Departure stories Betty Crocker made matzoh balls (and other lies)
Book - 2022
""We weren't religious per se. The most frequent mention of God in our house was my mother yelling 'Goddammit!'" Elisa Bernick grew up "different" (i.e., Jewish) in the white, Christian suburb of New Hope, Minnesota during the 1960s and early 1970s. At the center of her world was her mother, Arlene, who was a foul-mouthed, red-headed, suburban Samson who ultimately shook the walls of their family until it collapsed. Poignant and provocative, Departure Stories peers through the broader lens of Minnesota's recent history to reveal an intergenerational journey through trauma that unraveled the Bernick family and many others. Deftly interweaving reporting, archival material, memoir, jokes, scrapbook ...fragments, personal commentary, and one very special Waikiki Meatballs recipe, Bernick explores how the invisible baggage of place and memory, Minnesota's uniquely antisemitic history, and the cultural shifts of feminism and changing marital expectations contributed to her family's eventual implosion. Departure Stories: Betty Crocker Made Matzoh Balls (and other lies) is a personal exploration of erasure, immigrants, and exiles that examines the ways departures-from places, families and memory-have far-reaching effects"--
- Subjects
- Genres
- Anecdotes
Biographies
History - Published
-
Bloomington, Indiana :
Indiana University Press
[2022]
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Item Description
- Contains recipes.
- Physical Description
- xi, 230 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references.
- ISBN
- 9780253064073
- Author's Note
- Part 1. Arrivals
- The Bernick Family Survival Relay
- Memory Is a Slippery Fish
- "The Great Jewish Invasion"
- Three Jewish Jokes
- Three Minnesota Jokes
- A Departure from "Minnesota Nice"
- A Story Told to Me by Grandpa Izzy
- Aliens from "Dee Olt Countree"
- Decamping to the Suburbs
- Interesting Demographics
- Emigration to Assimilation
- The First Coffee Klatch
- Waikiki Meatballs (Recipe)
- Arlene Wants Nice Lamps-1965
- Making a Betty Crocker Break for It
- Mrs. Minnesota 1964
- Mrs. Jewish Minnesota 1964
- Mrs. Samuel Bernick Reaches for the Crown
- "Husbands of Contestants Wash Dishes"
- Pageant Night-Mrs. Minnesota 1964
- Winners and Losers
- JewishNotChristian
- Mrs. Swanson-1967
- Can't Hide from the Weather
- Cold Snap
- The Pain Game-1968
- Sewing (In)Sanity
- Part 2. Departing from the Story Line
- Another Jewish Joke
- (Re)Constructing the Narrative
- Marriage Go-Round
- Disclaimer
- Arlene Goes AWOL-1968
- Disappearing Act
- Turn Up the Volume-1968
- Missing the Strike Zone
- Exiled to the War Zone-1969
- The Gestalt Prayer
- Revolutionaries
- No Rescue in Sight-1969
- Terra Incognita
- The Swinging Tree
- Stress Fractures
- Bubble-Speak
- Grit
- Out in the Cold
- Abandon (Verb)
- Mutation and Adaptation
- Looking for the Exits
- Snow Bunny Gets Lost in La La Land
- Bad with a Capital BS
- A Real Nightmare
- Remembering and Forgetting
- Truth and Lies
- The Nearest Exit
- Epilogue: Evolving Story Lines
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix
- Selective Timeline of the Jews (and My Family) in Minnesota, 1840-1962
- Selective Timeline of the Jews (and My Family) in the Minneapolis Suburbs of Robbinsdale, Crystal, St Louis Park, and New Hope, 1950-1970
- Selective Timeline of "the Divorce Revolution," 1960-1975
- Selective Timeline of the Jews (and My Family) in California, 1945-1973
- Notes
- Bibliography
- About the Author