Dear Reader:

When I read the mantra that accompanied my recently arrived stove range cover… I had to smile. HAPPINESS IS HOMEMADE. I might be remembered for being the ” Best Picker-Upper this side of the Mississippi River” … when it comes to meals… but Becky, the ” Little Home-Maker and Chef of Homemade Delights” … not!

The more I thought about it… the more I realized that the term homemade has lost most of its original insinuation. One definition simply defined homemade as something being made at home, rather than in a store or factory.

Unless someone lives on a completely self-sustaining farm… ( is that even possible these days) how many of us might make a meal at home from store grocery bags … containing all the ingredients for a meal being brought in … even though it was compiled and cooked at home? Weren’t the ingredients made in factories and then shipped to stores? In other words… is anything really homemade anymore?

We live in a very fragile dependent world today… based on imports and exports. The coronavirus showed us just how dependent the world is on each other… which during good economic days works okay – but not so well when we can’t depend on getting the vital resources expected in our homes and lifestyles. Many of us became more ” home bodies” during this original coronavirus stage … and still are to a certain degree… ad continuum…

The expression handmade runs the same gamut… something built by hand -not a machine. Again… most handmade crafts might be created and molded by hand but in the process … most of the time… some shape or form of a machine is used during the process.

When I got to Homespun an interesting history lesson evolved! Originally the term referred to cloth made entirely at home-which was an incredibly labor intensive project. The term revived during the Civil War … especially in the South for practical and patriotic reasons.

However, the term took a negative turn in its usage towards political candidates… especially aimed at Abraham Lincoln. It’s synonyms started meaning rustic, crude, ordinary, plain, unpolished, ignorant and simple… as in simple-minded.

Today some historians still define Lincoln’s humor as ” homespun” but I would have to disagree… it was his keen wit and fast-paced humorous retorts that slowly won early audiences over to Abraham Lincoln… he was ” homespun” in the sense that there never seemed to be enough material to cover his 6′ 4 ” frame… especially his pants … and early in his career he was teased unmercifully about his calf-length cropped buckskin pants… today his pants would be considered ” high water.”

But once when teased about it on a platform as he was getting ready to deliver a speech… Lincoln just smiled and said he kept his pants short for a reason… if the crowd turned on him he could run faster that way. The audience laughed.

*** I could really relate to this story since my brother David ( who was also 6’4 and 140 on a good day) had to have his pants made for him… until finally mother and Aunt Eva found a shop in Greenville who could alter and fit David with his first bell bottoms… ( cool pants like everyone else was wearing) David was the happiest I ever saw him!

So until tomorrow… I think the mantra on the stove cover should read Happiness is Home … and you can ” spin” that anyway you want!

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh