tavern. Yellow ribbons dot utility poles, mailboxes, oak trees, gas pumps and front porches. And then there's the sign, "Home of Jessica Lynch Ex-P.O.W." Farther along is Palestine, where the Lynch family lives on Mayberry Run Road.
USA WEEKEND concludes that in 2003, there's no better place to appreciate American holiday celebrations and community traditions than Wirt County, W.Va., cradle for the now-famous 20-year-old Lynch.
When Americans heard the Army private first class was captured during an ambush in Iraq in March, we feared the worst. As we learned Lynch had been rescued in April, our spirits lifted with relief and pride. When she came home to Wirt County in the summer, a giddy parade featured Lynch waving triumphantly from atop a red convertible. Now that she is discharged from the military, recovering from her catastrophic injuries and anticipating her marriage to an Army sergeant, Lynch remains surrounded by warm celebration and layers of tradition.
No celebration is complete without great food, and Wirt County is no exception. Lynch's homecoming meal was fried chicken. For this winter holiday, Jessica Lynch and her family plan to go to her grandmother's house on Christmas Eve, open their presents that night, and enjoy a feast of baked ham thickly basted with brown sugar and pineapple, homemade potato salad with celery and onions, and Kool-Aid.
"Christmas Eve is the only time when we know that we're all going to get together," says her grandmother, Wyonema "Nema" Lynch, 66. "Now, since Jessica has come home, we want to make this year's gathering as special as possible."
As the Lynches dig out time-honored, food-stained recipes, families around the country will be doing the same. Instead of the Lynch Family 7-Layer Salad (recipe), it may be eggnog, potato pancakes, tamales, lasagna, frosted gingerbread men, sweet kugel, thick chunks of tender pork buried in a bowl of steaming sauerkraut -- there are as many traditions as there are homes in America.
Lynch's Wirt County, population 5,935, has its own endearing and enduring winter customs. Deer-hunting season intersects with the holidays, so a number of homes serve up venison -- not ham or turkey --
for Christmas dinner. At Andra Dobyns' house, the deer roast is marinated overnight in Jack Daniel's, garlic and maple syrup, then simmered all day in a crock pot with carrots, potatoes, onions and tomatoes. "We make sure we use tomatoes grown right in our backyard garden," says Andra, 16, a junior at Wirt County High. "That stuff out of the can is so runny. The real thing tastes so much better." This is also the time of year, residents will tell you, when venison lands in plenty of pots of chili.
Wirt County was built by people working hard in timber, oil and gas, and it maintains a down-to-earth appeal. This isn't Wal-Mart country; you won't find any strip malls in its 235 square miles. You will find, not far from the Lynch home in Palestine, places called Beaverdam, Blue Goose, Lucille, Peewee, Rover and Windy.
Downtown Elizabeth, the county seat, is a Hallmark-card-style depiction of Main Street, America. Two cannons from 1914 sit next to a stately county courthouse. The town just got a new restaurant called the Burger Barn, but Mom's Place is the spot to gather for culinary creations and conversation. Helen Burns, 60, who runs Mom's, hand-delivered a chocolate pie to Lynch upon her homecoming. Every day now, Burns serves up a dozen homemade pies and cakes -- including butterscotch pie, pineapple pie, coconut almond Bundt cake and the area favorite, banana split cake. At lunch the crowd is made up of school and local government workers and the folks who run the few retail shops. Many residents make that rugged drive out of town on Route 14, to places such as Parkersburg, about 30 miles north, for plant, office and sales jobs.
At Lynch's old high school, the best-equipped kitchen in the county is in the home economics classroom: two refrigerators, four microwaves, four stoves and two crock pots. On a recent day, the students learned about the value of a home-cooked meal, and the room filled with the hearty scent of garlic and basil as they made pasta and salad. "That's the idea: to encourage them to have, if even just once a week, one family meal in a sit-down setting," says home ec teacher Coleen Bumgarner. "Between their band practices and sports and everything else they have going on, the families don't get enough of a chance to do that."
Time matters. The first week in December, neighbors open their homes to sample sweets and admire one another's Christmas decorations in what is called the "holly trail." Some make the rounds on horse and buggy.
On the first Sunday in December, residents of the hamlet of Morristown gather for the annual potluck holiday dinner, loading their plates with ham, turkey, chicken livers, mashed potatoes and pumpkin-roll dessert (recipe). "Everything we do is so rushed these days," Mary Daugherty says. "When we plan something like this so we can all get together and enjoy good food, we want to put our best effort into it."
Next weekend is reserved by Debbie Hennen, the county assessor, for baking Christmas sweets. Her plan: four batches each of 15 varieties -- including peanut butter balls, seven-layer bars, traditional sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and fudge -- that call for at least 30 pounds of flour, 30 pounds of sugar and 10 dozen eggs. "The good thing is that it's deer-hunting season," Hennen says, "so the men are gone. They come home and want something to eat, and all they get is a bologna sandwich because we've been so busy in the kitchen."
This Christmas Eve, like all others, Betty Winters will bake a ham all night at 250 degrees with brown sugar, mustard -- and a can's worth of Coke -- for the family holiday feast.
In the end, Wirt County's holiday celebration is about much more than what's on the table. It's about the people who brought it to the table and those who will partake. For them, and all of us, it's a comfort to know Jessica Lynch will take her customary seat and pass the plates.
No holiday is complete without great food.
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Tastes of West Virginia
Comforting Cookies
When Jessica Lynch was missing, neighbors gave the family homemade food. Now her brother, Greg Lynch Jr., seems addicted to these sweet, soft cookies brought over by Betty Winters of Elizabeth, W.Va.: "Whenever he sees me, he asks, 'Where are my cookies?' "
2 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsps. vanilla
2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 cups granulated sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups corn flakes, coarsely crushed
1 1/2 cups quick oats
12-ounce package chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a very large mixing bowl, combine oil, eggs and vanilla. Add sugars; mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda and salt. Add to sugar mixture, beating until blended. Stir in corn flakes, oats, chocolate and nuts. Drop by tablespoonfuls, 3 inches apart, onto lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake until light brown, about 9 to 10 minutes. Cool slightly on cookie sheets and remove to wire rack to cool completely. Repeat. Yield: 9 dozen.
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Party Pumpkin Roll
A sweet that's popular as a holiday-party finger food, from Brenda Batten-Cooper of Parkersburg.
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup canned pumpkin purée
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups powdered sugar, divided in half
2 Tbs. margarine
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine eggs, sugar, flour, pumpkin, cinnamon and baking soda. Line a 10-by-15-inch jellyroll pan (or a cookie sheet with edges) with wax paper; grease or spray with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and bake 15 minutes. Loosen edges with a spatula. Immediately turn out onto a clean towel (not terrycloth) dusted with 1 cup powdered sugar. Starting at narrow end, roll towel, wax paper and hot cake together. Cool 20 minutes, unroll and remove wax paper. Mix remaining sugar with margarine, vanilla and cream cheese until smooth. Spread filling on cake; sprinkle with nuts. Reroll and refrigerate. While cold, cut into 1/2-inch slices. Serves 20.
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Lynch Family 7-Layer Salad
The Lynch family holiday dinner is on Christmas Eve. It's a "bring a covered dish" affair in which foods change from year to year. But grandmother Wyonema "Nema" Lynch says this easy, colorful salad is a family favorite for get-togethers.
In a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish, layer the ingredients as follows:
1st: 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, torn in bite-size pieces.
2nd: 1/2 cup celery, thinly sliced.
3rd: 1/2 cup bell peppers, thinly sliced.
4th: 1/2 cup onions and 1/2 cup cucumbers, both thinly sliced.
5th: 14.5-ounce can of peas, drained.
Stop and, with a spatula, spread 1 pint of mayonnaise over layers. Sprinkle on a pinch or two of sugar to taste ("Just enough to take the bite of the mayonnaise out," Lynch says).
6th: 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese.
7th: 1 or 2 boiled eggs, sliced, and a 3.25-ounce jar of bacon bits.
Refrigerate. Serves 8-10.
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Hearty Sauerkraut Casserole
From Mary Daugherty of Elizabeth, an aromatic casserole that also can be a side dish.
1 pound mild Italian sausage links, cut into 1-inch slices
1 large onion, chopped
2 apples (such as Macintosh or Granny Smith, which hold their shape when cooked), peeled and quartered
27-ounce can sauerkraut, undrained
1 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsps. caraway seeds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet or Dutch oven, cook sausage and onion until sausage is brown and onion is tender. Drain fat. Stir in apples, sauerkraut, water, sugar and caraway seeds. Transfer to a 2 1/2-quart baking dish. Cover and bake 1 hour. Serves 4 as a main dish.
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