Departure Stories: Betty Crocker Made Matzoh Balls (and Other Lies)

Description

"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. Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Author’s Note Part One: 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 Two: 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