"Have some Entenmann's!"

I know that sometimes folks may wonder just what in the world I am thinking or doing here. I tell a strange tale or two. But as time goes by I have started to put things here so I remember them. This has become a file cabinet of sorts...for old and new memories.*

I was wandering with my friend BC one Saturday morning. She wanted to run a few errands and I was avoiding chores. We stopped at the bead shop, the Salvation Army Store,** and the bread store. I don't know why my friend shops at the bread store, but she "says" it is for the gummy candy they have.

Anyway, I found a couple of things I needed (we are out of bread at the house) and some things I didn't (Gee, those orange cookies look good. Oh, and I like pizza!). We paid and got back in the truck and she offered me a pastry-type thing in a "snack pack." I looked at the package and saw the magic label - Entenmann's.***

When was the first time that you heard of Entenmann's?

I was offered my first Entenmann's in Bayside, New York in 1981. DH and I were just out of the bar exam and newly married. We had delayed the honeymoon for 6 months (to finish school and test) and then headed to New York, Maine, and Europe.****

In New York we visited DH's uncle and the S family. JS is the closest thing Mike has to a brother (before mine adopted him) and it is no wonder that our sons and these long-time friends share first names.* JS  is our son's godfather. JS and Mike knew each other from Civil Air Patrol and have been friends since their teens. And JS had the most wonderful, loving parents - Carl and May.

Carl and May always welcomed us into their home and we would make their brick row house our headquarters when we visited the city. We stayed in their spare room (on the Castro convertible) until we had so many children that we could not invade anyone's home.*****

They treated us like family. May was still working at City College and Carl was a retired city employee. Carl would frequently wander the neighborhood, checking on neighbors, visiting, doing the shopping, and such. Then he would arrive home, often with a bag of groceries, including Entenmann's anisette biscotti. Our oldest child teethed on Entenmann's. In later years Carl would hand the children a bag of Entenmann's to take home after a visit. ["Here. This is for you. They don't make these cookies in Texas."]

Whenever I see Entenmann's anything I am reminded of May and Carl.

Yes, we can buy Entenmann's in Texas now. But the new owners of the company decided there was no market for anisette biscotti. I checked the website. I have to say, I do not miss the biscotti (I am not a fan of the licorice flavor). But I do miss May and Carl...and their generous spirit and love lives on in their son and daughter-in-law, granddaughters, and grandsons.





* I already know I will need it.

** You never know what you might find. Today I found "nothing."

*** http://www.entenmanns.com/au-ourHistory.cfm#.U-5dQmNUqKI

****No, we were not wealthy, but we were waiting for bar results as the jobs depended on passing. We figured we might not have the chance to travel again for a while and so spent some of our savings. I am not sure what we were thinking, but it was a wonderful trip. At my age, I have few regrets anyway. We stayed with lots of "family" and friends. And we have "dined out on" the stories our whole married lives.

*****OK. This note is TMI. Stop now if you are a sensitive sort. We eventually found an affordable hotel with a kitchen. We began to travel with boxed mac and cheese and Cheerios (among other things) and found it was easier to travel in the city with our crowd (it's a crowd when the kids outnumber the parents) from our adopted location.

And, just to be safe, we decided couldn't sleep on the Castro Convertible anymore. DH was convinced that our last two kids were conceived on that sofa-bed. Even though DH is wrong about that, we both decided to play it safe. [Yes, he had a joke about it. He said we should have named one "Castro" and one "Convertible." Yes - not funny.]