Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery and the cheapest form of disrespect. Often flattery is used to observe just long enough to mimic; stolen riffs gathered up to fashion a final product more easily duplicated and more widely marketed. The soul contained within becomes an early casualty.
Here are two statistics; faint pulses taken from a particular time and place. They speak to how much has changed and just how quickly.
In the 1920s, it was estimated that one in four American households still baked their own bread. That remaining 3/4 contains a discovery for us as well. Many of those purchases were not occurring in grocery stores but rather in bakeries. In 1925, Terre Haute, Indiana – population 65,000 – listed 23 local-owned businesses identified as retail or commercial bakeries. Many of these were single proprietor: Gertrude Roetker on South 7th Street – Peter Kirchner or Max Isaacson up on Lafayette Avenue.
Jerry’s Bakery, directly across from the courthouse, came by its name honestly: Jerry Fitzgerald was the flesh and blood owner. Jerry employed dozens dressed in white and the loaves they produced for daily delivery all had names: Papa’s Choice, Betsy Ross, among them.
While we’re on the subject of flesh and blood, a good idea, don’t you think to keep the staff of life as close to the senses as possible? Cellophane and added preservatives may have prolonged the sell-by date of day-old bread, but they have also diminished the distinctive aroma, texture, and taste that was the signature of every baker with a recipe in their head and an oven close at hand.
The progress we have made in the century since has resulted in roses being shipped from South America that have no fragrance and bread that is bereft of any taste – uniformly sliced and soft with the exact same shades of white and brown.
The sincerest form of flattery? Instead, maybe something genuine that occurs in the moment. Fresh baked goods. Yea, that’s better. Multiple senses coming to life followed by an exclamation of how wonderful that was – essentially the experience of feeling alive. Why would you ever want to pretend that you could improve on that?
Song, Artist, Album
Spoonful, Howlin’ Wolf, Chess Box
Domino, Van Morrison, His Band and Street Choir
Stir It Up, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Legend
What’s Inside, Sara Bareilles, Waitress
My Sugar Is So Refined, Peggy Lee, Capitol Transcriptions
Heaven Of Pies, Tom Roznowski, This Place In Time
Country Pie, Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline
Good Biscuits, Memphis Minnie, Hoodoo Lady
Sweets For My Sweet, Drifters, The Essentials
Cinnamon Girl, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows
I Can’t Help Myself, Four Tops, The Motown Story
