Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1959)

body laughed, and nobody louder than Janet. Later on, though, she managed to have an accident, too. She brushed the back of her hand against the hat pot and was burned. It must have hurt terribly, but she was very brave about it. I got some butter and baking soda to put on the burn and then back she was at the pot, stirring away. Maybe we had too many cooks, because Peggy was the only one of us Lennons to emerge without an accident, and the way “the Brain” was clowning, tasting and stirring after Janet got tired, she was really the most likely candidate. Everybody was talking at once, remembering all the good times we’d had together, like last Christmas when we were carolling in our neighborhood or the Christmas before when Daddy took all of us to sing for the patients at the sanitorium in Monrovia. And what with making plans to see each other again, and teasing DeeDee and Dick Gass, and with everybody wanting a lick of the mixing spoon, it was pretty confused. So DeeDee said, “This is a perfect example of how not to have a taffy pull.” And then she took a step backward and dipped her elbow right into the open can of molasses! Maybe it just went to prove she was wrong. I think it was the perfect example of how to have a taffy pull. —KATHY LENNON It was like Christmas — it was so much fun. Taffy, in case you’ve never made any, is slow as molasses to cool and then set for pulling. So while we waited, Kathy made hot chocolate and we all sat around in the playroom. That’s kind of my favorite room, because we made it all ourselves, out of what was once a garage. And while we waited, we made up a set of mock rules for taffy pullers. And let me be sure to warn you, in case you really haven’t ever made taffy, these are don’t’s, not do’s. 1. It really isn’t necessary to follow the recipe to the nth degree. Go ahead and switch ingredients. If it says a cup of sugar, why aren’t two cups better? 2. Have a radio or record player in the kitchen playing rock ’n’ roll, so that you can beat with a beat. 3. Only three tastes to each participant. Except for the oldest one — that’s DeeDee’s contribution and, natch, she got top priority in scraping the pot. 4. Be sure to leave all dishes with molasses mixture in sink for at least two days. Then, instead of washing them, all you have to do is take a hammer and chip the hardened goo off. 5. Wear your best dress, preferably one with a billowy skirt and long sleeves. 6. Be sure to stop at a candy store the day before and buy lots of ready-made taffy — just in case. After we’d made up the rules, we cut up Christmas paper and wrapped packages of the taffy Mom had made the day before for the hospitals. We also wrapped some of the popcorn balls that we’d made from the taffy mixture. After about half an hour, we went back to the kitchen to have a look at our work of art. It was still too gooey, so we went back to the playroom for some community singing. Mom remembered that it was almost ten, past Janet’s bedtime. It was really getting late for all of us, ’cause we had school the next day. But Janet, though she could barely keep from yawning, begged to be allowed to stay up. “We didn’t even pull the taffy yet,” she said. The taffy! We all sort of shrieked together. We were so busy talking and singing we’d almost forgotten all about it. It was almost too hard to get out of the pan it had been cooling in, but somehow we managed. “See, Mommy,” Janet giggled, “you said not to let it drip all over me. Well, it’s too hard now to drip, that’s for sure!” We made a tug of war out of the taffy pulling, the Nagels vs. the Lennons. Daddy and Mr. Nagel declared it was a tie. Then we cut the taffy into pieces and wrapped it. By that time it was quite late and the Nagels walked home. For a minute, I felt kind of sad, thinking that when the Nagels moved, we’d no longer be able to just walk down the street to see each other. But thirty miles isn’t really so far. If we can’t see each other quite so often, we’ll simply have to stay longer at each visit. —PEGGY LENNON The part I liked best about our taffy pull was the singing. The Nagel sisters have really beautiful voices and they’ve already made a record for RCA Victor, “If You Don’t Love Me” and “Goody, Goody Gumdrops.” We sat around the playroom singing carols and hymns, popular songs and school songs. At one point, Maureen asked, “What shall we sing now?” Then she said, “Oh, I know, do you remember ‘Ding, Dong, the Bells Are Ringing?’ ” Golly, we all learned that one together when we were in grammar school. After a while, Daddy and Mr. Nagel came and stood in the door of the playroom and sang along with us. Their deep baritones were great for the harmony. But they hadn’t been singing with us long when we remembered about the taffy. We got there just in time. Janet and Elena scooped up some soft butter and spread it over their hands. Then Peggy, Kathy and I got behind Janet, and Sharri, Maureen and Kathy got behind Elena. The two leaders gathered the taffy into a ball and we started to pull. Daddy began to tease. “Why, when I was a boy,” he said, “I remember pulling taffy and it was a much longer piece. Why, I was on one side of the room and my brothers were clear across on the other side. You girls are practically on top of each other.” Mom helped us wrap the taffy, and she was so pretty in her red maternity top that she almost looked like another sister. The twelfth Lennon, counting Mom and Daddy, is due at the end of January. The youngest till then is Joey, and he woke up crying as we were saying good night. I ran upstairs and brought him down so the Nagels could see him — he’s so pretty. “Dood nitie,” he said. By that time, it was a contest as to who was sleepier, Joey or Janet. Kathy ran upstairs to get the dress she was lending Kathy Nagel and then Janet woke up for a minute. “We forgot to sing ‘Silent Night,’ ” she said. And so all of us sang: “Si-lent Night, Ho-ly Night, All is calm, all is bright . . DeeDee with Maureen and Kathy Nagel. I don’t think any of us have ever sung better than we did just then. —DIANNE LENNON Well, I guess my girls have told you just about everything. There’s nothing much I can add — except, that is, my recipes for taffy and chocolate popcorn balls. —“SIS” LENNON MOLASSES TAFFY — LENNON -STYLE Time to prepare: 1 hour Makes approximately: 30 pieces Vi cup granulated sugar Vi cup brown sugar, firmly packed 1 cup molasses 6 tablespoons water 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 1/16 teaspoon baking soda Vs teaspoon salt Rub a shallow pan with butter or margarine. Mix granulated and brown sugars with molasses and water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring often to prevent burning. Cook until a little of the mixture dropped in cold water forms a hard ball (270°F). Remove from heat, add butter or margarine, salt and soda. Stir just enough for all the ingredients to be mixed together. Pour into the pan and let stand until cool enough to handle. As edges cool, fold them toward the center or they will harden before the center cools — but do not mix. Now comes the funl Butter the fingers and fold or gather the taffy into a ball. Keep pulling the candy, folding it over upon itself and stretching it until it is firm and its color has lightened. Then stretch taffy out into a long rope, twist halfway, lay it on wax paper and cut with scissors into 1-inch lengths. To keep your scissors from sticking, dip them frequently into hot water. Recipe makes about a pound. LENNON . . . CORN BALLS (Chocolate Popcorn balls, that is) This recipe is enough for 1 dozen popcorn balls. **6 cups popped corn 1 cup sugar Vi cup corn syrup 1 square (1 ounce) unsweetened chocolate (or cocoa) Vi cup water Put sugar, syrup, chocolate and water into saucepan. Let simmer until a few drops form a hard ball in cold water (265°F). Pour this mixture over the popcorn, mix thoroughly. Gather corn together to shape individual balls, a palmful for each ball. ** Since we’d already made molasses mixture for taffy, we just added chocolate to taffy mixture and, following directions above, put taffy mixture (about IVi cups) plus water, plus chocolate into sauce pan and then followed the above directions for the rest of it. If you do what we did. naturally cooking time of mixture will be less than if you start out making balls from scratch — ’cause your taffy mixture will already have come to a boil. Let us know how your taffy pull turned out. —DAD LENNON. BE SURE TO SEE THE LENNON SISTERS ON “THE PLYMOUTH SHOW” STARRING LAWRENCE WELK, WEDNESDAY AT 7:30 E.S.T. ON ABC-TV AND RADIO AND ON “LAWRENCE WE k’S DODGE DANCING PARTY,” SAT., ABC-TV, 9 P.M. E.S.T.