VERONA, Va. (WHSV) – When Linda Wiseman’s mother passed away, the freezer was the last place she expected to find a family heirloom. In the grief of losing their beloved family member, the Wiseman family opened the freezer and found a little bit of joy – an 84-year-old biscuit.
“She was a neat freak, and she’d clean things up that didn’t need to be cleaned – you know – but she kept that,” Wiseman said.
Hard as a rock, the decades old biscuit came with a crumb of evidence: a note that read: “Biscuit made by Mrs. Chambers on August 1940 at the Blankenship home.”
In 1940, the United States wasn’t a part of WWII; Bing Crosby dominated the music scene, and Mrs. Dora Chambers was making biscuits. Even though freezers weren’t invented yet, one of her biscuits managed to stand the test of time and find its way into the hands of distant relatives by marriage.
“It was my mother’s brother’s wife’s grandmother,” Wiseman laughed. “Who knows where its been, how its been stored.”
The complicated connection goes back to Wiseman’s uncle Harold, whose first marriage was to Chamber’s granddaughter. However, that wasn’t enough of an explanation to answer one burning question: why keep a frozen biscuit?
“We thought maybe he was in the army, and she sent it to him. But because Mrs. Chambers died in 1940, and he really didn’t get involved until 1941… that theory was disproved,” Wiseman said. “We really just don’t know.”
Whether it was sentimental value or a unique sense of humor, the mystery of the great frozen biscuit may never be solved. Regardless, Dora Chambers’ biscuit will live on for future generations.
“Oh, I’m gonna put it in my freezer, and my sons will have to divide it up when I’m gone,” Wiseman said.
Copyright 2024 WHSV. All rights reserved.