November 16, 2007
"What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets."-- Erma Bombeck on Thanksgiving.
The other day I mentioned this Erma Bombeck quote about Thanksgiving to a 20-something writer who shot me a perplexed and vacant look and said "Who?"
"Surely, you have heard of Erma Bombeck," I replied. "She was a famous American humorist, newspaper columnist, and author who wrote about motherhood. She was hilarious and was often on Johnnie Carson."
"Who was Johnnie Carson," the 20-something asked.
I am going to start over.
"Let's just say that my generation had Erma. You have Oprah."
The 20-something wondered, "Oh, she was a voice for women, then?"
Well, something like that.
Women used Erma's advice for just about everything. She wrote about surviving holidays such as Thanksgiving, messy teenagers, how she could never find the Scotch tape, and how she was a disaster in the kitchen. She flailed against "the perfect housewife and super mother" type and made ordinary moms feel good about themselves.
Yes, indeed, I guess she was our Oprah.
I continued my explanation for the 20-something. In the second half of the 20 th century (that would be after 1950 to this 20-something), Erma was as popular as Hanna Montana.
I remember Erma's popularity with great conviction, too, because to this day I keep an Erma Bombeck quote framed and hanging in my laundry room so offspring will heed its message. It reads: "How to operate a clothes hamper. Don't be intimidated because there are no dials or instructions on the lid. Bending from the waist you simply pick up a sock, a pair of pants or a towel, lift the lid of the hamper and feed soiled clothes into it. The Good Fairy will take it from there."
I continued my speech.
How can one not love Erma Bombeck's writings with such amusing and comical titles as these: "Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession", "I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression", and "If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits".
I think this 20-something friend of mine is beginning to love Erma, too, and realizes that just like Oprah, Erma did not need to use her last name much. She was that popular.
And on Thanksgiving, when we forget the diet as Erma suggests, enjoy the pies, and watch football, I rely on another of Erma's famous quotes to survive the day.
"If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead."--Erma Bombeck.
