A Partially Plagiarized Post about Pumpkin Bread

So some of this came from my sister.  In order to avoid plagiarizing and to add my own two cents, I’m using different fonts and colors.  My thoughts look like this: 

If it’s in this font and this color, it’s my sister Robyn’s story! 

The story of the pumpkin bread.
All of my life, my mom made pumpkin bread. My dad loved it, and we all loved it, but the ones who probably loved it most was Daddy and my youngest sister, Sandi. (That’s me!) A lot of people know Sandi, but not everyone knows that her real name is Saundra Jean. She was named after some really good friends of our parents, Saundra and Jean Scott. That is important later!

Mom made pumpkin bread for everything - when we were in school, she would make it for our teachers and we would take it to them wrapped in tin foil. In later years, Daddy became the "mixer". Mom would throw all the ingredients together and Daddy mixed it for her. I would call from time to time and get the recipe and make some (often for my boys to take to their teachers wrapped in foil), but I always jotted the recipe down, made it and threw the recipe away - I never wrote it in one of my recipe books.  I have never, ever made pumpkin bread in my life.  I just eat it.  My mom used to call me sometimes and say she had warm pumpkin bread – to come and get some. It would be warm with butter melted on it – fabulous!!!

When Mom went to heaven unexpectedly in May of 2001, it wasn't until the fall that Daddy and Sandi began to ask - how are we going to get our pumpkin bread? I searched to be sure that I didn't have it written down, and then I began to bake recipes I could find, trying to make it just like Mom's. I made many pumpkin breads for a couple of years - and although they were always good, they weren't just right.   They were always a little off. Sometimes the color wasn’t right, or the texture. My friend Mrs. Sharon makes pumpkin muffins that are pretty close. . .

When Daddy decided to sell their house and was cleaning it out he found an old cook book called "Glades Goodies" from the Pahokee Junior Woman's Club. Inside was written "For Betty, From Cecelia, Christmas 1968". The book just opened up to a worn out page that was stained and old - and there was the recipe for pumpkin bread. I still didn't get it right until I finally remembered that Mom always substituted the cinnamon and nutmeg with allspice - that was when it was "right".  Okay, here’s the weird thing – I knew about the allspice thing.  I have no idea what goes in pumpkin bread,  and I don’t even know what allspice is, but somehow, I knew Mama put it in pumpkin bread.  Since Daddy has joined Mom in heaven, it is Sandi that still always asks for pumpkin bread - usually for her birthday in October. Making pumpkin bread always makes the house smell like Mom's…....and brings back such happy memories- and - guess who submitted the recipe into this cook book? Saundra Scott!

My sister wrote this today, because she brought me pumpkin bread for my birthday.  Sometimes, when I eat it, it makes me cry.  I don’t love pumpkin spice everything – I don’t even particularly like pumpkin pie, but there’s something about pumpkin bread.  It’s a beautiful thing.