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Betty MacDonald Memoirs #4
Onions in the Stew
The bestselling author of the American humor classic The Egg and I continues the adventure with this collection of tales about life on the fringe of the Western wilderness. Writing in the 1950s, Betty MacDonald, sophisticated and urbane, captivated readers with her observations about raising a family on an island in Puget Sound. As usual, humorist MacDonald is her own favorite target. She manages to get herself into scrapes with washing machines set adrift in rowboats, used cars, and a $25 Turkey Squasher. And then there's the scariest aspect of island life -- teenaged children.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
460 people are currently reading
1072 people want to read
About the author
Betty MacDonald
60 books321 followersMacDonald was born Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard in Boulder, Colorado. Her official birth date is given as March 26, 1908, although federal census returns seem to indicate 1907.
Her family moved to the north slope of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood in 1918, moving to the Laurelhurst neighborhood a year later and finally settling in the Roosevelt neighborhood in 1922, where she graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1924.
MacDonald married Robert Eugene Heskett (1895–1951) at age 20 in July 1927; they lived on a chicken farm in the Olympic Peninsula's Chimacum Valley, near Center and a few miles south of Port Townsend. She left Heskett in 1931 and returned to Seattle, where she worked at a variety of jobs to support their daughters Anne and Joan; after the divorce the ex-spouses had virtually no contact.
She spent nine months at Firland Sanatorium near Seattle in 1937–1938 for treatment of tuberculosis. On April 24, 1942 she married Donald C. MacDonald (1910–1975) and moved to Vashon Island, where she wrote most of her books. The MacDonalds moved to California's Carmel Valley in 1956.
MacDonald rose to fame when her first book, The Egg and I, was published in 1945. It was a bestseller and was translated into 20 languages. Based on her life on the Chimacum Valley chicken farm, the books introduced the characters Ma and Pa Kettle, who also were featured in the movie version of The Egg and I. The characters become so popular a series of nine more films were made featuring them. In the film of The Egg and I, made in 1947, MacDonald was played by Claudette Colbert. Her husband (simply called "Bob" in the book) was called "Bob MacDonald" in the film, as studio executives were keen not to raise the matter of MacDonald's divorce in the public consciousness. He was played by Fred MacMurray.
Although the book was a critical and popular success at publication, in the 1970s it was criticized for its stereotypical treatment of Native Americans. It had also been claimed that it "spawned a perception of Washington as a land of eccentric country bumpkins like Ma and Pa Kettle."
MacDonald's defenders point out that in the context of the 1940s such stereotyping was far more acceptable. MacDonald faced two lawsuits: by members of a family who claimed she had based the Kettles on them, and by a man who claimed he was the model for the Indian character Crowbar. One lawsuit was settled out of court, while the second went to trial in February 1951. The plaintiffs did not prevail, although the judge indicated he felt they had shown that some of the claims of defamation had merit.
MacDonald also published three other semi-autobiographical books: Anybody Can Do Anything, recounting her life in the Depression trying to find work; The Plague and I, describing her nine-month stay at the Firlands tuberculosis sanitarium; and Onions in the Stew, about her life on Vashon Island with her second husband and daughters during the war years. She also wrote the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series of children's books and another children's book, entitled Nancy and Plum. A posthumous collection of her writings, entitled Who Me?, was later released.[citation needed]
MacDonald died in Seattle of uterine cancer on February 7, 1958
Her family moved to the north slope of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood in 1918, moving to the Laurelhurst neighborhood a year later and finally settling in the Roosevelt neighborhood in 1922, where she graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1924.
MacDonald married Robert Eugene Heskett (1895–1951) at age 20 in July 1927; they lived on a chicken farm in the Olympic Peninsula's Chimacum Valley, near Center and a few miles south of Port Townsend. She left Heskett in 1931 and returned to Seattle, where she worked at a variety of jobs to support their daughters Anne and Joan; after the divorce the ex-spouses had virtually no contact.
She spent nine months at Firland Sanatorium near Seattle in 1937–1938 for treatment of tuberculosis. On April 24, 1942 she married Donald C. MacDonald (1910–1975) and moved to Vashon Island, where she wrote most of her books. The MacDonalds moved to California's Carmel Valley in 1956.
MacDonald rose to fame when her first book, The Egg and I, was published in 1945. It was a bestseller and was translated into 20 languages. Based on her life on the Chimacum Valley chicken farm, the books introduced the characters Ma and Pa Kettle, who also were featured in the movie version of The Egg and I. The characters become so popular a series of nine more films were made featuring them. In the film of The Egg and I, made in 1947, MacDonald was played by Claudette Colbert. Her husband (simply called "Bob" in the book) was called "Bob MacDonald" in the film, as studio executives were keen not to raise the matter of MacDonald's divorce in the public consciousness. He was played by Fred MacMurray.
Although the book was a critical and popular success at publication, in the 1970s it was criticized for its stereotypical treatment of Native Americans. It had also been claimed that it "spawned a perception of Washington as a land of eccentric country bumpkins like Ma and Pa Kettle."
MacDonald's defenders point out that in the context of the 1940s such stereotyping was far more acceptable. MacDonald faced two lawsuits: by members of a family who claimed she had based the Kettles on them, and by a man who claimed he was the model for the Indian character Crowbar. One lawsuit was settled out of court, while the second went to trial in February 1951. The plaintiffs did not prevail, although the judge indicated he felt they had shown that some of the claims of defamation had merit.
MacDonald also published three other semi-autobiographical books: Anybody Can Do Anything, recounting her life in the Depression trying to find work; The Plague and I, describing her nine-month stay at the Firlands tuberculosis sanitarium; and Onions in the Stew, about her life on Vashon Island with her second husband and daughters during the war years. She also wrote the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series of children's books and another children's book, entitled Nancy and Plum. A posthumous collection of her writings, entitled Who Me?, was later released.[citation needed]
MacDonald died in Seattle of uterine cancer on February 7, 1958
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
October 14, 2007
Some people have comfort food. I have comfort books and this one is near the top of the list. I love Betty MacDonald and this is my favorite of all of her hilarious books. I probably read this book about every 12-18 months. She makes me laugh out loud and I only wish I could write half as well.
March 29, 2022
The fourth and last of Betty McDonald's books, which began with "The Egg and I." Unfortunately, she died at the age of 50, but all these books are non-fiction, autobiographical, humorous tales from her life. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and found them a nice respite from modern life. This one is the story of her and her second husband Don buying a house on Vashon Island, a 12 minute ferry ride from Seattle, and raising her two teenage daughters there. Very funny, as it seems teenagers are the same now as they were 80 years ago.
March 31, 2008
I feel a little bit of a sense of ownership regarding Betty MacDonald because her egg farm, on what is now called “Egg and I Road,” was just down the road from where I live on the Olympic Peninsula. But even if we weren’t linked by geography, I would love Betty! She was a wonderful and witty writer and it sounds like she was a very fun person. (She also was a friend to raccoons, which is something I really like in a person).
Onions in the Stew is a memoir of her life on the northwest’s lovely Vashon Island (which she notes is an ideal place for “mildew and people with dry skin who like to read”).
Like her other books, especially the Plague and I, this is laugh-out-loud funny. It was her last book and it’s sad to realize that she died just 3 years after it was published, at the age of 49.
Onions in the Stew is a memoir of her life on the northwest’s lovely Vashon Island (which she notes is an ideal place for “mildew and people with dry skin who like to read”).
Like her other books, especially the Plague and I, this is laugh-out-loud funny. It was her last book and it’s sad to realize that she died just 3 years after it was published, at the age of 49.
February 22, 2012
Just simply my favourite book of all time. I go back to it time and time again, whether I want a good laugh, need cheering up, especially when I am feeling unwell, or simply becuse I haven't read it for a few months. The ultimate comfort read.
Something of a bible for me really, despite being set in late 1940s Pacific Northwest America. I always find something I can relate and find myself quoting Betty's words of wisdom at length on many an occasion. Somehow comforting to know that the daily challenges and pleasures of life aren't so very different whether you're living on an island in 1940s America or in a village in modern-day Cornwall. Teenagers remain much the same (read the chapter "Adolescence or Please Keep Imogen Until She's Thirty"). Husbands too - mine (although he may not know it) had to pass comparison with Betty's husband Don before getting the seal of approval. The weather will do it's best to thwart you at every turn. Sod's Law is hard at work but there's nothing much that can't be cured by a stiff drink and a good night's sleep.
Thanks to my Mum for introducing me to this wonderful book at such an early age. It's pretty much shaped my outlook on life which, let's face it, is pretty damn good really!
Something of a bible for me really, despite being set in late 1940s Pacific Northwest America. I always find something I can relate and find myself quoting Betty's words of wisdom at length on many an occasion. Somehow comforting to know that the daily challenges and pleasures of life aren't so very different whether you're living on an island in 1940s America or in a village in modern-day Cornwall. Teenagers remain much the same (read the chapter "Adolescence or Please Keep Imogen Until She's Thirty"). Husbands too - mine (although he may not know it) had to pass comparison with Betty's husband Don before getting the seal of approval. The weather will do it's best to thwart you at every turn. Sod's Law is hard at work but there's nothing much that can't be cured by a stiff drink and a good night's sleep.
Thanks to my Mum for introducing me to this wonderful book at such an early age. It's pretty much shaped my outlook on life which, let's face it, is pretty damn good really!
August 30, 2020
My family loves these books, and even a brief snippet from one always produces grins all around. This one has one of our most-quoted passages, in a chapter on food and cooking: "Another female household-hinter gave a recipe for a big hearty main dish of elbow macaroni, mint jelly, lima beans, mayonnaise and cheese baked until 'hot and yummy'. Unless my taste buds are paralyzed, this dish could be baked until hell freezes over and it might get hot but never 'yummy'." All we have to say is "bake until hot and yummy!" and everyone knows we're talking baaaaad cooking.
August 6, 2024
I could read Betty Macdonald’s memoirs again and again—and I will! I feel like I said goodbye to a dear friend as I wrapped up this last one. I enjoyed my journey through her delightful books and her sense of humor and down to earth way of looking at life makes me so happy. She reminds me a little of Erma Bombeck but with her own unique style.
March 27, 2011
I double dog dare you to find a better author than Betty MacDonald. If you haven't read The Egg and I, drop whatever you're doing and lay hold of a copy. Onions in the Stew chronicles life on Vashon Island off of Seattle. Written in 1955 this book is spot on delightful. I'm going to copy her chapter on raising teenagers and hand it out like candy.
July 31, 2014
My mother and her sisters grew up on Vashon, well, they were summer girls. I was lucky enough to be a summer girl too.
Onions in the Stew is so Vashon in the 50s. Reading it reminded me of all the great times we had there.
The Beall Greenhouses mentioned in the book (orchids) was my uncle Fergie Beall's business. There are other people I knew in the book but many had names changed.
Betty knew how to capture the life and the feel of living on Vashon. It's like nothing else.
Onions in the Stew is so Vashon in the 50s. Reading it reminded me of all the great times we had there.
The Beall Greenhouses mentioned in the book (orchids) was my uncle Fergie Beall's business. There are other people I knew in the book but many had names changed.
Betty knew how to capture the life and the feel of living on Vashon. It's like nothing else.
June 3, 2020
Life on a (non)deserted island is never boring.
I'm betting that few people under sixty know the name of author Betty Macdonald, but she was a wildly popular writer in the 1950's and was one of the first to write about the Pacific Northwest. Raised in Seattle, she married young and had two daughters. Her marriage to a handsome chicken farmer ended quickly, but gave her the material for her best-selling memoir, "The Egg and I." It was made into a popular movie and two characters in it appeared in the long, successful string of "Ma and Pa Kettle" films. That's mining a lot of gold out of five frustrating years on an isolated farm.
She later wrote a book about her experiences during the Great Depression and another about her struggle as a TB patient. "Onions in the Stew" was published in 1955 and is my favorite of the four books. It tells about her remarriage (in 1942) and her family's move to Vashon Island and their life there for thirteen years.
Most of us have dreamed of living on an island, but the reality is not quite the same. In 1942, Vashon is changing from a summer-cottage resort to a year-round community and the transition isn't a smooth one. Sometimes the electricity works and sometimes it doesn't. The ferry to Seattle runs on time, except when it's early or late. The neighborly custom of everyone getting together to maintain the community water source looks good on paper, but so do many Great Ideas.
Coastal Washington State is one of the most scenic areas on the planet, but the weather is unpredictable and can be quite dicey. Macdonald tackled this strenuous life as a middle-aged woman with a loyal, but stubborn husband, and two teen daughters who were frequently as stormy as the weather and much harder to live with.
Just taking care of her house and family (in the days before fast food and other conveniences) would have been a full-time job, but she also launched her career as a writer during these years. The move to Vashon's lower cost of living was to allow Macdonald to quit her government job and concentrate on writing. It worked. Starting with the publication of "The Egg and I" in 1945, she wrote a total of four adult books and the popular children's series about "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle." She dealt with publishers and artists and fans and the press, sometimes having to play hostess since there was no hotel on the island.
Young women will find it odd that she talks so little about her career as an author. In the 1940's and 50's, it was considered bad taste for a woman to talk about her career, if she had one, and few women did. Best-selling authors like Macdonald wrote memoirs about being wives and mothers, gliding quietly over their professional accomplishments and any difference it made in their lives. It would be another generation before females could admit to having a career without being thought "unwomanly."
Her stories are funny and fascinating. Just the daily struggle to survive gave her plenty of material, but she was also raising two daughters and trying to hang onto her sanity. Her girls turned from sullen, uncooperative brats to charming , sensible young women when they emerged from their terrible teens, a change that seemed little short of miraculous to their mother.
Writing is a lonely job, but Betty Macdonald was a sociable person. Living in a small community limited her choice of companions, but she made close friends and acquired a few pests. Most hilarious of all is her encounter with pathetic Elizabeth Gage Wheaton and her bedraggled brood of children. A kind-hearted woman and an experienced mother, Macdonald immediately launches into an energetic plan to improve the lives of this sad family, while the other islanders look on and snicker. Why should they warn her about the Wheatons when it's so much fun to watch yet another person fall into the trap of helping the chronically un-helpable?
And there are family pets and wildlife and gardening and the rowboat-from-hell. It doesn't make me want to move to an island, but it's great fun to read about it. Macdonald had an incredible talent for mining humor out of everyday living. It's there for all of us, but usually we're too busy to see and appreciate it. Sadly, this fine woman died at the young age of fifty-one. I'm glad she lived to enjoy her six grandchildren and to relish being a successful author. Her books are just as fresh and witty as they were seventy years ago and I'm happy to see them available in Kindle editions.
I'm betting that few people under sixty know the name of author Betty Macdonald, but she was a wildly popular writer in the 1950's and was one of the first to write about the Pacific Northwest. Raised in Seattle, she married young and had two daughters. Her marriage to a handsome chicken farmer ended quickly, but gave her the material for her best-selling memoir, "The Egg and I." It was made into a popular movie and two characters in it appeared in the long, successful string of "Ma and Pa Kettle" films. That's mining a lot of gold out of five frustrating years on an isolated farm.
She later wrote a book about her experiences during the Great Depression and another about her struggle as a TB patient. "Onions in the Stew" was published in 1955 and is my favorite of the four books. It tells about her remarriage (in 1942) and her family's move to Vashon Island and their life there for thirteen years.
Most of us have dreamed of living on an island, but the reality is not quite the same. In 1942, Vashon is changing from a summer-cottage resort to a year-round community and the transition isn't a smooth one. Sometimes the electricity works and sometimes it doesn't. The ferry to Seattle runs on time, except when it's early or late. The neighborly custom of everyone getting together to maintain the community water source looks good on paper, but so do many Great Ideas.
Coastal Washington State is one of the most scenic areas on the planet, but the weather is unpredictable and can be quite dicey. Macdonald tackled this strenuous life as a middle-aged woman with a loyal, but stubborn husband, and two teen daughters who were frequently as stormy as the weather and much harder to live with.
Just taking care of her house and family (in the days before fast food and other conveniences) would have been a full-time job, but she also launched her career as a writer during these years. The move to Vashon's lower cost of living was to allow Macdonald to quit her government job and concentrate on writing. It worked. Starting with the publication of "The Egg and I" in 1945, she wrote a total of four adult books and the popular children's series about "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle." She dealt with publishers and artists and fans and the press, sometimes having to play hostess since there was no hotel on the island.
Young women will find it odd that she talks so little about her career as an author. In the 1940's and 50's, it was considered bad taste for a woman to talk about her career, if she had one, and few women did. Best-selling authors like Macdonald wrote memoirs about being wives and mothers, gliding quietly over their professional accomplishments and any difference it made in their lives. It would be another generation before females could admit to having a career without being thought "unwomanly."
Her stories are funny and fascinating. Just the daily struggle to survive gave her plenty of material, but she was also raising two daughters and trying to hang onto her sanity. Her girls turned from sullen, uncooperative brats to charming , sensible young women when they emerged from their terrible teens, a change that seemed little short of miraculous to their mother.
Writing is a lonely job, but Betty Macdonald was a sociable person. Living in a small community limited her choice of companions, but she made close friends and acquired a few pests. Most hilarious of all is her encounter with pathetic Elizabeth Gage Wheaton and her bedraggled brood of children. A kind-hearted woman and an experienced mother, Macdonald immediately launches into an energetic plan to improve the lives of this sad family, while the other islanders look on and snicker. Why should they warn her about the Wheatons when it's so much fun to watch yet another person fall into the trap of helping the chronically un-helpable?
And there are family pets and wildlife and gardening and the rowboat-from-hell. It doesn't make me want to move to an island, but it's great fun to read about it. Macdonald had an incredible talent for mining humor out of everyday living. It's there for all of us, but usually we're too busy to see and appreciate it. Sadly, this fine woman died at the young age of fifty-one. I'm glad she lived to enjoy her six grandchildren and to relish being a successful author. Her books are just as fresh and witty as they were seventy years ago and I'm happy to see them available in Kindle editions.
March 28, 2020
Betty MacDonald’s final memoir, published not long before she died. I hope her final years really were as happy as she describes here.
This is the story of her life with her second husband and her two daughters on an island in the Puget Sound, near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, during and after WWII. It’s a series of humorous vignettes about the pleasures and pains of living on an island accessible only by an unreliable ferry, and about the joys and difficulties of raising adolescent girls. It’s warm and funny and interesting.
This is the story of her life with her second husband and her two daughters on an island in the Puget Sound, near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, during and after WWII. It’s a series of humorous vignettes about the pleasures and pains of living on an island accessible only by an unreliable ferry, and about the joys and difficulties of raising adolescent girls. It’s warm and funny and interesting.
March 6, 2011
Found this in a used bookstore and the title intrigued me. Betty MacDonald would be a wonderful stand-up comedian. Some parts of this book were so funny, I had to run into the other room - book in hand - to read it out loud to another person.
Side note: I mentioned to my 83 yr old grandmother the other day that I was reading this book. When I mentioned the author, she said, "Oh, she was from Seattle...my aunt Anna used to babysit her daughters..." Small world!
Side note: I mentioned to my 83 yr old grandmother the other day that I was reading this book. When I mentioned the author, she said, "Oh, she was from Seattle...my aunt Anna used to babysit her daughters..." Small world!
August 6, 2012
Onions in the Stew stands out as Betty MacDonald's most mature and effortlessly humorous memoir. It's also seemingly the most unstructured of the four published in her lifetime. Whereas her previous volumes tackled the specific themes of egg farming, sanatorium life, and job hunting during the Great Depression, Onions is a simply a reflection upon life on Seattle's Vashon Island.
Of course, the simplicity is deceptive. Behind the stories of tides and gardens and page after page of ruminations on local seafood is a truly remarkable narrative about the difficulties of blended families and of a mother's attempts during the nineteen-forties to raise a pair of adolescent girls. MacDonald is unafraid to be melancholy, though she's never maudlin; she portrays her daughters realistically and to the point of unattractiveness, though her love and affection for them is always clear.
Unsentimental and laugh-out-loud funny, Onions in the Stew is a classic slice of American domestic humor from an era that has vanished entirely, yet has never quite gone out of style.
Of course, the simplicity is deceptive. Behind the stories of tides and gardens and page after page of ruminations on local seafood is a truly remarkable narrative about the difficulties of blended families and of a mother's attempts during the nineteen-forties to raise a pair of adolescent girls. MacDonald is unafraid to be melancholy, though she's never maudlin; she portrays her daughters realistically and to the point of unattractiveness, though her love and affection for them is always clear.
Unsentimental and laugh-out-loud funny, Onions in the Stew is a classic slice of American domestic humor from an era that has vanished entirely, yet has never quite gone out of style.
March 15, 2020
This is a real gem of a book. I discovered it quite by accident ,although not this edition, while waiting in a library for a family member and it was part of a display. On looking inside, I discovered it was set on Vashon Island off Puget Sound which is where a lot of the novels I read are set. This is an autobiography about how the author and her family came to live on Vashon. It is a well written, humorous book with much description of the island, the weather and the activities which take place. It was written in 1955 but I would imagine it wouldn't have changed much and also some of that she writes still can be understood in today's life. There were some American words which I didn't know and had to guess through what was written but it didn't stop my enjoyment.
I have actually purchased a copy of this to let my parents read it as they will enjoy the descriptions of wildlife and plants especially.
In these difficult times, this is a heartwarming book.
I have actually purchased a copy of this to let my parents read it as they will enjoy the descriptions of wildlife and plants especially.
In these difficult times, this is a heartwarming book.
March 12, 2016
This cover less, slightly yellowing hard back has come here from my in-laws amongst a collection of "I am not sure what to do withs". Looking for something, anything, to read I thought I'd blow the dust off and have a go. I'd not heard of Betty MacDonald, and certainly never come across Vashon Island, so the whole thing has been a google fest of looking things up (didies for example). I've been shocked by the colour and vitality of the writing, and the life she describes. My image of the 40s and 50s is all rather formal, but here we have teen age tantrums, gossiping parents, basically it could be about today, in the tones of today (ok, one give away is that there's no mention of TV). A real find, great fun.
January 16, 2021
Betty wrote her last book under the gun of her terminal cancer that took her in her late 40s. She nevertheless is hilarious and interesting in describing g life on Vashon Island with her second husband and two teen daughters (only one of whom is still living; trust me, I’ve done more genealogy on Betty than I have on my own family. Diagnose me as you will.)
This book is comfort food to me. All her books are my favorite audible listens. Great narration.
This book is comfort food to me. All her books are my favorite audible listens. Great narration.
February 24, 2015
2/2105 Betty MacDonald, author of the Mrs. PiggyWiggle books, wrote this autobiography about her years on Vashon Island during and after WWII. Frankly, I was not drawn to the author, I did not find her humor funny, and I couldn't connect the person she presented in her autobiography with the person who wrote such delightful children's stories.
February 11, 2020
Lured in by the jaunty cover of a vintage edition, I enjoyed this memoir of family life on an island in Puget Sound. Although a period piece with a few comments that would now be deemed politically incorrect or even offensive, you have to take it as a period piece and it is nonetheless witty, enjoyable and refreshing. I'm keen to read her other memoirs now.
August 4, 2009
This might still be my favorite book of all time, even though I first read it 30 years ago. It's a memoir of family life on an island in Puget Sound during and immediately after WWII. It evokes a specific time in American history, simple, optimistic, and wildly funny.
August 23, 2019
I have enjoyed all four of Betty MacDonald's memoirs. This one was particularly fun, because it takes place on Vashon Island, which is right in my backyard. Mrs. MacDonald is hilarious, and I love her descriptions of raising adolescents.
October 14, 2020
I can’t believe it took me this long to read Betty MacDonald’s memoir set here on Vashon Island (I’ve lived on the island for over 20 years). Written some 70 years ago, yet so many of the delights and frustrations of island life still ring very true.
October 3, 2014
Read her. Read her. Read her. Read any of her books. She writes about nothing and you don't care - brilliantly funny.
January 8, 2021
I read The Egg and I decades ago and thought it was hilarious. This one is also funny, but the sexism and racism that I didn't notice back then, is a bit jarring now.
April 21, 2025
.
Onions in the Stew
By Betty MacDonald
(Memoir book #4. First published 1955, about 250 pages)
OVERVIEW: A CHARMING ACCOUNT OF ISLAND LIFE...
The author and her family cannot find a place to live in or near Seattle, so move to Vashon Island.
Vashon is a long island in Puget Sound, stretching from South Seattle to Tacoma's Point Defiance and is reached by ferry. When Betty wrote her memoir, their family of four (hubby Don, Betty and her two teenage girls from the first marriage: Anne & Joan) lived at Dolphin Point at the Northeast end of the Island. In the 1940s if the Island's population was over 3 thousand (Betty said 5,000), Seattle's population was probably well over 300 thousand.
.
She begins with lengthy descriptions of the island, the mountains and the flora and fauna of the Puget Sound region etc. Even mentioning it's discovery by Captain Vancouver (1792), who named Vashon in honor his friend the Admiral.
After Betty married charming Don MacDonald (April 1942), a Boeing airplane worker, the family of four needed something bigger, cleaner and quieter than his old bachelor apartment, but a nice roomy house was impossible to find. "There's a war on" (WWII) was the incessant reminder from Realtors who had nothing for them. And so they turn to searching for housing on islands in Puget Sound--within commuting distance of Seattle and Boeing. First to Bainbridge Island, which sits directly across the Sound from Seattle.
Truly snobs. As they tour the many seasonal island beach homes, she mocks their furnishings. Lovely houses on the outside, but Saint Vincent de Paul on the inside with Maxfield Parrish paintings, Morris chairs, worn American oriental rugs and wine jug lamps, etc.
Eventually, a Vashon Island dream home comes up for sale with 400 feet of beach, all the clams you can dig, already furnished and only $7,000. This may be October of 1942, the same year she married Don. In her writing, Betty often references the month or season, but rarely, if ever, gives the year or exact date. Behind the house the property had woods and wildberries. Some years later they purchased the 10 acres on the hill above the house for raising livestock, chicks and other farm critters.
Mostly "furnished" since moving in or out of the place was such a chore. As they move in, some of the beach house's shortcomings become apparent. There is no road to the house, only a mile and a half long beach trail from the ferry or an overgrown path to the neighboring house where there is a road. The tide determines which route they take, unless you're comfortable sloshing through the water at high tide. The packing boxes they moved in row boats up to their sea wall. The washing machine got away, drifting out with the tide in its own row boat.
Mom and Dad had to get up extremely early to catch the ferry to the mainland--Betty's job in Seattle and Don's at the Boeing plant in Renton. Later in the morning the kids got themselves out to the school bus--Joan to 7th grade and Anne a freshman at the high school.
As winter comes on, the seasonal beach house presents other difficulties for the "year-rounder" family. The shower is located for easy access by those returning from the beach, but cold and inconvenient for showering on a winter morning. The high-ceilinged house is cold. The fireplace and wood stove, the only source of heat, require a steady flow of wood, lots of wood. Fortunately their beach is regularly littered with drift wood. Some time later they installed a gas furnace.
The story covers details of daily life, told by Betty with humor and chagrin, and of course the parenting of their precious daughters. "...a child is a young human whose natural instinct is to get her own way one hundred percent of the time, even if it involves moving the earth off its axis, or Mother off her rocker."
In her writing style Betty tends to rattle off long lists of things--some tedious, others interesting.
For example: "In the twelve years since we moved to Vashon Island we have experienced the most rain, the driest summer (that wonderful one), the coldest winter, the most snow, the severest earthquake, the worst slides, the highest tide, the lowest tide, the strongest winds, the longest unceasing period of rain, the densest fog, the hottest day, the earliest spring, the latest spring, the coldest summer, the warmest fall, the dreariest winter (this one), the wettest Christmas, in addition to a total eclipse of the moon, a total eclipse of the sun, and a flying saucer on the Oregon coast."
[She doesn't say, but the UFO was probably the May 1950 sighting and photograph taken on an Oregon farm.]
The island climate (mild, damp and rainy) is perfect for gardens, flowers, trees and weeds--all crowding and growing voraciously. Plus the pests: tent caterpillars, later becoming moths galore and every kind of slug. With the salty sea air "...you can expect everything you own, even a great big stone fireplace, to break down eventually." As money allowed, they made improvements to the place, put in a road, another bath, kitchen remodel, purchased all the amenities: dishwasher, freezer, heating system, toilets etc. They also get a guest house.
There's an odd chapter dealing with: Mr & Mrs Gage; their ostentatious yaht; rowdy, undisciplined children and endless, sorrowful complaints from Mrs Gage.
The remaining chapters cover Betty's "black pit" of experiences raising her two adolescent girls. Initially, the family of four got on well together. "While Anne and I cooked, Joan and Don got wood and built the fires...Sunday afternoons we took walks, gathered bark [for the fireplace]...popped corn..." etc.
"...we were a very happy, enthusiastic family and I was delighted that Anne and Joan had accepted Don so easily as my husband and their friend.
Then Satan, in the form of adolescence, entered the Garden of Eden and turned it over night into a jungle. A jungle filled with half-grown, always hungry, noisy, emotional, quarrelsome, rude, boisterous, snarling animals."
They of course survive and the two girls grow up, graduate, get jobs, move to the city, get married and have kids of their own.
•
Mostly a well-written account.
Throughout the story Betty compares living in the city (Seattle) with their rural life on the island.
I enjoy the author's anthropomorphic humor:
"Just then the car got something caught in its throat and begin gagging and coughing in a very last-gasp manner...
We made it to the Mukilteo dock where with one last belch and shudder the car lost consciousness."
This memoir from the 1940s and 50s contains words common to the author, but not familiar to some readers. Mostly they're understandable through context or Merriam-Webster: e.g., Maxfield Parrish; Pinafore on the record player; Jackie Coogan doll; Maori; andirons; "Indian clams;" jackknife clams; the always lovely geoduck; potato hook; Shaggy-Manes; she added a package of "humey" to the split-pea soup [no idea about that one]; WooWoo, probably a crane fly based on her description, and many more.
Being some 70+ years ago there's plenty that has changed and some things are persistent. They have a party-line telephone and can only use the phone when the neighbors are not already talking on the line.
Picking your own mushrooms is perfectly safe. Betty was trained by her Father to identify mushrooms and she also uses a reference book. Confident in her own expertise, Betty cooked a batch of mushrooms from the backyard. Don & the kids refuse to even try them and when Betty took a bite, she suddenly went blind. Don gave her olive oil and her daughters advised, "Stick your finger down your throat." It worked.
Betty was writing her various books during these times. This came about when her sister Mary (older by 2 years) informed a publisher's representative that, yes she did know a Northwest author, her sis. Betty had never considered a writing career, but called in sick for work in order to write up a 5,000 word story outline which the representative wanted to see the very next day. She was fired from her Seattle job [no more ferry commutes in the dark hours of morning] and happily wrote her best sellers from the beach house.
Why the book's title, "Onions in the Stew?" It's also the title of the last chapter, but she doesn't address it specifically. It was probably selected from a poem by Charles Devine (1889 to 1950), At the Lavender Lantern.
"That place, half restaurant and home, since we have gone away;
I wonder if they miss me, I don't suppose they do,
As long as there are art and girls, and onions in the stew."
..
The Betty MacDonald Memoirs
1. The Egg and I. (1945)
Betty's privileged and adventurous childhood in the early 20th century. She marries an older man and endures the riggers of running a rustic chicken farm on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. The memoir introduces us to the characters of Ma and Pa Kettle.
2. The Plague and I. (1948)
"...her year in a sanatorium (1938/39) just outside Seattle battling the "White Plague." MacDonald uses her offbeat humor to make the most of her time in the TB sanatorium..."
3. • Anybody Can Do Anything (1950)
"After surviving both the failed chicken farm - and marriage - immortalized in 'The Egg and I', Betty MacDonald returns to live with her mother and desperately searches to find a job to support her two young daughters...during the Great Depression." And featuring her talented and intrepid big sister, Mary.
4. Onions in the Stew. (1955)
Betty presents the story of her two daughters and second husband (MacDonald) living on remote Vashon Island in Puget Sound (Washington State's ocean water inlet) and commuting to Seattle by ferry.
.
Onions in the Stew
By Betty MacDonald
(Memoir book #4. First published 1955, about 250 pages)
OVERVIEW: A CHARMING ACCOUNT OF ISLAND LIFE...
The author and her family cannot find a place to live in or near Seattle, so move to Vashon Island.
Vashon is a long island in Puget Sound, stretching from South Seattle to Tacoma's Point Defiance and is reached by ferry. When Betty wrote her memoir, their family of four (hubby Don, Betty and her two teenage girls from the first marriage: Anne & Joan) lived at Dolphin Point at the Northeast end of the Island. In the 1940s if the Island's population was over 3 thousand (Betty said 5,000), Seattle's population was probably well over 300 thousand.
.
She begins with lengthy descriptions of the island, the mountains and the flora and fauna of the Puget Sound region etc. Even mentioning it's discovery by Captain Vancouver (1792), who named Vashon in honor his friend the Admiral.
After Betty married charming Don MacDonald (April 1942), a Boeing airplane worker, the family of four needed something bigger, cleaner and quieter than his old bachelor apartment, but a nice roomy house was impossible to find. "There's a war on" (WWII) was the incessant reminder from Realtors who had nothing for them. And so they turn to searching for housing on islands in Puget Sound--within commuting distance of Seattle and Boeing. First to Bainbridge Island, which sits directly across the Sound from Seattle.
Truly snobs. As they tour the many seasonal island beach homes, she mocks their furnishings. Lovely houses on the outside, but Saint Vincent de Paul on the inside with Maxfield Parrish paintings, Morris chairs, worn American oriental rugs and wine jug lamps, etc.
Eventually, a Vashon Island dream home comes up for sale with 400 feet of beach, all the clams you can dig, already furnished and only $7,000. This may be October of 1942, the same year she married Don. In her writing, Betty often references the month or season, but rarely, if ever, gives the year or exact date. Behind the house the property had woods and wildberries. Some years later they purchased the 10 acres on the hill above the house for raising livestock, chicks and other farm critters.
Mostly "furnished" since moving in or out of the place was such a chore. As they move in, some of the beach house's shortcomings become apparent. There is no road to the house, only a mile and a half long beach trail from the ferry or an overgrown path to the neighboring house where there is a road. The tide determines which route they take, unless you're comfortable sloshing through the water at high tide. The packing boxes they moved in row boats up to their sea wall. The washing machine got away, drifting out with the tide in its own row boat.
Mom and Dad had to get up extremely early to catch the ferry to the mainland--Betty's job in Seattle and Don's at the Boeing plant in Renton. Later in the morning the kids got themselves out to the school bus--Joan to 7th grade and Anne a freshman at the high school.
As winter comes on, the seasonal beach house presents other difficulties for the "year-rounder" family. The shower is located for easy access by those returning from the beach, but cold and inconvenient for showering on a winter morning. The high-ceilinged house is cold. The fireplace and wood stove, the only source of heat, require a steady flow of wood, lots of wood. Fortunately their beach is regularly littered with drift wood. Some time later they installed a gas furnace.
The story covers details of daily life, told by Betty with humor and chagrin, and of course the parenting of their precious daughters. "...a child is a young human whose natural instinct is to get her own way one hundred percent of the time, even if it involves moving the earth off its axis, or Mother off her rocker."
In her writing style Betty tends to rattle off long lists of things--some tedious, others interesting.
For example: "In the twelve years since we moved to Vashon Island we have experienced the most rain, the driest summer (that wonderful one), the coldest winter, the most snow, the severest earthquake, the worst slides, the highest tide, the lowest tide, the strongest winds, the longest unceasing period of rain, the densest fog, the hottest day, the earliest spring, the latest spring, the coldest summer, the warmest fall, the dreariest winter (this one), the wettest Christmas, in addition to a total eclipse of the moon, a total eclipse of the sun, and a flying saucer on the Oregon coast."
[She doesn't say, but the UFO was probably the May 1950 sighting and photograph taken on an Oregon farm.]
The island climate (mild, damp and rainy) is perfect for gardens, flowers, trees and weeds--all crowding and growing voraciously. Plus the pests: tent caterpillars, later becoming moths galore and every kind of slug. With the salty sea air "...you can expect everything you own, even a great big stone fireplace, to break down eventually." As money allowed, they made improvements to the place, put in a road, another bath, kitchen remodel, purchased all the amenities: dishwasher, freezer, heating system, toilets etc. They also get a guest house.
There's an odd chapter dealing with: Mr & Mrs Gage; their ostentatious yaht; rowdy, undisciplined children and endless, sorrowful complaints from Mrs Gage.
The remaining chapters cover Betty's "black pit" of experiences raising her two adolescent girls. Initially, the family of four got on well together. "While Anne and I cooked, Joan and Don got wood and built the fires...Sunday afternoons we took walks, gathered bark [for the fireplace]...popped corn..." etc.
"...we were a very happy, enthusiastic family and I was delighted that Anne and Joan had accepted Don so easily as my husband and their friend.
Then Satan, in the form of adolescence, entered the Garden of Eden and turned it over night into a jungle. A jungle filled with half-grown, always hungry, noisy, emotional, quarrelsome, rude, boisterous, snarling animals."
They of course survive and the two girls grow up, graduate, get jobs, move to the city, get married and have kids of their own.
•
Mostly a well-written account.
Throughout the story Betty compares living in the city (Seattle) with their rural life on the island.
I enjoy the author's anthropomorphic humor:
"Just then the car got something caught in its throat and begin gagging and coughing in a very last-gasp manner...
We made it to the Mukilteo dock where with one last belch and shudder the car lost consciousness."
This memoir from the 1940s and 50s contains words common to the author, but not familiar to some readers. Mostly they're understandable through context or Merriam-Webster: e.g., Maxfield Parrish; Pinafore on the record player; Jackie Coogan doll; Maori; andirons; "Indian clams;" jackknife clams; the always lovely geoduck; potato hook; Shaggy-Manes; she added a package of "humey" to the split-pea soup [no idea about that one]; WooWoo, probably a crane fly based on her description, and many more.
Being some 70+ years ago there's plenty that has changed and some things are persistent. They have a party-line telephone and can only use the phone when the neighbors are not already talking on the line.
Picking your own mushrooms is perfectly safe. Betty was trained by her Father to identify mushrooms and she also uses a reference book. Confident in her own expertise, Betty cooked a batch of mushrooms from the backyard. Don & the kids refuse to even try them and when Betty took a bite, she suddenly went blind. Don gave her olive oil and her daughters advised, "Stick your finger down your throat." It worked.
Betty was writing her various books during these times. This came about when her sister Mary (older by 2 years) informed a publisher's representative that, yes she did know a Northwest author, her sis. Betty had never considered a writing career, but called in sick for work in order to write up a 5,000 word story outline which the representative wanted to see the very next day. She was fired from her Seattle job [no more ferry commutes in the dark hours of morning] and happily wrote her best sellers from the beach house.
Why the book's title, "Onions in the Stew?" It's also the title of the last chapter, but she doesn't address it specifically. It was probably selected from a poem by Charles Devine (1889 to 1950), At the Lavender Lantern.
"That place, half restaurant and home, since we have gone away;
I wonder if they miss me, I don't suppose they do,
As long as there are art and girls, and onions in the stew."
..
The Betty MacDonald Memoirs
1. The Egg and I. (1945)
Betty's privileged and adventurous childhood in the early 20th century. She marries an older man and endures the riggers of running a rustic chicken farm on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. The memoir introduces us to the characters of Ma and Pa Kettle.
2. The Plague and I. (1948)
"...her year in a sanatorium (1938/39) just outside Seattle battling the "White Plague." MacDonald uses her offbeat humor to make the most of her time in the TB sanatorium..."
3. • Anybody Can Do Anything (1950)
"After surviving both the failed chicken farm - and marriage - immortalized in 'The Egg and I', Betty MacDonald returns to live with her mother and desperately searches to find a job to support her two young daughters...during the Great Depression." And featuring her talented and intrepid big sister, Mary.
4. Onions in the Stew. (1955)
Betty presents the story of her two daughters and second husband (MacDonald) living on remote Vashon Island in Puget Sound (Washington State's ocean water inlet) and commuting to Seattle by ferry.
.
February 18, 2018
Covering the years from 1942-1954, this book is comprised of the memories of Betty McDonald, as she and her family made a move to a very unsettled Vashon Island near Puget Sound. At that time, no roads lead to Vashon Island. You must take a ferry ride there from Seattle. Easy enough, but weather and other unforseen circumstances can either delay or cancel that trip altogether, leaving you stranded on one side or the other.
Betty had recently divorced and remarried, bringing to the union her two daughters, ages 12 and 11. She and her new husband Donald make the move together with the girls. It was a risk, but one they were willing to take as Vashon Island is extremely beautiful. What they didn't count on was the unavailability of rental properties due to an infux of others thinking the same way at the end of WWII. They find a place and settle in, and their daughters, who are "at that age" of becoming boy crazy and are starting to want to make up their faces, aren't exactly thrilled with the limited prospects of companionship on the island.
Told with humor, Betty notes the girls even put on lipstick to gather driftwood.
When I got this book from the library, I was attracted to the name and didn't know much else so I was surprised at how long ago this book was actually published. My first clue that it wasn't exactly recent was when Betty noted an increase in prices at a local restaurant to (GASP) over a dollar for a large meal. I decided to find out more about Betty. She was quite a well known writer back in her day, and her books are enjoying a resurgence.
It was a joy to read!
Betty had recently divorced and remarried, bringing to the union her two daughters, ages 12 and 11. She and her new husband Donald make the move together with the girls. It was a risk, but one they were willing to take as Vashon Island is extremely beautiful. What they didn't count on was the unavailability of rental properties due to an infux of others thinking the same way at the end of WWII. They find a place and settle in, and their daughters, who are "at that age" of becoming boy crazy and are starting to want to make up their faces, aren't exactly thrilled with the limited prospects of companionship on the island.
Told with humor, Betty notes the girls even put on lipstick to gather driftwood.
When I got this book from the library, I was attracted to the name and didn't know much else so I was surprised at how long ago this book was actually published. My first clue that it wasn't exactly recent was when Betty noted an increase in prices at a local restaurant to (GASP) over a dollar for a large meal. I decided to find out more about Betty. She was quite a well known writer back in her day, and her books are enjoying a resurgence.
It was a joy to read!
September 21, 2007
A pretty obscure book, but if you can find it, it's pretty entertaining. I lived on this island for several years during high school - in a house about two blocks away from the author's. I really enjoy the author's writing style - whether she's writing children's fiction or autobiographical narratives.
July 22, 2014
This is my favorite of her books. I love them all and re-read them all the time.
August 6, 2018
Přemýšlíte o životě na ostrově ale nemůžete se odhodlat svůj sen zrealizovat? Tak tohle je rozhodně knížka, která vás k tomu nakopne. Po přečtení poslední části memoárů Betty MacDonald člověk nabude dojmu, že život na ostrově znamená v první řadě spoustu úžasných dobrodružství, užívání si benefitů vlastní pláže (sbírání mořských plodů, topení naplaveným dřevem, sem tam nějaký ten vyplavený poklad), obžerství plné mušlí a ryb, radost z neuvěřitelných zahrádkářských úspěchů, setkávání se spoustou přátelských zvířátek, a taky podporu sousedské komunity vřelou jako za starých časů. S lehkostí, nadhledem a humorem dokáže brát i všechny nástrahy života se dvěma pubertálními dcerami. Betty MacDonald je ve svých optimistických a pozitivních líčeních schopná dívat se snad na cokoliv jako na veselé zážitky s přínosnými zkušenostmi. Pokud bych měla mít na ostrově za sousedku někoho takového, stěhuju se hned zítra!
January 25, 2022
Betty MacDonald, you absolute gem!
In this, the fourth and last final memoir, she chronicles their first years living on Vashon Island, raising her two teen daughters, and beginning her career as a writer. She's so delightfully wry and so amusing in the way she talks about her kids, her new husband, the weather, everything! I just adore her!
In this, the fourth and last final memoir, she chronicles their first years living on Vashon Island, raising her two teen daughters, and beginning her career as a writer. She's so delightfully wry and so amusing in the way she talks about her kids, her new husband, the weather, everything! I just adore her!
December 30, 2020
Betty MacDonald je najautentickejšia v polohách, kde popisuje slasti a strasti všedných dní, rodinných väzieb, detailov bezprostredného sveta. V tejto knihe to robí na ostrove, ktorý je, rovnako ako život s týmto faktom spojený, práve tak romantický a príjemný ako náročný a drsný. A robí to dobre.
September 15, 2024
3.5 if I could. Picked this up at Elvis Shakespeare, a record store in Edinburgh, and I'm glad I did! A lot of it is quite dated, which is to be expected, but the writing style is fun and the various anecdotes about life on an island are really entertaining.
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