Waldorf Salata a la Marash Martha

There was a day when the only lettuce you could find in the marketplace (for Marash Girl and family, it was Star Market in Newtonville, owned by an Armenian who had shortened his name from Mgrditchian to Mugar) was Iceberg Lettuce.  There was no other, that Marash Girl was aware of.  And crisp and crunchy it was!  Salad for us was salata,  iceberg lettuce from Star Market, and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from Marash Girl's back yard, lovingly prepared by her mother Jennie, grown by her father Peter (and before him, her grandfather Moses) in their very own back yard garden.  Add salt, vinegar and oil, and there we had a delicious salad -- although, admittedly, we preferred sliced tomatoes fresh from the garden, and cucumbers (sometimes peeled and chopped and mixed with mint into home made yogurt) which we picked straight from the vine.  So when Marash Martha introduced her version of Waldorf Salad to the family one summer, we were all amazed!  Who ever heard of putting apples (granted, apples from our own apple trees grown in our own back yard) into a salad of Iceberg Lettuce, and then adding walnuts? (The walnuts were NOT from our walnut tree because the squirrels always got the walnuts the night before the walnuts were ready to be picked!)  Fast forward to today -- Waldorf Salad has gone the way of iceberg lettuce -- never has Marash Girl seen Waldorf Salad offered in a restaurant -- at least not within the last 10 years . . . But it was delicious!  And such a surprise!  Thank you, Marash Martha, for enlightening the family with your wonderful Waldorf Salad those many years ago!