Good morning, American. It's Friday. Okay. When I push the buttons on the thingy to make all of this sort of happen, I had to push harder than I normally do.
That's where I buddy. Welcome to the Daily Grateful. I am Michael Crows. It is Friday.
It is good Friday. And today on this edition, we're going to talk about grief. We're going to talk about my neighbors. We're going to talk about how when you think things are moving along swimmingly, something to sort of ops out.
And yesterday I was with my son's girlfriend, Adriana, going through a closet. And I found something holding it in my hand right now. And I thought, I thought that I was never going to see this again, because I literally grew up with this in the most part. I literally, with what I am holding in my hand right now, I literally grew up with it.
It was always there. And I thought that when I got divorced almost 20 years ago, that what I have in my hand stayed with her, even though it wasn't hers. But I thought it stayed with hers. And I just resigned myself to that.
And then all of a sudden, boom goes to dynamite, full is out of the back of a closet. And I saw what it was. And when Adriana saw what it was, oh my goodness, she was so it is the 1957 Betty Crocker's picture cookbook revised and enlarged. Okay.
Open this puppy up and I'm opening it up. And guess what is inside of it, besides the book itself, which I'm sitting here, holding and everything, it tells you on the front air on the inside of the front cover, revise and enlarge more useful than ever, whether you're a bride or just learning the secrets of good cooking, an old friend in the kitchen, Betty Crocker's revise and enlarge picture color book would give you something new with your cooking help. And it like tells you appetizers are on page 57 and crossings and confections are on page 171 and cookies. Oh, cookies are on page 187.
I first saw this at 528 West Michigan Avenue in Battle Creek, Michigan in my mother's kitchen. She referred to it all the time. Now in the inside stuff inside of this thing, our newspaper, paper clippings and all kinds of stuff. Here is a recipe for fresh orange cake that she took out of a newspaper.
And then she wrote on three by five cards, strawberry pie. And it's written on both sides, the complete recipe in my mother's beautiful cursive handwriting, and more stuff, just more stuff, and more newspaper clippings. And on this newspaper cluster in kitchen corner, the Battle Creek News, November 29, 1961. It was Wednesday.
And it is an article about cooking. And what else do we have here? Oh, we have a flesh and cheese thing, which chocolate cake baked with Hershey's cocoa, and more handwritten stuff, and just all kinds of newspaper articles, more newspaper articles. She clipped out of the local newspaper, and got only knows what.
And I don't know which newspaper. Probably the Inquirer and News, peach pie has old time appetizers, new recipe for tasty grammars, Tuesday's menu. And oh, here we go. There's an ad, I liked it.
Down here, reduce new methods. Oh, let me put my readers on this. This is good. I'm sitting here.
Just kind of talking about read us. New method pounds disappear from hips, waist, thighs, no contracts, guaranteed results call am 36104. This is in Dearborn, reducing suites, 140 North Dearborn, Jane, Jane, my stay in all is the manager here, or Jane's out today, probably no longer with us, which is all these recipe that she has in here, just, you know, in newspaper clippings, and more recipes, and more recipe, and honor St. Patrick's Day by preparing this hot potato salad variation, newspaper article, is there a year on date?
No, and just all kinds for long lasting relief of muscular aches and pains, anti-prologic teen, whole choice, I don't know what that is, but you could buy it back in those days. And all of these wonderful things. Now, what did this do for me? What is it doing for me?
It's bringing back, number one, wonderful, absolutely freaking cool memory, just wonderful memories. Oh, here's a there you've got it made, how to make these really cool potatoes using great poop on. Oh, my goodness gracious, and just getting through the whole thing. And there's so much stuff, it's gonna take me a long time tomorrow to go through all this.
But that is what I'm doing on Saturday after Good Friday. But I opened this up. This thing is there's water stains and everything that goes to make it. This is the second edition first printing, 1956 General Mills Incorporated, and from published by McGraw Hill, the home of Betty Crocker's Service.
Did you know that Betty Crocker didn't exist? She wasn't a real person. No, you weren't even real. She was a fictional character created by General Mills.
That's interesting. It's been one of those days today, Friday. I took a ride, I had to go to Tampa, but then on way back from Tampa, I went probably 35 miles out of my way and went to Newport Richie and visited with my nephew. And I wanted to visit with my sister-in-law, but I didn't.
I visited with my nephew, had a very nice conversation with him. And then I slowly drove home and got back here. And I went out, I was just, you know, I, when I walked in the house, the cookbook was once again on the dining room table. And I got thinking about that.
And I said, I don't want to think about that for right now. So I walked out in front yard. I think I left my cell phone in my car. So I went out there and grabbed the cell phone.
And then I saw the neighbors cross street, sitting around, out in the front yard. There was neighbors from three houses sitting in chairs. Oh, I wandered over there and visited with them. And we talked about neighbors.
We talked about all the fun stuff in the neighborhood. We talked about a murder that used to live down the street. We talked about the girl from around the corner who said her mom on fire. By the way, the girl that said her mom on fire was at my house like three days before eating pizza with my son.
How's that? We talked about all the weird things that have gone on in this wonderful neighborhood. And the couple who was there living in Bob's old house, Bob was a guy that lived there. And but after Bob, there was another delightful couple who lived there.
But this is a nice couple that live there now. And I got to really hang out with them and meet them for the first time. One of them works in banking and the other works in mortgages. So I said, oh, so that's how you met.
Well, kind of sort of in a way. You know, it was just really, really nice, really nice conversation. And, you know, I said, wow, this is cool. I've lived in this neighborhood now since 2007.
And this is the longest I have ever lived anywhere in whole life. You know, I started out in Detroit, then moved to Battle Creek, then moved to Mill Lake, which was halfway between Battle Creek and Hastings, then moved to a god-awful little town that I've talked about before called Hernando, Florida. And then I found, oh, I found another treasure yesterday from Hernando. I found my sisters, my late sister's membership card into the Hernando Social Club.
And it was signed by Major Bellamy, who was the president of the Community Association there. Major Bellamy, that this will tell you what a small world, you know, the Bellamy brothers let you love, yeah, he's related to them. All the Bellamy's are from that area. Major Bellamy, in that time, was the patriarch of the family.
I doubt that he's even alive now. And he had a brother named Burton, and they had a ranch, and they had major was a major landowner in that whole area. And that's where all the Bellamy's came. This cookbook that I'm holding in my hand lived in our kitchen in the town of Hernando that we rented from Major Bellamy before we moved to Dunedin.
And then I lived in Fairway States in Dunedin for several years, got married, lived in Clearwater, then bought a condo, then bought a house, then another house, got divorced, moved to Tarpon Springs, bought a house, got married again, moved back to Clearwater where I got a divorce, got married again. Have I had a complicated life or not? By the way, just before I started recording this, my favorite wife, which is ex-wife number two of three called me, and we're probably going to get together for a little while. But yeah, and then I bought this house in 2007, and I've been here ever since.
No mathematician on earth can figure out how long that's been. But there it is. And I thought that I thought that this treasure that I'm holding here in my hand was at the last Mrs. Gross's house because I knew that she had it, and I'm still wondering how it found its way here.
I'm wondering, and I have a sneaking suspicion. I know how it got here. I have a sneaking suspicion. I think my daughter snuck it out of that house and brought it here and put it in that closet that I never go in.
That's what I think I could be totally wrong. I probably am totally wrong. I don't know. But I do know that all of this has brought back my grief.
And I learned from a very wise widow who I read her book that the only way to get through grief is to go through it. And I guess ever so once in a while, that has to happen to you. When I was visiting with my nephew today, we just got talking and we both started grieving his father, who was my brother. And we had a conversation about that.
And then I said, okay, gone through that. And then I come home and I walk into the house. And this book is this picture book is on the dining room table. Now it's here in the studio with all of the nifty things, with all of the nifty things that my mom with her creativity, into beautiful cursive handwriting, and her ability to clip things out of the paper put in here with her own hands.
And I'm just so grateful that this showed up. So how was your good Friday? What are you going to do on Sunday? Go into church?
I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. I'm going to go for sure in my backyard and I'm going to sit at the table out there in the early morning. And I'm going to have some toast and some caffeine and Diet Coke. That's how I get my caffeine.
I wish I liked coffee. Who knows? Who knows? From Sparkling Clearwater, Florida.
I'm Michael Gross.