I Pledge My Head to Clearer Thinking

For those of you who didn’t grow up showing cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and, yes, even horses at the county fair – or didn’t spend hours on the family’s garden plot, getting your veggies ready to compete at the fair – or didn’t labor behind a sewing machine learning how to make an apron or “petal-pushers” (lordy, how I hated sewing – but my mother made me do it) – to compete with other young seamstresses at that same fair, and therefore maybe never participated in a 4-H club, here’s what those 4 H’s are all about.

A few weeks ago someone asked me what the “H’s” in 4-H stood for, and I had no trouble reciting the 4-H pledge verbatim, even though it’s been about 60 years since I attended a 4-H meeting.  That got me thinking about what it is about a bunch of words that gets so stuck in our memories that decades can pass and we can still recite the lines as if we’d been saying them daily.

My brother isn’t much of a church-goer, but he does a great job reciting the 23rd Psalm (and I can still do the Apostle’s Creed, early 1960’s Presbyterian version).  Andy can quickly tell you the military alphabet, just as precisely as he could during his days in Phu Tai, Vietnam (check out today’s Andy’s Corner).

Have you ever thought about what words and lines you remember years after the fact?  We’d love to hear from you…just leave your memories in the Comments section.

Meanwhile, there are some recipes that we can do from memory – with no recipe card at hand (mind you, we’re no David from Albuquerque – see his first blog and we’re no Samin Nosrat either).  We have enough recipes copied around our house to write about 20 cookbooks!  And we generally rely on them totally, not varying the called-for ingredients one bit and fretting if we put in 1/4 tsp instead of 1/2 tsp!

Admittedly, Andy is a recipe-less master of his breakfast repertoire: Swedish Pancakes, even given his Belgian/English heritage, Egg (Mc)Muffins, and Breakfast Burritos.  I can whip up my mom’s spaghetti sauce without thinking twice.  But go beyond those staples and we’re hard pressed to go recipe-less.  Maybe we should call recipes our “cheat-sheets.” 🙂

Now if my head, which I’ve pledged – a countless number of times – to clearer thinking, could just remember how to make this old-fashioned 1-2-3-4 cake.

The 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 beaten eggs should be a piece of cake (so to speak) to remember….but the recipe-makers neglect to tell you that there are other ingredients that have to be remembered too.  What gimmick can I use to remember the 3/4 c of milk, 2 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp vanilla?

So much for my clear thinking.  But here’s this oldie but goodie anyway.  Thanks to Katie, our dear friend in Baton Rouge, who remembered the recipe.  Here’s to memory!