Comments on: Father Was a Good Provider

By: Carol

Carol — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:14:50 +0000

Chocolates? Really? Sounds like they are really talking about cigars.

By: Maurine Ward

Maurine Ward — Thu, 26 May 2011 06:41:43 +0000

I took an institute class once on teachings of Latter-day Saint prophets.The teacher was NOT my favorite institute teacher anyway. Then one day the lesson was about men being the head of the family and how they were shirking their duties by not taking care of their wives and children. He then said that he bought his wife dress patterns and material so she could have some new dresses. He said that she would never do anything for herself, instead she did everything for her children. If he gave her money to buy the material and patterns, she never would do it. I was so angry at his logic that I almost quit the class. If he felt like doing something for her, why didn’t he buy her a ready-made dress. This is what this story reminded me of.

By: David B

David B — Thu, 26 May 2011 05:53:31 +0000

Speaking as both the person in my family who does the cooking and grocery shopping and as a guy, the father’s whinging about economy and simplicity and such rings false—it just didn’t sound like real-life dialogue, and though cluelessness is a very real and very common problem, i sincerely doubt he’d have gotten to the point of having been married to the woman in the story for at least about 11 years without having had some sense on this topic pushed into his skull. Also, in reaction to Researcher, remember that even though early-20th-century diets were simple compared to the present day, if you go back just a few hundred years before that people’s diets actually tended to be a lot more varied than they are now.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 26 May 2011 03:39:23 +0000

Tell us what you really think, Mark — don’t be so shy!

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 26 May 2011 03:18:38 +0000

And I thought this was another Barenstain Bears story.

And I hated them all too.

By: proud daughter of eve

proud daughter of eve — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:45:39 +0000

I bet if she’d handed off the cooking to him too, he’d've learned his lesson faster. Listening to him harp on about how women have “lost their pioneering spirit” made me want to give him a good dose of reality! See if he’d wax on about the wonders of home-made ice-cream if he’d had to do all the work.

By: Mina

Mina — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:43:54 +0000

Well, the trouble with the world today is that there are too many flummy-diddles. Can't argue with that!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:38:43 +0000

This struck me as a masculine version of “I Love Lucy” or some other screwball comedy from that era.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:05:01 +0000

That is a very funny story. It’s also a perfect illustration of the post-war diet that is killing the American public. A good basic exploration of the subject is the book A Change of Heart: How the People of Framingham, Massachusetts, Helped Unravel the Mysteries of Cardiovascular Disease. The limited diets of the previous centuries were certainly not an improvement on the nutrient-rich, varied foods available today, but a diet of processed, high-sugar and high-fat foods as illustrated in this story is unfortunately resulting in an epidemic of diabetes and other conditions.

And, by the way, my husband went shopping yesterday and did a marvelous job. No sides of beef, no 500 pounds of sugar. : )

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:33:35 +0000

That woman had the patience of Job!