Mama had relatives in St. Louis. Family rumor was they had moved there with the invention of beer.

That year 1919, when Gramp and Mania and myself were crossing America the hard way, via a Model T, was a year of sun and dust in the Middle West.

GRAMP used to say he'd done everything in life twice. But even he wasn't a cordon bleu. He didn't come right out and say it, but if you cornered him and asked, he'd have to admit it....

Gramp held the steering wheel like death's other brother and pulled the gas lever down until we hit a neck-breaking thirty miles an hour.

In the early 1900'S, when unlimited sums were spent on expansive living in England and on the Continent, the chefs who served in the kitchens of great estates were French, or at least French-trained.

If there had been no pig under the barn, there would have been no Emerson on the sofa in the parlor.

Is the timbale ready for His Highness, chef? The fish course has been served.