By Kathy Fischer-Brown
I can’t say that I never did anything particularly memorable “in the
name of love.” Whether a result of my aging brain or selective recall, I can
think of nothing to write here about myself. So, I will relate a little story
from family lore.
When my dad served in the navy during WWII, his fiancée (my mom) used to
send him care packages of his favorite foods: stuff that would survive weeks—if
not months—of travel from The Bronx until reaching the SS Virgo, his ship, somewhere in the South Pacific. She’d send him edibles
such as salamis, crackers, and nuts in their shells. My father loved sweets: chocolates, chocolate pudding,
Boston cream pie…you name it. Brownies were one of his particular weaknesses. My mother’s
brownies especially. They were cakey but not dry, satisfyingly chocolatey, and
chock full of walnuts.
So, at one point she decided to bake a batch and send it
to him. This was in an age when there was no UPS where you could drop off your
perishables, have them boxed in Styrofoam coolers and packed in dry ice. You
couldn’t even track the package. And in war time, there was no guarantee that it would
even reach its destination. Imagine, if you will, the condition in which they arrived.
My dad often spoke of this, and how his taste buds had been so amped at the
thought of a bite of a delicious brownie
…or two or three accompanied by a luke warm glass of navy regulation reconstituted powdered milk. Until he got a gander at those brown and green mouldy bricks.
~*~
Kathy Fischer Brown
is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, "The Serpent’s
Tooth" trilogy: Lord Esterleigh’s Daughter, Courting the Devil, The
Partisan’s Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, an epic fantasy
adventure for young adult and adult readers. Check out her Books We Love Author page or visit her website. All of Kathy’s
books are available in e-book and in paperback from a host of online and brick
and mortar retailers. Look for Where the
River Narrows (with Ronald Ady Crouch),
the 12th and final novel in BWL’s Canadian Historical Brides
series, coming in July 2018.
When my dad served in the navy during WWII, his fiancée (my mom) used to
send him care packages of his favorite foods: stuff that would survive weeks—if
not months—of travel from The Bronx until reaching the SS Virgo, his ship, somewhere in the South Pacific. She’d send him edibles
such as salamis, crackers, and nuts in their shells. My father loved sweets: chocolates, chocolate pudding,
Boston cream pie…you name it. Brownies were one of his particular weaknesses. My mother’s
brownies especially. They were cakey but not dry, satisfyingly chocolatey, and
chock full of walnuts.
Loved the story and the vintage pictures.
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