Another Way to Support the Arts

 

If you live in the Northwest Indiana area and believe in supporting the arts, come to the third annual Creative Arts Summit this Saturday, June 1, from 12:00–4:00 p.m. The event will be held at the Merrillville Public Library at 1919 W. 81^st Ave. (U.S. 30) in Merrillville.

The event covers all aspects of the creative arts, from visual arts and crafts to books. I will be selling my books and would love to have you buy one or two or three, but please come to support our local artists even if you aren’t interested in my work. With this kind of variety, you’re sure to find something of interest.

I hope to see you there.

World War I Food Quirks

 

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I’m a stickler for getting the period details right in my historical novels. That includes the foods my characters eat.

I’ve been working on two books that take place in the Midwest during World War I. The subjects are different, but the settings are similar, and so are the meals.

In 1917, the government created the U.S. Food Administration and commenced a heavy propaganda campaign encouraging citizens to grow their own vegetables and eat less wheat, meat, and sugar. While there was no shortage of those items in the United States, the government needed them to feed the soldiers overseas.

Although the restrictions were mostly voluntary, the propaganda campaign was successful and people tried to comply. To do that, Americans learned to be creative.

Some of the substitutions weren’t too bad. Wheat bread was frowned on, but cornbread recipes abounded, muffins could be made with oats or bran, and sugar was often replaced with honey. I cringe at the meatless options, however. Here is a recipe for Mock Sausage, originally published in The Twentieth Century Club War Time Cook Book (1918):

1 cup lima beans

½ tsp powdered sage

½ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp dried sweet marjoram

corn or vegetable oil

salt

pepper

flour

 

Soak lima beans overnight, boil until very soft, drain and mash, season with salt, pepper and a half teaspoon each of powdered sage, thyme, and sweet marjoram; make into rolls about the size of a finger; roll in flour and fry a golden brown in corn or other vegetable oil.

 

I was a fussy eater as a child, but my appreciation for new foods grew as I got older.

Still, I’m very glad I didn’t live during World War I.

__________

The picture at the top of this page shows a poster issued by the U.S. Food Administration during World War I. It is in the public domain because of its age.

Forty-five Years and Counting

Roland and I were married 45 years ago yesterday. You might think we would get to know each other better as the years go by, but it isn’t true for us, or at least for me. Yes, I’ve learned some things about Roland, including how he likes his coffee, but the thing I’ve discovered most is how much I don’t know.

Gift-giving is a good example. The first year we were together, I did pretty well picking out a Christmas gift. Since then, there have been some occasions where I found the right gift, but those are rare. Roland does a better job overall, but he doesn’t always pick out the perfect gift for me, either.

Part of it is that we both have a tendency to buy whatever we want for ourselves, which doesn’t leave much to give as gifts. But that isn’t all there is to it. Sometimes I’m just wrong when I think Roland will like something. Fortunately, neither of us has gift giving/receiving as our love language.

We went out for a nice dinner for our anniversary, and Roland paid for it. For my part, I put long thought into a gift for him and came up empty. I finally bought him an Amazon gift card that he will probably spend on something he would have bought anyway.

Still, that’s okay. Marriage isn’t about the physical gifts you give each other. It’s about love as demonstrated by willingness to compromise, serving each other, and affirming each other. We have that in abundance.

Which is why it’s 45 years and counting. 

The Handwriting Dilemma: Cursive vs. Printing

 

Several weeks ago I had lunch with my brother, my sister-in-law, and one of my cousins, and for some reason we started talking about handwriting and how sad it was that cursive is losing ground.

Since I write middle-grade fiction, I send my manuscripts out to be beta read by third through sixth graders. I just received a batch of evaluations, and, as usual, even the sixth graders had printed their answers to the questions. I think the school they go to does teach cursive in the higher grades, but obviously that is not the handwriting of choice.

I hate to print because it takes me twice as long as writing the same thing in cursive. But when I send thank-you cards to my beta readers, I have to remember to print. It isn’t natural for me, but since I’m not sure if the girls will be able to read the cursive, I have no choice.

Some peoples’ cursive is hard to read, but that’s because of the person, not the nature of cursive. My cursive tends to be sloppier than my printing, but both are legible. And because I don’t have to lift my pen from the paper, using cursive saves me significant time.

Besides, anyone who says it’s easier to read printing than cursive hasn’t compared them enough to judge. I’m having a terrible time reading the printed comments from one of my 6^th grade beta readers. Would I have had trouble reading her cursive, too? Maybe. But it couldn’t be a worse struggle than I’m having with her printing.

I’ll never understand why cursive went out of style.

Unless someone is purposefully trying to make my life harder.