Great Aunt Minnie's Wedding
When Minnie (eldest child of James Wm. and Sarah Elizabeth Current) was to marry Henry Moll the wedding was planned to take place at the "home place" outside of New Ulm. Everyone was involved in the preparation and the whole place was a flurry of activity for days both in the house and outside (though from what I've overheard from less than respectful descendents, Great-grandpa wasn't ever in much of a hurry to be bustling in activity).
The day before the wedding, Great-grandma and the girls were working on the wedding food, including the CAKE. As she and the four girls were scurrying around the kitchen the pet squirrel (!) got more and more agitated and in the way until finally Lib told the girls to shut him up in the pantry. Once that was done, the work continued more peaceably.
Finally it was time to begin the CAKE! Even then the centerpiece of the day. Lib was a general marshalling her forces, "crack those eggs, bring me that flour, where's the sugar? Watch that oven temperature! Did you get the sugar yet?" All the while continuing to beat the batter (wonder what she'd have thought of electric mixers?). At yet another request for an ingredient which proved not to be in sight one of the girls, grandma Elvira never said which, which makes me suspect it might have been she, opened the pantry door to fetch the missing item.
Out burst an ANGRY fur ball who started flying around the kitchen, leaping from place to place, avoiding all attempts to recapture him, until one mis-judged leap landed him in the large bowl of cake batter! The girls froze in place in horrified silence! Minnie started to cry! Without a word Lib plucked the batter-covered, now subdued squirrel from the bowl by his tail, flicked him as one might shake a rag, to get the batter off, replaced him in the pantry, and turning to the still stunned girls said, "Now girls, not a word of this to anyone. The cake will be baked and no one will ever know the difference." And so it was!
As told by Karen Farrell