Some of the life’s most wonderful gifts begin in chaos.
Dump Cake
1 – 22 oz. cherry pie filling
1 – 15 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 – 18 oz. package yellow cake mix
1 ½ sticks butter, melted
1 C. shaved coconut
1 C. chopped pecans
Dump cherries in bottom of a 13x9 pan. Pour pineapple over
top. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top. Add butter. Do not mix. Sprinkle with
coconut and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour or until browned.
Do Not Mix
From my grandmother's memoirs
Late Sunday night, Caroline returned to say she was going to
Detroit to make her home with her husband. Ida and I were right back where we
started. We had been in college three months and lived in two houses off
campus. Now we were going to be again without a home. School work was getting
harder with semester tests in the very near future.
Monday morning, I walked quickly by Joe’s store without
looking in. When I returned after classes, however, Joe was standing in the
store’s doorway.
“Come in. I want to talk to you,” he said.
 |
| My grandmother, Rose Marino, 1940 |
I confronted him about his wife and child and told him Rose
had given me many of the details. He said it was a long, sad story and we’d
discuss it later, but that now we girls had a problem and he had a solution. He
and Annie needed a bigger place to live. They would take his sister’s house and
we could continue to stay there.
“You and your family?” I asked sarcastically.
“Yes, me and my family,” he sighed. “You just don’t
understand what it’s been like, but you don’t have much choice now. I’ll take
you girls to see Annie and see how she reacts to it.”
We waited for Ida and Mary without talking. When they
arrived and were told the plan, they both looked at me. I shrugged.
When we arrived at the crowded apartment, Annie was ironing
and Frankie was playing on the kitchen floor. We exchanged friendly hellos and
Joe proceeded to explain the situation. He told Annie she could use some of the
rent money for things she would like to have and that we girls would be company
for her in a town where she knew no one, with the exception of a couple of
cousins.
“I’d do anything to get out of here,” Annie said. “I can’t
stand to be in a crowded space.”
Plans were made and after Joe left the other girls off at
the house. He insisted that I accompany him to the Realtor's office.
“He will be sure to give us the house even if he has a list
if he sees you and you explain the situation,” he told me. I found it
unnecessary to say anything as Joe did all of the talking and was presented
with the house.
In the car outside the Realtor’s office, he turned to me.
“This is no marriage,” he said. “We've been married four
years and she’s gone home to her mother six times. She’s as dumb as they come
and so set in her beliefs you can’t talk to her. I was young and ambitious. Her
family made promises and mine exerted pressure.”
“But you’re still married,” I interrupted. “You never told
me. You led me to believe we had something going between us and you were deceiving
me.”
"We do, honey. We do. Honest. Something good will come of
this,” he told me. “Just be patient and trust me. I can’t lose you now.”
“Take me home,” I said. “I’ve got to help Caroline and I’ve
got to study. I can’t think right now.” I knew, again, as so many times in the past, I was giving in
because I was too timid to fight. I doubted that I even wanted to fight. I knew
how I hurried from the house to the store to be with him and then listened at
night to hear his car pull into the garage in front of the house.
The night Caroline and her family packed to leave, all three
brothers came to help carry furniture and boxes to the truck. We three girls
helped out whenever possible. I started down the inside steps carrying a box.
Joe rounded a corner at the bottom of the steps and started up toward me. He
took the box, set it down, and drew me close. He hugged me tight and whispered,
“I love you.”
He quickly took the box and went back down the stairs. I
returned to the bedroom full of furniture Caroline was leaving for our use. I
closed the door and sat on the bed. My heart raced. An inner voice told me I
was getting in deeper all the time, but the wheels kept turning and I was being
carried along in the spin. I waited for his kisses, yearned to see him and be
near him, and now, for the first time, he had said he loved me.
For more of the story and great family recipes:
Italian-American
Turning It Upside Down
Beautiful Basics
Birds in a Nest
Cabbage Rolls and the Role of a Woman
The Sauce
Do you have a beloved family recipe and/or story? Submit it to us at kvalleyparent@gmail.com.
Turning It Upside Down
Beautiful Basics
Birds in a Nest
Cabbage Rolls and the Role of a Woman
The Sauce
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