Tiny Pineapple

ananas comosus (L.) minimus

Nurse and the Crystal Ball, The

by Florence Stewart (1969)
Nurse and the Crystal Ball, The

It would take more than a fortune-teller to solve Nurse Sue Whittier’s dilemma: Should she tell her dying former sweetheart the truth, or should she leave him in peace and let his scheming wife and brother rob him…?

Clouded Future…

When Sue Whittier unpacked her suitcase, 3000 miles away from the nurses’ dormitory in Maryland, she found a fortune-teller’s crystal ball under her nylons. It was a friend’s idea of a joke, but Sue–who didn’t believe in such things–wished it could tell her what she was letting herself in for. She had driven to California to be with Dave Harding, the man she had walked out on seven years ago just before their wedding–a dying man now who had written, begging her to come. And she had…even though seeing Dave would mean seeing his half-brother, Marv, too–the secret reason Sue had broken that engagement. Still, she was prepared for that. What she wasn’t prepared for was finding another old love of Dave’s at his bedside: Gloria, the blonde he had married on the rebound, the wife who had deserted him two months later and has now returned–with a son she claimed was his. But was it true…? Sue didn’t need a crystal ball to tell her that here was a woman who couldn’t be trusted…

When I read “she found a fortune-teller’s crystal ball under her nylons,” my first thought was, “Well, there’s a an anatomical euphemism I’ve never heard before.”

And if I was Dave Harding, and:

  1. My bride-to-be ditched me at the altar for my half-brother named Marv.
  2. My scheming, blonde ex-wife named Gloria showed up with a snot-nosed kid and a paternity suit.
  3. I had cancer.

I’d refuse treatment and pray for a speedy end.

Dole Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Dole Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Prepare topping first.

  • Melt 3 tbsps. butter or margarine in 9” round or 8”x8”x2” square pan.
  • Sprinkle with ½ cup brown sugar.
  • Over sugar arrange 4 slices Dole pineapple and Maraschino cherries.

Set aside while mixing cake part.

  • Cream 1⁄3 cup shortening with ½ cup sugar.
  • Add 1 egg, unbeaten, and 1 tsp. vanilla.
  • Sift together 1¼ cups sifted flour, ¼ tsp. salt, 1½ tsps. baking powder.
  • Add to first mixture alternately with ½ cup syrup drained from pineapple, beating smooth after each addition.
  • Spread batter over pineapple in pan and bake in moderate oven (350°) 50 to 60 min.
  • Turn out on plate, serve warm with whipped cream.

Serves 6 to 8.

This postcard is in honor of Chronicler’s Kitchen Krafts find. I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but surely any company-sponsored recipe found on the back of a cheap, hyper-saturated, out-of-register postcard from the mid-60s has got to be delicious, right?