Red, Plump, Juicy Cherries…No Pits Please!

“If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, what am I doing in the Pits?”

That phrase is the title of a book written by Erma Bombeck, McGraw-Hill, 1978 …. The title is enough to make you want to read more as we identify with the ups and downs of life. 

Do any of you remember Erma Bombeck? (see pic)

Erma was an Americanhumorist who achieved great popularity for her funny and sometimes serious newspaper columns! She wrote columns about life living in the Midwest.  She was a suburban housewife and in the 1970s, her columns were read, twice weekly, by 30 million readers of 900 newspapers.

I looked forward to reading her columns because she used everyday life happenings and made them funny.  I guess you could say she was one of the first “Bloggers” ? She wrote a series of books, and I have a few of them.

Erma Bombeck died in 1996 at the age of 69, of complications from a kidney transplant. 

Below are a few of her quotes: 

• “Insanity is hereditary. You can catch it from your kids.”
• “My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first one being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.”
• “There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.”
• “If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead.”
• “Mothers-in-law who wear a black armband to the wedding are expendable.”
• “The only reason I would take up jogging is so I could hear heavy breathing again.”
• “Ironed Sheets are a health hazard.”
• “Laughter rises out of tragedy, when you need it the most, and rewards you for your courage.”
• “Dreams have only one owner at a time. That’s why dreamers are lonely.”
• “In general, my children refused to eat anything that hadn’t danced on TV.”
• “When humor goes, there goes civilization.”
• “Seize the moment.Think of all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart.” (My Motto!)
• “Never loan your car to anyone to whom you’ve given birth.”
• “The grass is always greener over the septic tank.”
• “A child needs your love more when he deserves it least.”
• “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”
• “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”
• “If you can laugh at it, you can live with it.”
• “I told you I was sick.” (She requested this to be her epitaph.)
• “I didn’t fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian”.
  

And one of my favorites is this quote:

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’”

Thanks Erma….for being an inspiration to me and so many others, and for showing us that we can laugh at ourselves and at our every day lives!

Happy 1st day of November!

Blessings and hugs!