Author Linda Lou Burton Recalls Christmas Past
What is your favorite Christmas Day Dessert? Something that fondly reminds you of other times, and other people? In Chapter 46 of Patchwork Love, Clayton begins reminiscing about the lemon pie his mother made at Christmas time. He recalled the “egg white goo” on the top, which he pushed to the side to get at the creamy lemon filling. Just what was in that lemon pie that Clayton enjoyed so much in his childhood?
His mother was born in 1934, we learn from her grave marker, and likely used recipes handed down from her mother and grandmother. The Lemon Ice Box Pie made by my own grandmother at Christmas time was a simple mix, with trusty Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk as a key ingredient. Here is my grandmother’s handwritten recipe, which I find verified in an old Borden ad:
- 15 oz can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 1 tsp grated lemon rind
- 2 egg yolks
Combine ingredients. Stir until mixture thickens. Pour into 8-inch crumb crust. Top with 2-egg-white meringue. Bake at 325 15 minutes until lightly browned. Cool.
My grandmother called it Lemon Ice Box Pie. I never heard her refer to any type of “refrigeration” as anything other than “the ice box.” A little research shows that “ice boxes” served households well into the 1930s. Freon and Frigidaire gradually came into homes, as electric lines were strung from town to countryside.
My research further revealed that Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk goes back to the 1850s! It was introduced to fight food poisoning and other illnesses brought on by lack of refrigeration, and became a household name during the Civil War. Later it was credited with lowering the infant mortality rate – a milk that was safe and nourishing.
In 1931, Borden Kitchens sent out a call for recipes “in which Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk makes cooking quicker, easier, and surer.” They got 80,000 responses! Elsie the smiling Borden Cow was there to help cooks everywhere – she even starred at the New York World’s Fair in 1939.
So now I understand why I grew up on lemon ice box pie. Of course, that means my children, and grandchildren, and the characters I wrote about in Patchwork Love, get the same privilege.
Read more of the history of Eagle Brand at https://www.eaglebrand.com/history and check out new recipes at https://www.eaglebrand.com/recipes/pies. Keep in mind that the can today is 14 oz, not 15, as of old, and the Lemon Ice Box Pie they feature today has none of that pesky meringue Clayton pushed aside. But now there is also Lemon Cloud, Lemon Cream, Lemon Raspberry, Lemon Sponge, Strawberry Lemon, and if you don’t want lemon for your Christmas treat – Sweet Potato Pecan and Deep Dish Pumpkin. It’s so much more than pie, it’s memories!
A Post From Author Linda Lou Burton
Can you believe this waif was a terrorist? She looks all innocence, don’t you think? Don’t you want to cuddle her up, listen to her contented purr?
But this baby didn’t know how to cuddle, instead she struck out with teeth and claws. She growled at inanimate toys, biting them and slinging them away. She refused to wear her pretty pink collar with the jingly silver bell. She was a terrorist!
When I brought this abandoned kitten home, I expected her to snuggle against me like the other cats who have been a part of my life. Instead my arms and legs were in various stages of bleeding and scarring from scratches and bites. I was perplexed, and to be honest, disappointed.
And then I remembered Harry Harlow and the monkeys. Harlow, a developmental psychologist, deprived infant rhesus monkeys access to a mother in his experiments, and determined that when given a choice, the monkeys chose “touch” over food. Other researchers using rats found that when infants were licked and groomed by their mothers, they grew up fairly well adjusted, but those who were deprived became anxious and fearful.
When Katy was left alone under that bush she was fed – the people in the office nearby saw to that. But she was not touched; no mother to groom her, no siblings to toss and tumble with. No socialization of any kind.
As I tended my wounds and observed Katy’s reaction to the world around her, I began thinking about how abandonment and abuse affect PEOPLE too. Characters came into my mind – I’d awake in the morning and there would be Susie wounded and hurt, and Merit tenderly caring for her, a bonding. And all the others – Lovely, so lonely that she succumbed to attention from a stranger; the two motherless children who wound up on the cover of the book. How would they deal with their world? And Patchwork Love began to come together. I stopped my non-fiction work about capital cities and wrote my first novel.
Katy may have been an abandoned kitten, but she was destined for great things. She inspired a book!
The Dedication
Patchwork Love is dedicated to Katy, the blue-eyed part-Siamese all-white kitten I found under a bush. Her mother took her siblings and left her there when she was only four weeks old, observers told.
Katy struggled with the aftermath of abandonment, acted out in growling, biting, scratching, clinging, sucking her tail, eating holes in everything – I never had a cat behave that way before and frankly I resented the fact that she didn’t appreciate my good intentions as I thought she should.
Today Katy is a happy cat, still somewhat wary, but able to enjoy a nap with me on a sunny afternoon, snuggled together on the couch, listening to the birds outside. Sometimes she’ll stretch out long, reach her paw to touch my face, and purr. We may have had some knocks, she seems to say, but this is good.
Katy inspired me to write Patchwork Love. Our experience underscored what I’ve always believed – we can’t choose what happens in the world around us, but we can choose how we respond.
I could have chosen to leave her there. She could have chosen to continue biting the fire out of me.
Every moment is a choice.
The nonfiction section of Patchwork Love begins (p 327) with A Message from Trish, the 10-year-old girl you first glimpse on the cover, as she explains her role in this story, and the empowering reality of choice.
Hi Reader, my name is Trish, the girl you’ve been reading about. I’m just a work of fiction, you know that. Not real, but yet I am. I’m bits and pieces of people that the author knew, or read about, or saw their story on the evening news. I’m a statistic, based on truth, fluffed up a bit with thoughts, pink shirts and pony tails, because the author hopes you will connect with the human side of my story, and Jonathan’s story. And Merit’s, and Lovely’s, and Carrie Ann’s. Every character in this book comes packaged with a set of experiences unique only to them, making choices from the frame they know. The same is true for each of you. Every next moment is a choice you make.
Patchwork Love tackles many issues overall – kidnapping, rape, adoption, illegal immigration, poverty, wealth – good grief, you’re thinking, too much! But the story is really about the aftermath. As Lovely points out – it’s not what happens, it’s what you do. How do we deal with abandonment, and loss, with abuse and sadness? Do we flail out with destructive behaviors, or mull over our misfortune in silence, letting it eat away from the inside out? Do we get our jollies in the victim role, feeding on a steady diet of pity pie? Or do we “get off the pot” and take positive steps to move forward, as Clayton finally did? Every moment is a choice.
How are readers responding to Trish’s message? Author Linda Lou Burton shares a letter she received from a reader December 14, 2017.
Thank you for writing Patchwork Love. I, too, have been one of your statistics, and over time made necessary adjustments to live with results of evil intent others had in regard to me and my wellbeing. I have always believed we become the person of our life experiences and how we respond to them. We don’t make “mistakes,” we make choices, and for every choice there are consequences. Your book brought this out loud and clear.
Good does overcome evil. This is something we would do well to remember each and every day we live.
In appreciation for your book.
Did you know:
- that it takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter?
- that the favorite bread for a PBJ sandwich is white, and the favorite spread is strawberry jam? (Grape jelly second.)
- that Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley favored sliced banana on their peanut butter sandwich?
- that creamy peanut butter is more popular on the east coast, chunky on the west?
- that peanuts are called “ground peas” because they grow underground?
- that goober – a nickname for peanuts – comes from “nguba,” the Congo language name for peanut?
- that two of our presidents – Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter – were peanut farmers?
Which brings us to President James A Garfield (1831-1881). Mr Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, unfortunately serving only 200 days due to an assassin’s bullet. But he left behind a number of interesting quotations, such as “The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.”
It is also claimed that he said “Man cannot live by bread alone, he must have peanut butter.” Did he really say that? Did he begin with the Biblical quote found in Matthew, and again in Luke, “Man shall not live by bread alone” and amend it a bit? Was he trying to create a humorous image?
There are those who say he couldn’t have said it – that peanut butter “hadn’t been invented” by the time he died in 1881. They point to US Patent 306,727 issued to Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884 for the manufacture of peanut butter. And then there were the Kellogg brothers, who patented the process of preparing peanut butter with steamed nuts in 1895.
Hold on, others say. The Incas developed a paste of ground peanuts way back in 950 BC! And the Aztecs were making peanut butter as early as the 15th century. These are claims one can “dig up” with a Google Goober search. George Washington Carver, who began teaching and researching at Tuskegee Institute in 1896, is considered by some to be the “father” of the peanut butter industry – he came up with more than 300 uses for peanuts.
But it doesn’t really matter who did what first, we’re just glad for peanut butter today — Jif, Peter Pan, Skippy, all the brands. And, being a publishing house, naturally we’re glad for BOOKS, thank goodness for the printed word, for the opportunity to exchange ideas with millions of people, how great is that? Nourishment for the mind, body and spirit, and so we say:
We cannot live by bread alone, we must have books and peanut butter!
Author Comments on Susie & Molasses & Family
“I would purchase this book based on the title and tag line alone – dogs and kids, you can’t go wrong.”
That comment by reader Brenda took me back to the early planning stages of writing Patchwork Love. No doubt in my mind about Susie – she was a “Lassie” dog, sidekick of Timmy, always there to ease the crisis, to find the problem and then to make sure it was resolved. I loved that dog through all the 50’s, and 60’s, and even into the 70’s, as my own “Timmy’s” were born and had pets.
But as I begin to write Patchwork Love, I realized I didn’t know much about the breed. So I researched “collie” and learned that the Lassie dog of memory was a “Rough Collie” – meaning it has a long coat, as opposed to the short-haired “Smooth Collie.” The character of Susie began to take shape – a Rough Collie by breed, sweet natured and loyal, polite with strangers and peaceful with other animals. Of course she would rescue two lost children. Of course she would companion a lonely man. The photo is exactly how I imagine Susie looks, walking alongside the creek, although with a patch over her left eye.
Of course Susie would be a good mother, but I won’t get ahead of the story. I will make you privy to the playfulness of collie pups, because, yes, there are pups and I needed to imagine them jumping around under their mother’s watchful eye. I found a You Tube Video at aldredeliecollies, published Sep 28, 2014, entitled Peggy’s Rough Collies Playing Tag. Those last two are Lucy and Archie in the flesh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUrtg8wVnZg
And then there was Molasses. I had a very clear picture in mind of Molasses, always by Buddy’s side, Lassie and Timmy by nature, but DIFFERENT. Big brown soulful eyes. Short hair. I searched dog pictures online for several days before finding JUST the dog. A Fox Red Lab. Perfect!
On The Labrador Site I read an article by Pippa Mattinson (Dec 14, 2016) describing the Fox Red Labrador Retriever as a friendly dog, with an exuberant personality and a sense of fun. They love human companionship, she writes, and stay close to their master at all times, until required to retrieve. Highly co-operative and intelligent, they are the most popular family pet in the world.
No wonder Marybeth was so delighted when Cinnamon joined her family. And when you get to the part of the story that takes place at the edge of the ravine, you will know exactly what Molasses is going to do. Here is one of Pippa’s photos, in case you’re not familiar with the Fox Red Lab. A dead ringer for Molasses in Patchwork Love, at least in his younger days.
https://www.thelabradorsite.com/fox-red-labrador/
Now who is going to ask Santa for a dog for Christmas?
The author asked readers to identify their favorite character in Patchwork Love. She received a mixed bag of answers!
I can’t choose a favorite character. They are all so well-developed. I do love the children: vulnerable but resilient and brave, innocent but wise, and so caring of other people and animals, too. So I guess Tag, Trish, Buddy, and Jonathan are my favorites. Next would be Merit and then Lovely.
I enjoyed the book, especially the characters. I loved the title and the picture on the cover, the children against the moon. I would purchase this book based on the title and tag line alone – dogs and kids, you can’t go wrong.
I keep raving to all in my household how good this book is. With all the wonderful characters you have created there is so much potential for so many more novels.
I most connected with Ginny. She was always trying to look after others in her own way. She was truly interested in people. She went out of her way to do something nice for her friends. Her personality reminded me a little of me.
I was particularly moved by the short life of Carrie Ann. Too many women, even today, are left in circumstances they aren’t prepared for. Then they make the wrong choices.
My favorite character was Dr Will. He reminded me of my father, always welcoming, and drawing people in. Making things. Merit and Auntie Love reminded me of myself – caring enough to help others but “hiding in plain sight” within themselves.
The book captured me from the beginning pages and kept my interest as all the characters were woven into the story line.
The character I most identified with was Marybeth. She was the one who took a matter of fact approach to the crisis and methodically went through her options and what her next steps should be.
While I did like Merit, I also would have to say Lovely was a favorite. She MADE THE CHOICE to overcome all the adversities of her youth and make a difference in other’s lives.
You created a town, slowly developing each of the characters. How awesome is that! Please write a novel on each one.
Personal Notes Addressed to Author Linda Lou Burton
Your book profoundly portrays the importance of acting and speaking with kindness in our daily lives and, as you point out, it’s our choice. I’m reminded of Emily Dickinson’s little poem: A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day. Thanks for writing this book. I pray many, many people will read it and take it to heart.
Your book is a must read. I’m telling others to go sit by the fire wrapped in a throw and radiate from within while they read this empowering novel.
Well I finished your book last night! And I love what you did with the book, addressing these issues that are so prevalent today. I didn’t sneak to the back to see how the story ends like I’ve done a couple times in my life, so you really surprised me with what you did with the book.
This is possibly the best book I have ever read, reminiscent of To Kill A Mockingbird. Your skill in weaving together the pieces of the mystery, answering questions at just the right time, are impeccable.
This book would make a great screen play, I’d like to see it as a movie. I think it’s great for book clubs too, with all the questions at the back of the book for discussion.
The minute I finished reading this book, I went straight to the basket of unpaid bills I hadn’t touched in months, and opened them up. Then I went to my closet and pulled out all the rumpled clothes. I sorted through and pressed my shirts. I feel that I am in charge of my life again, ready to face the world.
Thanks for notifying me of your novel. Of course I bought it and read it right away. Very enjoyable. I had no idea that you were such a good writer. Was also good to know (from the Author’s Bio) that your state capital’s project continues. Please let me know when your next book is published.
Reading the book makes me hungry for good food – good eats in there for sure! Also it points out the goodness of southern folk.
My husband was recently diagnosed with Alzheimers. Reading this book helped me realize that though I am feeling “abandoned” right now, there are many that understand. I feel much less alone.
It is apparent a great deal of work went into this endeavor.
I’ve dealt with a young woman who was victim of rape at around sixteen and her family “swept it under the rug.” I’ll have to share that with you sometime.
I liked Patchwork Love for the way it carried me through the lives of the characters and how they deal with what life throws their way – from mystery and intrigue to heart-wrenching abandonment to undeniable love.
I finished Patchwork Love last night. This is a wonderful book! Thanks for writing it. The way you move the plot along by devoting each chapter to a character is very effective, and I love your sentence structures. Your very interesting style of writing– your word choices and sentence cadences–reminds me of poetry. In some places I think you ARE writing pure poetry!
I am half way through the book. It reads easily and I like the style. The subject is very timely and on the forefront of the media. It needs to be addressed.
Everyone’s life could just turn on a dime. Each choice we make moves us down a different path. Everything we do matters, this is so clear in the book.
Brilliant book on life itself. What a wonderful grasp you have on life and its conditions and perplexities.
Capital Cities USA is an organization focusing on the 50 capital cities of the United States.
Why capital cities?
Capital cities are awesome! Think about it – they are the center of government for every state, so that’s a pretty big thing right there. And they didn’t come out of a cookie-cutter mold; each one of the 50 has a unique personality and its own great stories to tell.
Capital cities are every size and shape you can think of. Bustling Phoenix has over a million and a half residents; cozy Montpelier fewer than ten thousand. They have every climate you can imagine, with endless-daylight summer hours in Juneau and winter ice festivals in St Paul.
Some are way up high, like Denver, and Cheyenne, and Santa Fe, and some are nestled right beside the ocean, or a river, or a lake (check your map). Which capital city is the oldest? The youngest? Do you know?
Capital Cities USA covers it all. From what you’ll find when you visit, to what you’ll find if you are doing historical research. What is it like to live there? How did the city evolve and grow? How does the history of the city fit into the history of the United States?
What opportunities are available in each city for helping kids learn and grow, for helping teachers with good lesson plans? What is it like to be a family living there? Is there something fun Grandma and little Sam can share when he comes over for a Saturday afternoon?
Why do we need to know about our capital cities?
Despite all their differences, capital cities have one thing in common: each city represents the development of the state, and the 50 together outline the shaping of the United States, in all its vastness and diversity. Mainstays of American history, culture, traditions and democracy, the 50 capital cities and their capitol buildings are a continuum of past to present to future and as such are invaluable resources. They help us understand and learn from the past. They enable all of us to be informed and involved. They encourage responsible citizenship and inspire young people just beginning to learn the democratic process.
Remember – to make good old people you have to start them young!
A Bi-Polar Year: From the Arctic Circle to Antarctica will be released in 2018.
Here’s a peek at the intro.
It’s something I wanted to do for years. That is, to be north of the Arctic Circle on the first day of summer (June of course), and then to be south of the Antarctic Circle on the first day of summer in the southern hemisphere (December). This had to happen in the same year, I thought. And so it did.
The trip began in June, an easy ride from Seattle to Alaska and the northernmost point in North America. Point Barrow, polar bear country! Then life wound through summer, and autumn, and family, and friends, till I boarded a plane for my flight to Santiago, Chile, and my southbound ship that got me to Cape Horn on December 22. We crossed the Drake Passage in time for Christmas on the White Continent, where I met my first penguin.
Join me?
(c) Linda Lou Burton 2017
Bobby’s Absolutely Amazing Adventures in the Capital Cities to be released in 2018.
Bobby Wiring is ten years old. He’s a fifth-grader at Lewis & Clark Elementary. And, he lives in a capital city! Imagine the excitement at Lewis & Clark when teacher Mr Wilson announces the new Social Studies project — here’s a peek into Chapter One….
Bobby slurched his feet twice over the spongy black raincatcher mat at the school entrance and headed down the hall to Room 14. He turned in at the third flag-blue door on the right where the sign said:
Bobby dropped his backpack beside his desk and started to pull out books, homework, and his green-glow gel pen. Erasable. Mr Wilson was already at the board, intent on writing some mysterious announcement with a red marker. He wrote a few words and shielded them with his writing pad. Then he lowered the pull-down United States map a few more inches, to cover the words. The students in the front row were hunched forward, heads wobbling like bobble-head dolls as they tried to follow Mr Wilson’s big brown hand scribbling up and down, up and down, the markings hidden behind the pad. Even with eyes squinting, they could not decipher the secret message. Bobby could see a few letters at the right side of the board, a spot the map didn’t totally cover.
What did that mean? It was just like Mr Wilson to do something this way, to catch their attention from the first minute of class. He was the coolest teacher of Bobby’s life. He was big, he was strong, and he was smart. Before he was a teacher, he was a Marine, and he expected strict order in the classroom. Except, he was funny too. He could do the greatest accents you ever heard. When they studied another country in geography, Mr Wilson would slip into accent. Spanish, French, Russian, Italian, Chinese, and even the clicking noises of the little people in Africa’s Kalahari Desert. Mr Wilson had walked on all seven continents, a goal Bobby had set for himself. He knew he would do it, too. After all, he’d already been to both American continents. Two down, five to go!
Mr Wilson finished writing just as Mrs Green pushed Quang-Bao Mark’s wheelchair into his designated space in front of Bobby. She gave Bobby a knuckle-scrunch on the head and waved at the class before she scooted back out the door. Quang-Bao Mark Green was Bobby’s next-door neighbor and best buddy since before either of them could remember. He had never been able to walk, but he’d attended Lewis & Clark since Kindergarten. His wheelchairs got bigger as he grew, and the latest model had a nifty flip over desk top. All of his school supplies and books were in special side pouches. “The saddle bags on my horse,” he called them. His Uncle Levi had designed another attachment he wasn’t allowed to bring to school – Electronic Elmer – with music player, video games and even a GPS for global position satellite tracking. There was also a telescope mount for backyard stargazing. Quang-Bao Mark and Bobby were nuts about the stars.
Bobby pushed Quang-Bao Mark to Mr Chau’s grocery on Saturdays for treats – “Mr Chau’s for chow” they said. And Bobby pushed him to their baseball games, bats and gloves stashed in the Sports side pouch – the Dugout they called it — with drinks in the mini-cooler on the other side of the wheelchair. Quang-Bao Mark was the team statistician and record keeper; Bobby played first. “Stop trouble before it begins,” his Grandma Lucinda always said. He figured a good first-base player had a chance to do just that.
The 8:30 bell rang and everyone sat up straight, all eyes up front, waiting for Mr Wilson to speak.
“Bonjour class,” he began.
“FRENCH!” they called back to him. That was their morning game, to guess the language he spoke.
“Buenos dias!” he offered, and they quickly shouted “SPANISH!”
“Mangandáng umága!” Mr. Wilson came back. There was a moment of silence, then Lita DePano spoke up.
“That’s Tagalog Mr Wilson. That’s the first words I hear every morning when my Mom wants me to get out of bed!” Lita’s remark brought a laugh from the class and a smile from Mr Wilson.
“Correct Lita,” he said, slipping into an accent. “That’s a ‘Good Morning’ in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines. You are fortunate to have a mother teaching you to be fluent in two languages. Can you say ‘Please’ in Pilipino?”
“Pakisuyò is ‘Please,’” Lita answered.
“How about ‘I am sleepy’?” queried Mr Wilson.
“Inaantòk ako,” said Lita.
“And there you have it,” Mr Wilson grinned. “Pakisuyò, Inaantòk ako! Please, I am sleepy! Let me sleep another sampû minutes!”
“Yes!” Lita laughed, “ten more minutes of sleep!” Everybody was laughing now, in an unusually good mood for a rainy November Monday. Mr Wilson stepped back towards the board and attention once again focused on the secret message behind the map.
What was it?
“Class, we are beginning a new tradition here at Lewis & Clark,” Mr Wilson told them. He pointed to the big hand-lettered sign that always hung over his desk.
See The Possibilities!
“You are about to have an opportunity to see a LOT of possibilities,” he continued. “Your principal, Mrs. Nielsen, has asked all of the 4th and 5th teachers to announce the Greatest Social Studies Project ever. For the first time, Lewis & Clark will participate in the National competition. Here it is.”
He gave the map a tug, and it rolled up into its holder, revealing, at last, the message.
© Linda Lou Burton 2017. Your World – Know It! Show It! Grow It!™
