coffee for the apocalypse

If my house was on fire this is the item I’d grab. I mean sure, kids and dog first and my husband is a grown man who can fend for himself but this is the book I’d be most heartbroken to lose. It is a 1965 printing of Heloise’s Housekeeping Hints that was given to my maternal grandmother for Christmas 1967.

Mama, as she was called, always wrote when she received a book on the inside front cover so every time I open it, there is her handwriting.

She was from Big Spring, TX and the sticker for the store where her first husband, Jim, bought the book is still on the inside of the book jacket.

Obviously the times have changed and housekeeping is much different today from 54 years ago but it’s mostly the spirit of the book that does me more good than anything. I long to be as good a housekeeper and cook as my Mema was and I love to hold this book in my hands knowing that she read it over and over, referring back to it over the years.

She was my rock. From coloring my hair black in middle school and listening to music she didn’t understand to telling her that I was pregnant when I was barely 18 she never judged me (out loud anyway). She was always there when I needed to talk, didn’t take my penchant for not calling for a few days personally, and made the best breakfasts every Sunday. Her home was my base. The actual structure was torn down in February 2016 after a series of floods but I still visit the site from time to time.

I am a feminist. I believe that women should be able to do as they respectively please and not be confined to the roles that anyone thinks they should fill. For right now, I’m happy getting to be a stay at home mom to my youngest (and last!) kid and I feel like I try but I struggle with it quite a bit.

Bacon may cost more than 5 cents a pound now and Mema has been gone for 12 years this past July but I keep this book and cherish it.