Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World

by Shirley Showalter

Overview

"I promise: you will be transported," says Bill Moyers of this memoir. Part Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, part Growing Up Amish, and part Little House on the Prairie, this book evokes a lost time, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, when a sheltered little girl named after Shirley Temple entered a family and church caught up in the midst of the cultural changes of the 1950's and ‘60's. With gentle humor and clear-eyed affection the author, who grew up to become a college president, tells the story of her first encounters with the "glittering world" and her desire for "fancy" forbidden things she could see but not touch. The reader enters a plain Mennonite Church building, walks through the meadow, makes sweet and sour feasts in the kitchen and watches the little girl grow up. Along the way, five other children enter the family, one baby sister dies, the family moves to the "home place." The major decisions, whether to join the church, and whether to leave home and become the first person in her family to attend college, will have the reader rooting for the girl to break a new path. In the tradition of Jill Ker Conway's The Road to Coorain, this book details the formation of a future leader who does not yet know she's being prepared to stand up to power and to find her own voice. The book contains many illustrations and resources, including recipes, a map, and an epilogue about why the author is still Mennonite. Topics covered include the death of a child, Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, the role of bishops in the Mennonite church, the paradoxes of plain life (including fancy cars and the practice of growing tobacco). The drama of passing on the family farm and Mennonite romance and courtship, as the author prepares to leave home for college, create the final challenges of the book.272 Pages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780836196269
Publisher:	MennoMedia
Publication date:	09/19/2013
Edition description:	First edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Shirley Hershey Showalter grew up in a Mennonite farm family and went on to become the president of Goshen (Indiana) College and a foundation executive at The Fetzer Institute. She is now a writer, speaker, blogger, and consultant living in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Foreword Parker J. Palmer 9

Introduction 13

Map 16

Family Tree 17

Act I

Chapter 1 Mother's Dream 19

Chapter 2 Daddy's Dream 31

Chapter 3 A Twinkle in Their Eyes 37

Chapter 4 A Magical Childhood 45

Chapter 5 Fresh Air 61

Act II

Chapter 6 From Magic to Mystery: Entering School 71

Chapter 7 A Scream in the Night 77

Chapter 8 Seven Sweets and Seven Sours 83

Chapter 9 Mennonite Cooking in the Betty Crocker Era 93

Chapter 10 Feeling Small in School 103

Chapter 11 Getting Saved 119

Chapter 12 Magic in Manheim 131

Act III

Chapter 13 Rosy Cheeks 141

Chapter 14 The Home Place 147

Chapter 15 Dueling with Daddy 159

Chapter 16 Mennonite in a Little Black Convertible 175

Chapter 17 Standing Up to the Bishop 187

Chapter 18 Courtship and the Farmer's Daughter 211

Chapter 19 Leaving Home 233

Epilogue: After the Glitter, the Gold 247

Acknowledgments 251

Glossary 255

Recipes 261

Why I Am (Still!) a Mennonite 269

The Author 271

Editorial Reviews

08/12/2013
Showalter, now a former college president, was born to a Mennonite family in Lititz, Penn., and much of her memoir takes place in this small town with a Mennonite community at its center. Aside from initial chapters that outline basic information about Showalter’s ancestors, this is mainly the story of Showalter’s childhood, up to her teenage years. The author-memoirist describes growing up Mennonite; her story affords glimpses into this religion’s traditions and rituals. Readers learn how a Mennonite community responds to families in mourning, as when Showalter’s sister dies, and how women in Mennonite families pass on “culinary heirlooms,” i.e., handwritten recipe books. Unfortunately, Showalter’s simplistic writing style limits the scope of some of her observations. The fact that the memoir is written in chronological order makes it read like a diary and deprives it of narrative drive. Filled with platitudes (“Everyone’s childhood is some mixture of sweet and sour”), this memoir will interest readers who want to learn about growing up Mennonite, but it provides more information than insight. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Recalled with fairness and wit, this tale of growing up after World War II shows how Mennonite life in Dutch Country—and all of America—changed.”

Reviews - Julia Spicher Kasdorf

Reading Blush is like eating the most delicious hot apple pie served with something tart, fresh, and zingy. Read it to be inspired by a brave woman willing to find her own voice.”

Reviews - Jennifer Louden

Like a blush, Showalter’s engaging story deepens and intensifies as we discover that there is no such thing as a small life.”

Reviews - Joanne V. Gabbin

Blush is a collection of memories by a woman born with a knack for flirting with boundaries.”

Reviews - Suzanne Woods Fisher

With spunk, candor, authentic color, and page-turning style, Shirley Showalter takes us into a girl’s experience of the threshold between tradition and cultural shift.”

Reviews - John L. Ruth

Whether she is wearing her new letter jacket or biting a worm in two on a dare from her father, the young Shirley will win your affection.”

Reviews - Ann Hostetler

The author-memoirist describes growing up Mennonite; her story affords glimpses into this religion’s traditions and rituals. This memoir will interest readers who want to learn about growing up Mennonite.”

Reviews

Shirley’s stories resonate powerfully with the tension we all live with—between our own aspirations and the expectations of others. You must read this book, and when you do, hang onto your hats and prayer coverings!”

Reviews - Tom Beech

She’s a smart, sweetly blushing, baseball-loving, convertible-driving, taking-on-the-bishop kind of girl who delights and inspires.”

Reviews - Dora Dueck

Shirley Showalter drew me in with the very first lines of her introduction—an audacious confession that sounds the depth of her endeavor.”

Reviews - Ervin R. Stutzman

Showalter’s portrait of this extraordinary little girl who wants to be ‘big’ will captivate and enchant readers of all generations.”

Reviews - Hildi Froese Tiessen

Shirley Showalter is both a thoughtful historian and a balanced, inner journalist. She affirms—with detail, honesty, and humility—the need to break our own trail while honoring tradition.”

Reviews - Mark Nepo

To read Shirley Showalter’s beautifully written memoir is like stepping into a childhood as far from mine as the moon. Her story is one I longed for my whole life.”

Reviews - Darrelyn Saloom

Not since Kathleen Norris’s Dakota: A Spiritual Geography have I read a more beautifully written or movingly told story, one whose minute particulars become a portal into universal significance. I promise: you will be transported.”

Reviews - Bill Moyers

Shirley Showalter tells a compelling story of spiritual and cultural formation. Hers is a delicate dance between the tug of the outside world and the restraints of her birthright community.”

Reviews - Donald B. Kraybill

This memoir provides an authentic rendition of a plain Mennonite girlhood, so rich in sensory details that it magically transports us into that world.”

Reviews - Saloma Miller Furlong