Thank God it’s Monday, again. I always look forward to Mondays, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you. Therefore, happy Monday.
Happy November. This is, among many other things, Family Stories Month and National Life Writing Month. Additionally, last Friday was National Authors’ Day. Every family has many stories to tell and all stories worth telling are also worth writing. NationalDayCalendar.com says:
“The goal of National Life Writing Month is to encourage people to write about themselves and their life as they have experienced it… Now is the time for you to dedicate yourself to writing personal and family stories, memories, traditions, significant events, and anything else you feel is worth adding to your life story.”
Relatives often look forward to reminiscing about their family’s stories at gatherings and special events like Sunday suppers, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, family reunions, weddings, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah/Christmas, and so on.
Start recording and writing your family’s stories, the next time you gather together, with everyone contributing their favorite family stories. What a great heirloom gift that would make for everyone, especially if you can add some family pictures to the stories, as well. They don’t have to be big novels (although, it is National Novel Writing Month, too).
I wish my parents would’ve followed through on that idea (pictured above). It would’ve been my most treasured gift from them. If only hind sight were fore sight – I’d go back in time to the special holiday meals we had at each of my grandma’s homes, when relatives would all gather and reminisce and I would record everyone’s stories.
Luckily, some of our family stories are preserved in most of Mom’s self-published work, as she always wrote about our family in some manner. I’m missing many of her newsletter issues but I have most of her books, cookbooks, and “No Laughing Matter” columns.
Plus, Mom and Dad did give all of us kids (and the grandkids) copies of a collection of Mom’s old cartoon panels (from the 1960s and 1970s). Mom called the series “Full House, as Kept by Gloria Pitzer”. The drawings were basically short stories about us because, as the old adage says, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Most of Mom’s cartoon panels matched her satirical columns that she wrote, back then. One such collection of columns was called “No Laughing Matter”, regarding being a working homemaker, wife, and mother of five kids – who survived and lived to tell about it.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 25)
TO COPY OUR SUCCESS
IF SOMEONE WERE TO copy our so-called ‘success’, I could give them no blue print for that condition. Each one of the little steps that we had to take to develop the kitchen table activity into a professional business operation, are like the grains of sand that the oyster requires in order to form a pearl.
When I wrote that very first poem that the Detroit News published when I was in the fourth or fifth grade at the US Grant School in Royal Oak, I was headed toward this livelihood and didn’t even know it.
When I wrote “The Young Pioneer” that same year with the girls who lived on the block, after we saw the movie about the life of the Brontë sisters [‘Devotion’ (Warner Bros. Pictures, 1946)], I was being directed towards this livelihood and each was a little step in the right direction, in the direction toward which our entire family would come, and gratefully so.
The beginning of my interest in writing seriously began with the poem – a class assignment – and no one could’ve been more surprised than me to find it published in the newspaper.
Mom’s satirical style was greatly inspired by many comedic greats of her time – George Burns, “The Rat Pack”, Don Rickles, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Irma Bombeck, and more. In writing about what she knew, she had a wealth of material with which to work – after all, kids really say (and do) “the darndest things” that make us laugh (or groan).
Mom was practically a life-long writer-of-life, journaling about everything; from the significant and insignificant events of her life (and her family’s) to her faith and gratitude, as well as her creative ideas and more. Every day she wrote about something.
Mom was greatly influenced and inspired to write by the Bronte sisters, whose family story she saw in the 1946 film, “Devotion”. She journaled every day from the time she was about 10 years old until shortly before she passed away – that’s over 70 years, which is real devotion.
Mom wrote about her life and her family throughout her career as a professional columnist. She continued to do so when she started her own family-run recipe business – in every book, cookbook, and newsletter that she authored and self-published.
She wrote a lot of food-for-thought articles that she tucked in between her famous recipes and household hints and bits of humor so that her cookbooks could be enjoyed as much in your favorite reading nook as in your kitchen.
She wrote a lot of our family’s stories in her book, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989), in hopes that it might inspire others to start a family business and write about their family’s stories. Mom always aspired to inspire. By the way, this is also National Inspirational Role Models Month.
AGAIN, FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
This is not a Cook Book… (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 8)
HAVING A GOOD EXAMPLE
EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE a few good examples to follow at some time in their life. I’m fortunate to have found several. In the radio work that I so enjoy, I’ve worked hard at finding examples to follow, since I’ve had no formal training in this field. Experience was my only teacher, which is why they still call it ‘the best’ teacher.
And my radio experience with Bob Allison taught me how to ‘lift’ my voice, as Bob does, how to get that little chuckle in between the right words that tells the listener you’re smiling as you speak.
Bob Allison’s unique vocal sincerity and enthusiasm on the air was the example I followed whenever I did a broadcast, until, with further experience, my own style began to emerge, and I could automatically put happy enthusiasm into my voice. I had a good example!
My mother is another good example I’ve followed. Her best gift and her greatest asset is that she’s always been a patient listener and a wise advisor. She was absolutely loyal to my father through all of his mistakes and each of his blunders.
The world could turn their backs on her children, but she would always be there… when we needed her. She’s given me an example that’s going to be tough to equal. In time, though, I hope that I can say I’ve had so many good examples to follow – I’ll try to be one, myself, to somebody else.
‘I’ve had so many good examples to follow – I’ll try to be one, myself, to somebody else.’ – Gloria Pitzer, This is not a Cook Book… (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 8)
I have a sign, hanging in my dining room, that reads: “There’s a room in every home where the smallest events and biggest occasions become the stories of our lives.” It’s so true – for so many families.
My dining room table, nearby, is the same one I grew up with in Algonac, some fifty years ago. It has always seemed to be my family’s favorite gathering spot, at which to eat, talk, laugh, put puzzles together, and play board games; creating what became, for me, some really wonderful, family stories and memories.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 12)
WHAT’S VALUABLE – THE FAMILY
THE FAMILY IS IMPORTANT to this troubled world that seems not to know what direction to go in for comfort and relief. So, I cater, in our publications, mostly to this family, with all of the old-fashioned values I can gather and still not sound corny or even ‘preachy’!
That for which I am most grateful, however, as I see how our family has worked together in helping us to build this dining room table enterprise into a substantial and professional operation, is the friendship that has grown over the years between [Paul, me and] the five children…my cup runneth over!
“While the critics snickered that my fast food imitations would run their unhealthy course in a short while [and] that my ability to turn out copy would, soon, be exhausted; I continued to look to a Divine Source for [my] daily supply of, both, energy and ideas. I have never yet been disappointed or without something good to share with our family of readers and our radio listeners. My cup does, indeed, run over!” – Gloria Pitzer, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 21)
LAST THOUGHTS…
I’ve been happily writing these weekly blog “short stories” about Mom and our family for over six years now. It brings me great joy to write them and even greater joy when I hear from those who love reading them and recalling their own stories about her. Mom inspired many people to become writers (as well as copycat cooks).
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of TODAY, being National Candy Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Cedar Point (OH) Candied Apples”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, The Second Helping Of Secret Recipes (National Homemakers Newsletter, Pearl Beach, MI; July 1977, p. 38). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
November observes… Banana Pudding Lovers Month, Diabetic Eye Disease Month, Epilepsy Awareness Month, National Diabetes Month, National Fun with Fondue Month, National Gratitude Month, National Native American Heritage Month, National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pepper Month, National Pomegranate Month, National Raisin Bread Month, National Roasting Month, Spinach and Squash Month, Sweet Potato Awareness Month (See also February), and National Vegan Month – among other things.
This week is still celebrating National Fig Week through Thursday – as it’s always observed November 1st-7th. In honor, here’s a re-share of Mom’s “Fig New Funs Bars” imitation, which I first shared in January of this year; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Make Alike Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1991, p. 42).
[NOTE: As always, asking only for proper credit if you care to share it.]
Today is also… National Chicken Lady Day.
Tomorrow is… National Doughnut Day.
November 6th is… National Nachos Day. Plus, as the first Wednesday in November (for 2024), it’s also… National Stress Awareness Day.
November 7th is… National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day. Plus, as the first Thursday in November (for 2024), it’s also… National Men Make Dinner Day (must cook… no BBQ/grilling allowed).
Friday, November 8th, is… National Cappuccino Day, National Harvey Wallbanger Day, and National Parents As Teachers Day.
Saturday, November 9th, is… National Scrapple Day and National Louisiana Day.
Sunday, November 10th, is… National Forget-Me-Not Day, and National Vanilla Cupcake Day. Plus, being the start of the week of November 13th (World Kindness Day), it’s also the start of… World Kindness Week.
Have a great week!
…45 down and 7 to go!
