Wisdom Learned from Tom and Della

I can't believe I have never posted this before.  My parents are two of the wisest people I know.  Here is a compilation of their best bon mots for your own personal resource library.  If you nail it to the wall of the kitchen, you'll always have it available for handy reference.

 

Always look in the direction the car is moving.
If you clean up the kitchen as you go, it is clean when you are done cooking.
A slice of potato in the doughnut fryer cleans the fat, and you can eat the potato afterward.
Always carry a calculator and nail clippers in your pocket.
You can make a great fort out of a table, three chairs, two blankets and a sheet.
Iron the collar last.
Do not be afraid of butter when making a sauce.
Spend money on really good ingredients.
It is more important to spend time with friends than to sleep.
Spend money on ephemera, like trips to Europe.  It is worth getting a second job to have the money, too.
Play music loudly so everyone can hear and enjoy it.  You can do housework or just sit and listen.  It’s all right to insist that people stop and listen to the really good parts.
Reading is fun.  Poetry, history, recipes, short stories, novels, maps, science fiction, and comic books.
Opera is a good thing and it’s not just for stuffy rich people.
Magic is real, including ancient, arcane Egyptian practices, thiotimiline, and fairies.  How do you know elves don’t exist if you’ve never seen one?
You must eat pickled peaches at Thanksgiving.
It is worthwhile to spend three days making a special dish, like sauerbraten.
You can’t make enough potato pancakes or lefse.
Keep the water running when it’s below freezing outside.
Always keep your options open.
You don’t have to do something just because you’re good at it.
It is not hard to make homemade chocolate pudding.
Use the good dishes.
Cover the blueberry bushes with netting so you’ll get some blueberries.
Sing loudly.
It is always a good time to play the ukelele.
Grind the coffee beans the night before.
Lift from your knees.
Cooking is an end until itself.  It is recreational, social, and creates works of art.
It is important to spend chunks of time and money to gather friends for talk, food, and drink.  Do it often.
Be nicer to your spouse than anyone else you know.
Toothpaste will stop mosquito bites from itching.  Usually.
If you have hiccups, drinking a glass of water in a steady rhythm will make them go away.  Every time.
Don’t open the door to the dark room.  All the dark will leak out.
When playing gin rummy, discard the high cards first.  But sometimes you can panic your opponent into error by throwing a low card early.
Talk to your spouse a lot.  Make sure you spend a lot of time with him or her.
If you walk by a weed in your yard, pull it.
Be involved in your community, your street, your city, your state, and on the national level.  Make things better, no matter how busy you may be.  Stay informed.
Make friends with all kinds of people, all colors, ages, backgrounds, religions, nationalities, and professions.  Most people are good, kind, and interesting.
Learn new things – how to cook a complicated dish, deciphering land use regulations, a language so you can travel somewhere you’ve never been before.
Let go of things you don’t need.  Make room for something new.  Or just enjoy the empty space.
You don’t always need a coat.  Sometimes it’s okay to just be cold for a few minutes.
Pay attention to how you look.  It’s fun to dress up.
You can clear a stuffy nose by standing over a steaming kettle with a towel or a newspaper over your head.
Gargling with salt water eases a sore throat.
Write.  Stories, poetry, and letters.  Show them to people.
Sing to, and with, your children.  Sing harmony.
Share new recordings with your family.  Rock and roll, jazz, Sibelius violin concertos.  It doesn’t matter as long as you are excited about it.
Take pictures.
You don’t have to heat the whole house.  Light a fire or put on a sweater or go out for a walk to get warm.
Growing some of your own food is not that big a deal.
Camping is fun.  Keep a box stocked and ready go to.
Spray the tablecloth with water before you iron it.
It’s not a big deal to bake a birthday cake from scratch.  Black Midnight is the correct cake, although June birthdays may prefer strawberry pie.
If you use a lot of something, figure out how to get it wholesale.  Sometimes you can get others to go in on it with you.  This works for cheese, beef, wine, beach condos, and lots of other things.
Don’t bother with mixes or frozen food.  Food made from scratch tastes a lot better and usually it’s surprisingly easy to make.
Popcorn should be made in a pan, not a microwave.
Cold pizza makes an excellent breakfast.
So does popcorn.
Radishes and green onions are good with a little salt in the palm of your hand.
Sprinkle pepper on your buttermilk before you drink it.
Learn more than one language.
Recycle, even if it’s not convenient.
You don’t have to follow a recipe too closely.  Sometimes it’s okay to guess.
You can make up recipes.  It’s good to write them down.
You can design your own house or dress pattern.
If some things are in a routine, it gives you more brain space for the other things.
Don’t cook the eggs or the coffee too long or too fast.
You can choose how to live your life.  You are not stuck with what you did before or what your family or friends thought was normal or inevitable.
It’s okay to spend money on new cooking equipment.
The candle will stay in the holder if you drip wax in it first.
Antique furniture often costs less than furniture from Ikea, and it’ll last longer, too.  It already has!
What you cook at home usually tastes better than restaurant food.
The family eats together every night.
There should always be a candy bar on a shelf in the cupboard.  You can slice pieces off of it.
A batch of chocolate chip cookies makes anything better.
You don’t need a lot of champagne to make it flow in the streets.  Scraping it with your toe makes it go farther.
You must play a bagpipe recording really loudly on New Year’s Eve at midnight.  Open the door so the neighbors can share the experience with you, and to let the New Year in.
Ketchup is good on scrambled eggs.
Make your own syrup with brown and white sugar.
And my personal favorite…if the pasta sticks to the wall, it has cooked too long.

There.  If you nail this list to the wall, it will be  handy for reference, although you may eventually want to memorize it.