Food, however, continued first and foremost in people’s minds. If they couldn’t have it—they could think about, dream about and talk about it. The person with a magazine showing pictures of food had to fight off new
friends. People pushed and shoved trying to gaze for a moment on a picture of chocolate cake.
Sally Blaine found a recipe in a novel. “It had potatoes and peas and carrots and a little bit of beef or lamb, and it sounded so delicious that I read the recipe over and over again as I read the
book.”
“A strange kind of madness swept the camp,” Frances Nash said.
Recipe madness.
“Any time of the day, up and down the halls, men and women with pencils and scraps of paper in hand could be hear saying…you take half a pound of butter, add sugar, eggs, chocolate, cream, nuts…chill and serve,”
said Eva Nixon. Young, old, men, and women traded recipes and stuffed them into bulging notebooks. The nurses were not immune. One had “fantastic” recipes because she collected a great variety due to the many different ethnic groups in the camp.
A doctor said to her patient, “Do you not realize that this recipe copying in one of the signs of insanity from malnutrition?” Within a week, she, too, avidly exchanged recipes with a patient. “I know
it’s silly,” she said, “but it’s fun.”
If you think these kinds of stories are important for young people to read, please consider purchasing a copy of Pure Grit and donating it to your local middle school. I'm not just trying to sell my book. I believe these women's stories need to be household knowledge.
A couple weeks ago, my agency film producer sent me the materials being used to pitch Pure Grit as a 10-episode film series. I hadn't read my book in a few years, and I was deeply struck by the story. I'd forgotten how powerful it is. Not talking about my writing, but those women and how they endured the horrors of combat nursing and captivity. It brought me to
tears.
Now that we have become so familiar with zoom 😍 it is much easier for authors to visit with book groups. My current policy is that if a book group purchases a minimum of 8 copies of one of my books I'll pop in via zoom or Skype for a one hour vist.
