Emily Paine Carter

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Sometimes there's way more to folks we thought we knew.

Take Diane Washenberger, director of elementary instruction for Salem City Schools. And her husband, Jim, who retired in July after 41 years as an associate professor of mathematics at Virginia Tech. Yet, wrote Diane in an e-mail, he is teaching two classes and advising students in math education.

But wait! There's even more to this smart, pleasant couple. "Tell your readers to get some of Jim's fresh horseradish," Diane said when our paths crossed.

So I checked back to verify the offer.

Horseradish grows as a big ol' weed -- seemingly all the time, wrote Diane. Jim said that it can really spread through its long, slender roots -- the fiery part that's eaten.

Eaten gingerly, that is. "Fresh horseradish has a great heat!" he chuckled. He processes his with vinegar, "turning our house into a spicy, aromatic haven that would open anyone's sinuses," wrote Diane.

Sure, we know horseradish in seafood cocktail sauce and as accompaniment to roast beef. But National Public Radio listeners might also recall reporter Susan Stamberg's sharing her mother's horseradish/cranberry relish recipe.

The bitter root is also a symbolic element in the Jewish Passover celebration, Jim added.

I also found this wacky entry in (Jeffrey Kacirk's) "Forgotten English" daily calendar: An 1899 book, "The Cottage Physician," advised readers "afflicted with freckles" to remove them with Withering's cosmetic lotion: a mix of well-soured milk and horseradish applied several times a day. (My guess? The stinking treatment would keep people too far away to notice one's freckles.)

Diane credits Jim's upbringing on a South Dakota farm for his gardening, cooking and household-repair skills. He even built their home, in 1976. She noted his South Dakota School of Mines undergraduate degree (only recently did their daughter Susan learn that it was not "School of Minds") and his doctorate in math from Iowa State.

Diane wrote that as a youth, Jim had observed his mother's baking talent. His own flowered 25 years ago when the Salem couple's son Mark was born. Jim went to the grocery, saw a label listing all the preservatives in bread, and "went home to begin his career as the family baker."

Jim's bread was so desired that Mark made sure to pack an extra piece for friend David Yost in high school. On beach trips to Pawleys Island, S.C., relatives appeared whenever Jim made bread, so he offered to teach baking to his and Diane's nieces, Carter and Kate Norbo, and nephew, Joseph Dickey. (Carter, Kate and Joseph attend Patrick Henry; now Joseph's sister Claire, a Virginia Tech student, helps him bake bagels. Susan, married to architect Justin Iovenitti, is a project manager for a Baltimore graphic design firm; Mark is a webmail.us software designer in Blacksburg.)

Maybe you knew this, too: Diane's sister is Becky Austin, wife of cardiologist Joe Austin -- yes, of that Andrew Lewis High School Class of '67, "the best."

Diane and Jim have been married for 34 years, she wrote. She's a Roanoke native, but found Salem "familiar turf," thanks to her parents' (dentist Walter and wife Phyllis Dickey) many Salem friends. "Especially other dental folks" like dentists Hugh and Nan Lee, George and Mary Ann Tate, Bob and Gerry McClanahan, and Esther Vaughan and her late husband, George. [The men were dentists.]

I'm glad to learn these things -- and I'd love to hear your stories, too.

Jim's e-mail: washen@vt.edu. "No phone calls," he requested.