Home Made

An acquaintance recently brought me a big pot of gumbo.  My friend is from Louisiana where they make the world's best gumbo.  When I suggested she could make some real money selling her gumbo to local catering services, she laughed and told me her Mother's gumbo is even better than hers.  I encouraged to think about it seriously as a side line to her regular accounting work. 

I told her about Mom's success at selling something home made.  It had come about quite by accident.  Mom had b baked a pie for someone.  A day or so later, a woman, who had eaten a slice of the pie, came to Mom and asked her to bake one for her. The woman was giving a special dinner and wanted to serve a pie like the one she had eaten and would gladly pay for it.  Mom agreed and the woman arranged to pick it up on her way home from work.  The next day she phoned Mom and said how everyone raved about the pie and would Mom bake another.  Within a couple of days, Mom was taking orders from several of the woman's friends. 

Requests for different pies, apple, berry and cream pies began to keep Mom busy in the kitchen and Dad began to help her.  It wasn't long before half the morning was used in baking pies.  Mom was so pleased to know that people liked her baked pies, and,  she liked having the extra spending money.  The word spread and orders for Mom's fresh baked pies increased.  The hours of baking started earlier and earlier each day and began stretching well into the afternoons. 

It wasn't long before baked pies covered the kitchen counters, the dining table and some makeshift counter space,  The baking of pies became labor intensive and I stepped in to help.  At each days end, after all the pies had been picked up, Mom, Dad and I would heave a sigh of relief and complement each other on how well the day had gone.  But, eventually, we began making off-hand remarks to each other that selling pies wasn't as much fun as it had been in the beginning.  Mom began having second thoughts about running a pie business, and decided to close up shop,  She stopped taking orders. 

Before the pie business started, she and Dad had been talking about taking a trip with Aunt Bessie.  After closing the pie business, they did take the trip.  Mom, Dad and Aunt Bessie drove from California to Florida.