Traverse City Cherry Pie and Influential Women

International Woman’s Day brought two events to our continuum care complex. One was a catered luncheon from a Michigan chain called The Traverse City Pie Company. The other was a lecture given by a professor from one of the local colleges titled White House Wives, from Martha Washington to Melania Trump. 

The first gathering of the International Woman’s Day was in 1911 and it feels weird that I don’t know much about the movement/group or whatever label applies here. Was it not a big deal in the years past or did I have my head in the sand? For whatever reason it wasn't on my radar...or it was there and the Old People gene wiped it off my brain's hard drive. This year’s theme is women’s equality. Their website says: “Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women's equality.” Ya, sure, give it another hundred years and it might happen. But, ladies, please don't stone me for saying this but I'm glad I grew up in an era when men were tasked with changing all the flat tires and checking out any scary noises coming from the basement---although I’ve done both in a pitch. 

The Traverse City Pie Company has fifteen locations around the state and I’d only been to a couple of them so when the opportunity to sign up to sample their fare for only ten dollars, I jumped at the chance. It was set up in our all-purpose room and we all agreed to dress up a bit. So out came my smokey gray MaryJanes that were made in Israel and cost so much I hate to wear them out of fear I’ll wear them out. Ya, I know, that’s crazy thinking but I never claimed to be entirely sane and sensible. But they're the only dress shoes I own and they are the only ones I’ve ever had that actually have the support I need so I can walk without pain. The bone structure in my feet is so bad that I wore custom-made shoes for the first twenty-two years of my life and I should have continued doing so but fashion won out over those shoes during my man-hunting days. Those side lacing, dried mud-colored things looked like they came from a prison. Not that I’ve ever seen prison shoes but growing up I always thought surely they’d have to wear ugly-ass footwear as part of their punishment. 

If you’re from Michigan or ever vacationed near The Bridge that connects upper and lower Michigan you probably know that the Traverse City area is known for its cherries and in recent years they’ve added wine to the locally grown things they promote. The pie company has been around since Ring was a pup and he died so long ago no one living knows where he was buried. They make forty kinds of fruit and cream pies in addition to quiches and meat pot pies and they ship them all over the country. But mostly I remember the pie company from going to the annual Cherry County Festival in my wild-child thirties-going-on-seventeen. Today, however, I didn’t eat one of their cherry pie varieties because I’m half way through using a teeth bleaching kit and it seemed counter productive. You know you’re getting old when you start thinking that eating a piece of pie is dangerously close to being irresponsible with your money. Those kits are not cheap! 

Twenty-nine of us showed up for this event and it was fun. And I don’t understand why it was because I see all these same women almost daily. I’m guessing it was because we all dressed up and were mutually admiring all the colorful scarves, shawls and jewelry we hauled out of our personal archives. Oh, and I got 3-4 compliments on my hair which proves extra primping to pouf it up pays off. 

The lecture on the President’s Wives was the next day.” As a person with more than a passing interest in woman’s suffrage history I knew Edith Wilson and Eleanor Roosevelt would be featured in this lecture for IWD. I also know we’ve had some extraordinary First Ladies from both sides of the aisle but at lunch the day before our resident, hyper-sensitive Far Right Fringette announced that she’d walk out “if the speaker gets political.” She’s in my book club and has made it clear she doesn’t think racism exists anymore and wants the media, authors and historians to quit talking about it because THEY are they problem. Translation: Racism needs to be swept back under the carpet so she doesn't have to admit she probably benefited from White Privilege. 

I loved, loved LOVED this lecture that the professor said should have been titled Women of Great Influence and No Power. Near the end he said words to the effect that since Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Trump both had young children the causes they took up were in that area, Mrs. Obama's being childhood nutrition and guess who walked out when he didn't say another word about about Mrs. Trump. Later on in the hall she was telling another resident that she walked out because he was slanting his talk toward the Democrats and the other resident replied, “I didn’t pick up on that at all.” (Because the speaker didn't.) I kept right on walking because what’s the point of butting heads with her? She’s nearly 90. She’s going to keep manufacturing outrage over nuggets of nothingness until she dies. The professor had most of us spellbound and that's my take-away. ©