One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)

by Janet Evanovich

I shot that sucker right in the gumpy.”

I get asked a lot about Grandma Mazur, and if she is based on anyone I know. Grandma Mazur is a combination of my Aunt Lena and Grandma Fanny. When I was a little girl, growing up in South River, NJ, there wasn’t a lot to do for entertainment. It wasn’t exactly a country club town. So, my Aunt Lena and her lady friends would get together every week at our house and go through the obits. If there wasn’t anyone they knew being laid out, they would hope for someone high up in the Elks club or one of the other fraternal orders. That would always guarantee a large turnout, ceremonial attire and an excellent selection of cookies. My Grandma Fanny was a force to be reckoned with. She wore high heeled shoes to her dying day, her purse in the crook of her arm and walked everywhere. Every other week she would visit the salon and get a rinse in her white hair. Sometimes it would be pink. Sometimes apricot or blue. Fanny had a real zest for life. The scene of Grandma Mazur shooting the roast chicken in the gumpy was inspired by what is probably the only tradition in my family… the giving of the gumpy. Every year some lucky person shows up at the Thanksgiving dinner table to have a turkey gumpy on their plate. Over the years the tradition has progressed. One year my sister received the gumpy on Thanksgiving, took it home and froze it. A month later she put it in a box filled with popcorn, wrapped it up and gave it to my son for Christmas. The giving of the gumpy started with my grandparents and I suspect will continue for generations to come. There’s nothing like a good gumpy.