Reminiscence

 

It is often the case that some insignificant element of my day-to-day activities reminds me of events in my childhood.

Tonight —

I just put a cake in the oven.

When I make that statement the usual response is to ask me “Duncan Hines, or Betty Crocker?”

My reply is “Neither —  it was Hershey’s Cocoa, flour, sugar, butter, milk, and eggs.”

Tonight, as I was vigorously beating the assembled cake mixture, my memory wandered back to a day in 1944 when Mom was guiding me in the art of cake making. She demonstrated for me the technique of beating, and handed me the cake bowl and the spoon. She told me to beat the mixture 100 times. I was informed that the beating instilled air, so that the cake would not be flat.

At about the count of fifty, my arm tired  —  and I swapped hands to continue beating with my left hand.

“No, no, no!” Mom shouted —  “if you beat it backwards you’ll beat the air right back out of it!”

She had learned that from her mother. Who knows how many generations have held that belief?

I didn’t question it.

But I have never forgotten ..