Gus on the radio

of quilts and cakes and comfort

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

I used to spend a lot of time at my sewing machine, making quilts. They were never very good quilts, but they were made with love, and I enjoyed spending time listening to the whir of the machine and looking at colors and patterns, and tuning in to a certain program on the radio called The Yankee kitchen. This was a show featuring recipes and they were narrated by a man named Gus, and he would dictate the recipes very, very slowly, so a girl could be running a seam and copying down a recipe at the same time. There was a great deal of comfort in his delivery. He had a kind voice, and he was never in a hurry about anything.He had formed a virtual community of listeners. He would offer a recipe and include the name of the person who sent it in, and include as well any comments she or he had about the recipe— where or why it was served, and how it went over. If one of his community members was in the hospital, or perhaps recuperating from something at home, he would give a shout out to that person and call them by name. Whenever he did that, I had an image of who the person might be, and it was as though I really knew them, and it was as though I could send my good wishes over the radio to Mary in the hospital, or to Edna recuperating at home.

There is something about someone speaking slowly and kindly that is always appealing to me, but particularly now, when I feel that so many of us have become brittle unto the breaking point, or are lost in sorrow, or kind of confused about what the heck is going on in this world. I read stories about what people are doing to get through these days, and I am always glad to read them, and heartened , if only temporarily, by the messages within. But if I want to recall a memory of being comforted, it’s Gus I think of, with his quiet and reassuring voice, and his recipes, which, by the way, were always good. He offered a recipe one day for a pistachio cake. This is not a cake made with spinach and with ingredients you have to order from Amazon. This is a cake that is the equivalent to Lipton onion soup mix dip, but I’m telling you, it is delicious. Also, it is green, and so it is the very best thing you could possibly serve for dessert after you go to see the movie Wicked. I will offer it here and ask that when you read the recipe, you read it verrrrry slowly, and when you read it very slowly, that you feel as though a warm hand is on your shoulder, saying take heart, take heart. All is not lost. All is never lost. Here. Eat. And then go outside and stand beneath a tree and look up at a bird sitting there looking down at you.