Hot Time, Summer in the City, Back of my neck….

Oh, right – I’ve never really lived in ‘The City’ 

except for a few brief months after I was born.

So I don’t remember, City isn’t part of my story.

But Hot Time, Summer is.

In the olden days, the days of my childhood and youth, air-conditioning was an Act of God. When the temps went up, up, UP no machine made you cool, you made yourself cool.

Cool was a state of mind.

Cool was something we all wanted to be.

Cool was something you found at the beach.

When I was in high school, the

Bain de Soleil St. Tropez Tan

was cool.

So we went to the beach to get it. Not to St. Tropez….we lived near Cape Cod.

Old Cape Cod.

And I remember that Judith got to use the car and we piled in, with our quarters  for gas money (Was this the year it went up to 35 ¢  a gallon? Darn you OPEC, ruining our all-American fun) and our Ban de Soliel and our towels and Sun In.

And food – sandwiches, the later emphasis to be SAND-wiches, chips and and crackers and cheese and cookies and oranges and apples and – well, we never went hungry, and we often ate before we left and ate again when we got home, but one time, when the traffic was backed up before the Bridge and the radio was playing loud and HOT and  we were on the road forever and a day and not even on the Cape – yet ….

Carol had made a sweet treat full of butter and sugar and some nuts and Graham crackers and a little more butter to hold it altogether. Betty Crocker had a name for these confections, but as we ate them in the car in the heat in the traffic, licking them off our fingers and hands and wrists and possibly arms so that the Bain de Soliel and sugar were all part of the same experience, they were re-christened

OOEY-GOOEYS.

Because they were. And they were good. They were a taste memory of Summer good.

OOEY-GOOEYS (!)

½ Cup butter

1 (1 oz) square unsweetened chocolate

¼ cup granulate sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg, beaten

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

½ cup chopped nuts

¼ cup butter

1 Tbsp milk or cream

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ squares (1 ½ oz) unsweetened chocolate

1. Melt ½ cup butter and 1 square chocolate in saucepan.
2. Blend gran. Sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, egg, crumbs, and nuts into butter chocolate mixture.
3. Mix well and press into ungreased baking dish, 11 ½ X 7 ½ X 1 ½” OR 9 X 9 X 1 ¾”.
4. Mix ¼ cup butter, milk, confectioners’ sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.
5. Spread over crumb mixture.
6. Melt 1 ½ square chocolate and spread over chilled filling.
7. Cut before firm.

Makes about 2 dozen squares.

(Finger Linkin’ Good from Carol Bumpas with thanks to Betty Crocker)

Betty Crocker, circa 1972., so this would be the Betty to thank. And Carol, who recorded and shared the recipe on a 3×5 in her precise and neat handwriting, God bless her.

In no way is this Ooey-Gooey to be confused with another, more recent Ooey-Gooey: