Title: Country Friends (TM) Good Times
Author: Gooseberry Patch Co.
Date: 1998
Publisher: Gooseberry Patch Co.
ISBN: 1-888052-27-9
Length: 216 pages
Quote: "Treat yourself to a good friend."
In Ohio there is a town called Delaware. In that town two women, "Jo Ann" and "Vickie," and a few more of their friends off and on, set up a mail-order business called the Gooseberry Patch Company. They sold cute, whimsical, handwritten-looking books like this one, which is primarily a book of suggestions about cheap ways to have fun. Not necessarily the healthiest ways--they trust the reader's judgment about how many sugary or cheesy food treats will really be fun--but generally cheap ways.
"Gooseberry Patch Co." sold out to a larger publisher but still exists as an imprint; they still have a few hundred cute little cookbooks in print. Well, if you count books like this as a cookbook. The majority of instructions and suggestions in these 216 pages are not for cooking but a recipe index does count 49 recipes for things some people will eat.
Maybe the best way to describe this book is to flip through the pages and give the suggestion at the top of five or six pages:
* Decorate a plain flowerpot with a cute little gift label (you could photocopy theirs from the book), put in some potting soil and a flower bud or seedling, and give it to a friend.
* Darn a sock by saying "Oh, darn!" and throwing it away. (Well, that's a joke. This web site knows several things to do with a worn-out sock that are more fun.)
* Start a good friends' gathering club.
* Host an "ice cream social" party. For invitations, stick a little card giving the time and place information in green paper or plastic "glass" in an actual ice cream cone and hand one to each person invited.
* Exercise like a kid...jump rope!
* Make a gift basket for a tea loving friend: paper doilies, a tin of very special tea, a loaf of homemade bread, a jar of preserves, a lacy napkin, a beautiful antique china teacup, and a pretty jar of lemon sugar.
Feel-good reading, for sure. The emphasis on friends, kids, and going out means that these suggestions can help cure "depression." One of the leading causes of "depression" is lack of physical activity, and these antidepressant activities will inspire almost anybody to turn off the TV, get off the couch, and do something that is fun that involves a nice low-stress level of physical activity. If these things don't help, there may be an underlying physical cause. At least it helps to rule out lack of exercise before testing for more complicated conditions.
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