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, I wish for you a happy Monday, too.
I also want to wish you an official happy “Fall Eve”. Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox and Sunday is the start of National Fall Foliage Week. The fall colors of red, orange, and yellow are just starting to appear in the northwest part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Within the next month the colors will roll down, through the rest of the state, in a wave.
The day of the equinox has nearly equal hours of daylight and darkness. After tomorrow, day by day, the nights will grow longer and the days will grow shorter, until the winter solstice comes on December 21st; after which the days will start getting longer again. On the bright side, the trees are already starting their color transitions.
Fall may be a close second to summer for most people’s favorite season but it’s always been my favorite season of all, as well as my parents, too! Between the fall holidays and autumn colors – not to mention dozens of other reasons – what’s not to love about fall? By the way, I also love fall cleaning. [Yes, I’m weird like that.]
It’s also time for football, flannel, corn mazes, hayrides, harvest festivals, backyard bonfires, apple tree farms and cider mills. These are only some of my favorite fall things. Additionally, like Mom and Dad, my husband and I love to go for long drives to see the changing fall foliage – of course, that’s getting a lot harder to afford, these days.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 301). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
MINDING THE HEARTH
I AM RESIGNED TO my life with an armchair quarterback, for I know that the garlic in our matrimonial gladiola patch is PRO FOOTBALL! From September to March, every year, there is always going to be a gigantic communication gap in our house.
The art of conversation isn’t really lost. It’s merely hidden behind the pre-game warm-up, installing a power offense which will take advantage of decent, but not blinding, speed in the backfield in a right-handed attack with a lot of blocking in a size-out pass pattern.
I guess the reason I’ll never win an argument with my husband in the fall is that I can’t understand one single word he says. I even tried to leave him once during an NFL game, but it wasn’t until the Super Bowl was over (5 months later) that he even noticed I was gone.
I admit, I don’t know much about football, but I still insist it isn’t quite fair that the fellow who worked so hard last season, doing a terrific job as quarterback, wasn’t promoted to HALF-back this season!
Anyway, the last time I tried to cultivate an interest in the game was the time my husband called me in to watch the last 2 minutes of an exciting game. Mind you, I use the term “exciting” very loosely!
I guess it was exciting. Paul kept jumping up and down, hollering, “Look at them go!” All I learned from that experience, was that 2 minutes of football is equal to 20 minutes of Daylight Savings Time.
An ordinary Sunday afternoon at our house would begin as he slipped into his George Blanda sweatshirt and punted his bottle of Ironized Yeast Tablets across the room, then he would step up to the TV set and announce, “Gloria, is there anything you’d like to say to me before football season begins?”
Perhaps you understand why every fall I join “Parents Without Partners”. Because my husband would only notice me if I were to run through the living room with… a number on my back. I can forgive him a lot of faults, especially during football season, but…
When he asked if I had anything to say to him before he turned on the set, it was no wonder I replied, “Do I have to say it ALL, now?”
After the grueling heat of summer, another great thing about fall is that the daytime temperatures are starting to cool down enough for a more favorable time to start using the oven again – some common favorite fall meals usually include casseroles, chicken pot pie, shepherd’s pie, baked macaroni and cheese, lasagna, and stuffed peppers (or squash).
By the way, Friday will be celebrating National Cooking Day, among other things. Be sure to check out Mom’s secret copycat recipe for “Chicken Pot Pie, Inspired by Fred Sanders”; like she used to enjoy in one of the Sanders Candy Company’s cafeterias, in downtown Detroit, in the early 1950s. It’s at the end of this post and on the Recipes tab.
Most of the top five favorite holidays are in or near fall, including number one ranked Thanksgiving, over second place Christmas and fourth place Halloween. Depending on travel and consumer spending, Thanksgiving and Christmas often alternate between first and second places. Likewise, Halloween sometimes comes in third, switching places with July 4th.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago… some top popular fall festivals to enjoy in Michigan include the Mackinac Island “Fall Fudge Festival”, Midland’s “Antique Festival”, Charlevoix’s “Apple Festival”, Holly’s “Renaissance Festival”, and the “Holland Fall Festival”.
OKTOBERFEST
Late September also celebrates “Oktoberfest”. You may ask yourself why this is observed in September and why isn’t it called “Septemberfest”. As for why it’s held in September, it’s simply because it’s an outside event – the daylight hours are longer and the weather is more favorable this month than in October – and the name merely reflects its origin.
Oktoberfest began on October 12, 1810, in Munich, Bavaria (Germany), as an outdoor celebration; featuring a grand horse race, for the royal wedding of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. The celebration was so popular that the event developed into an annual weekend festivity.
In the second year, an agricultural show was added to promote Bavarian farming. Then small food and drink booths were added throughout the following decade, which evolved into building massive plywood beer halls that are still used, today. In 1818, the first carnival rides (a carousel and two swings) and game booths were added to the festival.
Then, in 1872, Oktoberfest was stretched into September by the event organizers, becoming a two-week festivity starting in mid to late September and ending the first Sunday in October; keeping its already famously known name, even though most of it is usually celebrated in September.
It became so popular, the celebration was adopted by other countries. Similar to everyone becoming Irish on March 16th, for St. Patrick’s Day, or Mexican on May 5th, for Cinco De Mayo, so does everyone become German for Oktoberfest.
This event has become quite prevalent in Michigan, mainly because of the state’s many micro-breweries and its vast population with German heritage – although the event is not limited to Germans, as it’s open to everyone. It’s actually celebrated more by other cultures than it is by Germans.
The two biggest Oktoberfests in this state are hosted by Frankenmuth (also known as Michigan’s “Little Bavaria”) and Grand Rapids (the second largest city in the state, following Detroit), with many smaller fests enjoyed in other Michigan towns, too.
By the way, next Monday is National Drink Beer Day and, incidentally, the top 10 drinking events and holidays around here are generally New Year’s Eve, first; followed by Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving Eve, 4th of July, Halloween, Cinco De Mayo, Super Bowl Sunday, Memorial/Labor Day (tied), and Oktoberfest.
MAKING MEMORIES
I recently came across some interesting information about southern Michigan fall color tours by train that start in mid to late October and run through early November. Just another thing I want to add to my ever-growing bucket list.
Last weekend, “up north”, where logging was once a big part of Michigan’s economy, Iosco County celebrated the “Paul Bunyan Days Festival” in Oscoda. Meanwhile, the “Jack Pine Lumberjack Shows”, in Mackinaw City, which have been running throughout the summer, will be coming to an end next month.
They’re also on my bucket list, to see, along with many other places that Mom and Dad loved to visit, especially during the fall months. One of these years, I hope I can make some more memories and check everything off of my list.
Mom loved to write about her and Dad’s travels throughout Michigan (and other states) in her many books and newsletters. I’ve often thought about starting a Michigan travel blog, myself.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 178)
GETTING TO SLEEP, WITH A FEW PLEASANT MEMORIES
FOR A LONG TIME now, I’ve had trouble sleeping at night. For one thing, my love snores like a Yamaha, going uphill in second gear and coming down again. It’s not his fault, mind you, over which he has any personal control. He simply breathes loudly when he’s deep in sleep.
I could, I found, sleep through a thunderstorm and not hear a crack all night, providing I [first] slipped into a cozy, peaceful mind and then drifted off dreamily into a lovely landscape of the lazy fifth dimension of rest that my memory can call upon – whenever I choose to summon the scenes I’ve once found serene.
It was getting there that gave me all the trouble! I refused to take pills. Alcohol was dangerous. So I succumbed to reading peacefully worded excerpts from various writings and put my thoughts securely to bed first before I attempted to put my body to sleep. I tried to rest on those thoughts and images that gave my mind tranquility.
I would recall all of the pleasant places I had ever visited, to which I wished again to return. I would find again in my memory chambers, every corner of my world that made me feel relaxed and then relish in revisiting these mentally.
I would walk the beaches around Saginaw Bay. It would be late August again on the movie screen of my mind. The lake was lapping at the beach where I walked through the soft, summer warm sand.
In August, the lake never rushed in to meet the shore. It would wash in and just as easily slip back again like sheets of silk, blue and gray with sprays of white foam riding each tumbling wave.
There was an instrumental rhythm, like crushing pieces of tissue paper in the music of the water as it caressed the sand and returned to itself like all of the slippery shining satin and bolts of silk, pulled smoothly over a pillowed featherbed, on which the wooded bluffs rested.
These were those pathways of peaceful places where I had been before and wish to return without having to pay rent or make improvements on property I couldn’t afford!
I could see the beaches lined with the birch trees and long needle pines. I listened and I heard in my memory’s echo chambers, the soothing swishing of the waves on the peaceful shoreline of the quiet Bay.
The water was winking impudently in the sunlight while the wind bulldozed the small [sand] dunes and, off in the distance, a lighthouse wore a halo of seagulls. I was there once again in my memory album of restful visits.
GOOD SAM
“NEEDLESS TO SAY, I can’t wait until we can begin our “motor-home camping” again with our Good Sam friends. It’s our weekend vacation pleasure, May through October. Becoming part of the Good Sam organization is the best thing that has ever happened to us, where we could both enjoy mutual friendships and activities.” – Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Secret RecipesTM Newsletter (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May-June 1987, 126th issue, p. 3)
Their membership in the Good Sam camping organization brought Mom and Dad many happy travel memories, spring through fall – but their favorite traveling time was in the early fall months when the days are comfortable, nights are cool and trees are ablaze with color. Plus, after Labor Day, there aren’t big crowds of tourists up north, with which to contend.
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. I look forward to hearing from you!
IN CLOSING…
In honor of Wednesday, being National Great American Pot Pie Day; Friday, being National Cooking Day; and September, being National Americana Month, National Mushroom Month, and National Chicken Month; here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Chicken Pot Pie, Inspired by Fred Sanders”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Make Alike Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1991, p. 80). 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 September observes… Better Breakfast Month, Little League Month, National Blueberry Popsicle Month, National Courtesy Month, National Honey Month, National Italian Cheese Month, National Library Card Sign Up Month, National Potato Month, National Rice Month, National Sewing Month, Self-Improvement Month, Whole Grains Month, and more.
Today is also… National Chai Day, National Pecan Cookie Day, and National New York Day.
Tomorrow is… American Business Women’s Day, Car Free Day, Dear Diary Day, National Girls’ Night, Hobbit Day, National Ice Cream Cone Day, and National White Chocolate Day. Plus, as the fourth Tuesday in September (for 2026), it’s also… National Voter Registration Day.
Wednesday, September 23rd, is… National Snack Stick Day.
Thursday, September 24th, is… National Cherries Jubilee Day and National Punctuation Day.
September 25th is… National Quesadilla Day, National Daughter’s Day, National Lobster Day, and National Research Administrator Day. Plus, as the fourth Friday in September (for 2026), it’s also… National BRAVE DAY.
September 26th is… National Dumpling Day, National Johnny Appleseed Day, and National Pancake Day. Plus, as the last Saturday in September (for 2026), it’s also… Save Your Photos Day (plus, it’s Save Your Photos Month), National Family Health and Fitness Day USA, National Ghost Hunting Day, and National Public Lands Day. Additionally, being September’s fourth Saturday, it’s also… National Hunting and Fishing Day.
September 27th is… National Chocolate Milk Day and National Corned Beef Hash Day. Plus, as the last Sunday in September (for 2026), it’s also… National Gold Star Mother’s Day. Additionally, as the start of the last week of September, it’s also the beginning of… National Keep Kids Creative Week.
Have a great week!
…38 down and 14 to go.
