Thank God it’s Monday, again. I always look forward to every Monday. They’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you. Therefore, have a happy Monday.
Today is, among other things, National Housewife’s Day. Housewives, better known these days as homemakers, domestic engineers, and family managers, are the overlooked and underappreciated backbones of their family units.
Nowadays, such a role is no longer gender-related, as “wife” indicates, because many households have experienced role reversals. This day is celebrated in recognition and appreciation for all the work done by those who manage a household.
To honor the homemaker in your life, give them a break and take over some of their duties or just praise them for their hard work. Who doesn’t appreciate being appreciated?
According to Oxford Dictionary, a housewife is “a woman whose main occupation is caring for her family, managing household affairs, and doing housework, while her husband or partner does paid work.” She also is “an accountant, nurse, negotiator, cook, and driver.”
Before she became the Secret RecipesTM Detective and before she authored and self-published over 200 newsletter issues and more than 40 cookbooks, Mom created and syndicated many editorial-style columns that covered the satirical side of current events and hot topics, as they related to homemakers, like herself, including recipes and household tips.
Mom’s columns ran under various titles – “The Pitzer Patter”, “Minding the Hearth”, “The Cook’s Corner”, “Food for Thought”, and “No Laughing Matter”. She also created a series of funny cartoon panels called “Full House, as kept by Gloria Pitzer”, which also emphasized the not-so-liberated-life of a wife, mother and homemaker, such as herself.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
No Laughing Matter (circa 1970s), by Gloria Pitzer
JUST A HOUSEWIFE AND A PRO
AS A “SUBURBAN HOUSEWIFE”, I fail to see how anyone could classify my routine as dull! For one thing, everyone knows that the mother of an active family has no routine! We’re lucky if we can get our slippers on the right feet first thing in the morning.
In fact, we’re lucky if we can even find those slippers, having to, first, plow through an undergrowth of Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs on the way to the kitchen, where we must witness testy debates over who gets the [prize] in the box of [cereal] and why a 40-year-old man refuses to take the Donald Duck Thermos in his lunch…
What’s wrong with a quest for a roll of Scotch tape that’s your very own or having the phone ring and the call is for you instead of your teenager? [Margaret Mead’s] working definition [of a “first-class” woman, not being a housewife or homemaker,] is a “trained, competent, professional woman”.
Now, I’d be the last one to contradict an expert, but in defense of women who become wives and mothers… we have had training (although much of it’s on the job), are extremely competent and are professional [according to Webster’s dictionary] in that we have “a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or skill”…
If you don’t think it takes learning or skill to varnish a complex-of-disorder with enough love and efficiency that husbands and children grow up with security and comfort, drop around my kitchen some Sunday night…
No matter what they tell us [working-outside-the-home homemakers] about turning our kids over to a day care center, there’s nothing like coming home from school to know that Mom’s in the kitchen, whipping up a pitcher of Tang and a plate of Twinkies.
“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, written and self-published by Gloria Pitzer (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 8)
I’ve always admired how much Mom did, balancing her homemaking and income-making responsibilities. From my youngest memories, Mom almost always found ways to work from home and/or while me and my siblings were in school. The “work” of homemakers and the value of their time is often taken for granted by the recipients – basically their families.
However, the services they provide – as chef, maid/housekeeper, laundress, nanny, teacher, chauffeur, personal shopper, secretary, counselor, nurse, groundskeeper, and gardener – could earn a substantial salary in the open market (see my summary pictured below).
In addition to those skills, homemakers also contribute a lot more to the home and family, of which no amount of money can fill the needs… LOVE! Porcshe Moran, in her enlightening article, “How Much Is A Stay-At-Home Parent Worth?”, claims a homemaker could earn an annual salary of about $178,201, per the 2019 data she obtained from Salary.com.
The above picture shows the data I obtained through Salary.com and Indeed.com, in 2020, regarding the average salaries paid in Michigan, to outsource the above-mentioned homemaker skills. Keep in mind that these salaries have significantly increased over the last 5 years, due to inflation and cost of living increases. They’re now valued at $145K to $205K.
Mom filled all of those roles, while simultaneously raising a husband and five kids. I’m so grateful for my life and how I was nurtured by both of my parents, who positively influenced and inspired me – but especially Mom, being a woman and a writer, artist, crafter, homemaker, wife, mother, teacher, and more.
By the way, this is also National Gratitude Month and National Inspirational Role Models Month. I really consider myself lucky that she’s my mom and that I (as well as everyone else) can continue to learn from her timeless writings – her legacy of love for all.
That’s what I enjoy most about sharing Mom’s and my memories, discoveries, and lessons with all of you. I really love to hear stories from all of you, too, whose lives Mom (and I) touched, as well. That’s the LOVE on which you can’t put a price.
It was during WWII, when many American men were fighting over seas, that the “housewife” started to “disappear” as more and more women were needed to work outside of the home in factories and other male dominated industries. In fact, Rosie-the-Riveter became an icon for recruiting women to work in American factories.
Eventually, whether by choice or necessity, more and more women began breaking away from the traditional housewife roles they were conditioned to assume, such as mothering children, cooking, and cleaning. Many of these women found another sense of fulfilment in the “outside, working world”.
The era of the Women’s Liberation Movement, in the 1960s and 1970s, was a time, very similar to our recent “women-empowerment” campaigns and all of the political upheaval, then and now. Today, the WLM still continues to fight for women, as there remains issues such as unequal pay and promotions in the work place.
While Mom was always in favor of equal rights for all, she was never fully on board with the Women’s Lib. Her generation was conditioned to do certain things based on their sex, age, ethnicity, and the like. It’s the 21st century, now, and we are still trying to recognize and eliminate such baseless philosophies and teachings of our past.
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. 52)
AMAZING CHANGES
SO, THE TIME I spent trying to keep up with what was going on in the food industry, also included what was going on in the world in general. I wrote about everything the homemaker might be interested in, and in those days – the early 1960s and into the 1970s – women were trying to break loose from the housewife stereotype.
It was a difficult period for those of us born during The [Great] Depression, raised during World War II and almost too young for Korea, but too old for Vietnam. The automation [evolution] that took so many jobs away from us, forced our generation into further education in order to compete.
I felt the pressure of having to keep up with the progressive community in which we lived. But little did I know, at the time, that every one of those precious experiences and semi-tribulations were actually stepping stones to a more stable lifestyle that was to come years later…
I am still constantly amazed by the timelessness of a lot of the issues about which Mom wrote in her syndicated columns, newsletters, and cookbooks. I guess the old adage is true – “the more things change, the more they stay the same” because history really does tend to repeat itself.
I’ve mentioned many times in these blog postings how much Mom has influenced me. Like Mom, I love to write and I would love to make a living at it, as she did because it so rewarding when I hear from my readers about how much they enjoyed my stories of Mom and recollections of days-gone-by. Incidentally, it’s Family Stories and Life Writing Month.
Sorry, in advance to the Women’s Lib supporters but, like Mom, I also enjoy being a homemaker more than working outside the home to make ends meet – I enjoy cooking and taking care of my home and family (and even cleaning) – as long as it isn’t expected of me, simply because I’m a woman.
LAST THOUGHTS…
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 therecipedetective@outlook.com. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of TODAY, being National Sandwich Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Chop & Drop Secret Sauce” for sandwiches or salads; as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 28). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)]. As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
The month of November observes… Banana Pudding Lovers Month, National Diabetes Month, National Fun with Fondue Month, National Native American Heritage Month, National Novel Writing 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 (also in February), National Vegan Month, and more.
Tomorrow is… National Chicken Lady Day, National Candy Day, and National Cash Back Day.
November 5th is… National Doughnut Day and National Love Your Red Hair Day. Plus, as the first Wednesday in November (for 2025), it’s also… National Stress Awareness Day.
November 6th is… National Nachos Day. Plus, as the first Thursday in November (for 2025), it’s also… National Men Make Dinner Day (must cook… no BBQ/grilling allowed).
November 7th is… National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day. Plus, as the first Friday in November (for 2025), it’s also… National Jersey Friday.
Saturday, November 8th, is… National Cappuccino Day, National Harvey Wallbanger Day, and National Parents As Teachers Day.
Sunday, November 9th, is… National Scrapple Day and National Louisiana Day. Plus (for 2025), it’s also the start of… World Kindness Week, which is always the week of November 13th.
Have a great week!
…44 down and only 8 more to go.
