Something Cooking

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28690, 13 September 1958, Page 3

Something Cooking

Dough Ray and Me. By Pat Kilmer. Hodder and Stoughton. 318 pp.

The Kilmers, Ray, Pat and their two children, lived happily in Detroit, where Ray had a good job, but when he decided to pull out and set up as a baker in Arizona the family joyously went with him. Fate decreed that they should never reach Arizona, for their car broke down in Cabeza, New Mexico, where they were welcomed by the warm-hearted inhabitants not only for their personal charm but for their avowed intention to bake for their living. Cabeza until that moment had had to order its bread from Alberquerque, so Ray and Pat were adjured to remain, and notwithstanding the lack of all modem conveniences, were provided with premises containing an oven of sorts, as well as houseroom for the family. Cabeza proved to be a very folksy town, and the neighbours organised a “shower of furneechure” from their own homes which entailed a good deal of personal sacrifice on the part of the donors. Greatly touched by these marks of good will, the Kilmers sank their savings in the necessary equipment for their work, and did not realise at first how meagre was the living it would provide. The Cabezans, being generous givers, were also unabashed takers, and had no inhibitions about descending upon the bakery when literally “something was cookin’,” and distraining upon cakes and pies which the makers could ill ajford to give away. After waging a losing battle against poverty, and resorting to a diet of beans in order to pay the rent, the Kilmers decided to return to Detroit, but when Ray hit upon an idea for increasing their earnings they resolved to defy the call of civilisation and remain.

The book is full of delightful character-sketches of a community in which the old-fashioned virtues of courage and generosity were of greater importance than the acquisition of wealth. In its gaiety and dry humour it is reminiscent of “The Egg and I,” and in this author, the late Betty Macdonald, may well have found a worthy successor.