For those of you whose moms are no longer physically with you, I’m sharing very good advice from a friend following my mother’s 2003 Memorial Service:

“Honor your wonderful mom by being a wonderful mom (aunt, neighbor, friend) to the children in your life.”

FLAVORS OF HOME

By Donna B. Pierce, first published in 2013.

For moms who drive carpools
and moms who coach teams.
For moms who believe in…
and nurture young dreams.

For moms of adults,
and mommies with tots.
For stay-at-home mothers
and those who do not.

For moms who can’t rest
with new babies at home.
And those sleep deprived
on nights teenagers roam.

For moms who are strict
and to those known for lenience.
For moms who cook daily
or choose drive-through convenience.

For moms who choose kids,
and those babies are born to.
For step-moms, grandmothers
and all others who come through….

with promises kept for
a lifelong commitment
to open your heart
and keep kids safe within it.

Thanks for meatloaf and gravy
and poppy seed cake.
Thanks for beans…red and navy
and biscuits that flake.

Thanks for grits and polenta
and soups left to simmer.
Thanks for family occasions…
cousins invited to dinner.

Thanks for blueberry pancakes
and strawberry pie.
Thanks for turkey and dressing,
loaves flavored with rye.

Thanks for collard greens, cooked
with a small dash of bacon.
Thanks for chicken soup, orange juice
and broths to sooth aching.

Thanks for corn on the cob
and red peppers, roasted.
Huckleberries, persimmons
and marshmallows, toasted.

Thanks for tender beef brisket,
velvet cakes colored red.
Thanks for bagels, injera
and other great bread.

Thanks for couscous and sushi
and sweetened ice teas.
Thanks for tacos, tamales
and pasta with peas.

Thanks for burgers with mustard
and baked macaroni,
Thanks for salsa and ketchup
and thick minestrone.

Thanks for chocolate chip cookies
and blackberry jam.
Thanks for Boston Cream Pie
and Boone County ham.

Thanks for strawberry smoothies,
grape juice and punch.
Thanks for butterscotch sundaes
and grilled cheese for lunch.

Thanks for chicken pot pie
and fried green tomatoes.
Thanks for Kosher dill pickles
and mashed Irish potatoes.

Thanks for stir fries and French fries
and onion rings, too.
Thanks for tandoori chicken,
poi and venison stew.

Thanks for waking up early
to bake cinnamon rolls.
Thanks for slice-and-bake cookies
and s’mores over coals.

Thanks for big feasts for dozens
and snacks all alone.
Thanks for seasoning my life
with the flavors of home.

This Week’s Great Migration Library Q & A:

This week’s Question: In which month are most babies born in the U.S.?

---

Answer to last week’s Question: What are the colors of the Mexican flag?Answer: Green, White, Red

Thank you for joining me in the Great Migration Library. The doors are always open. Your chair is waiting.

“I am very grateful when you help spread the word about the Great Migration Library by clicking the Like (heart) button and sharing this message with friends, neighbors and family. I welcome comments.” -Donna Battle Pierce

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TECH SUPPORT FOR FELLOW BOOMERS: Please help others find us by selecting relevant icons at the top of this email. Click the heart to “like”; click the next symbol to make short comments; click the up arrow to share this with a specific email address; click last symbol to share with contacts. Feel my gratitude. D

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Great Migration Library website

The Great Migration Library’s highlighted links often connect you to more information, books at AbeBooks, or other independent booksellers, available at the time of our posting. Note: Before selecting from a link, sort through available offerings for desired condition; new or used.

Bookmarks:

The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, by Anna Malaika Tubbs (Flatiron Books, 2021).

Through Mom’s Eyes: Simple Wisdom From Mothers Who Raised Extraordinary Humans by Sheinelle Jones (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2026).

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Contact me for permission to reprint Great Migration Library photos, or photos from the Battle Family Archives.

Please note: I often reference Wikipedia.com as a second source for dates, locations and other information.

Join the Book Search

Please join in my continued search for information regarding From the Plantation to the Doctor’s Office by Dr. H. Roger Williams, published in the mid-1920s. Contact this great-granddaughter with any tips (from libraries, media archives, elders and more — including psychic readers).

© 2026 Donna Battle Pierce and Great-Migrations.com. All photo rights reserved by Battle Family Archives.

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“The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness.” -Maya Angelou

Birthday Memories:

“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves—a special kind of double.”–Toni Morrison

“Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.”–Anonymous

“Growing up, I wasn’t aware I was blowing out candles on a day celebrated so festively by others, but I’m not complaining. There are only a few disadvantages to having a quiet natal day morph into everyone’s favorite drinking party,” my sister (now a loving grandmother) said long ago.

Our parent’s four children grew up with frequent lessons about secrets to personal (not material) success. They both explained that life offers wonderful lessons when we pay attention to our journey. Mom and Dad offered the following suggestions: live in the moment; value the people, places, and things at hand.

Instead of wishing for different things, Mom often reminded us to “pause when agitated,” and then “choose what you have.”

Today, while celebrating my sister’s birthday, we’re also looking forward to honoring our ancestor mom on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 10.

This Week’s Great Migration Library Q & A:

This week’s Question: What are the colors of the Mexican flag?

---

Answer to last week’s Question: After passage by Congress, which American president signed the historic (and long overdue) Civil Rights Act of 1964? Answer: President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Thank you for joining me in the Great Migration Library. The doors are always open. Your chair is waiting.

“I am very grateful when you help spread the word about the Great Migration Library by clicking the Like (heart) button and sharing this message with friends, neighbors and family. I welcome comments.” -Donna Battle Pierce

Leave a comment

Get more from Donna Battle Pierce in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

TECH SUPPORT FOR FELLOW BOOMERS: Please help others find us by selecting relevant icons at the top of this email. Click the heart to “like”; click the next symbol to make short comments; click the up arrow to share this with a specific email address; click last symbol to share with contacts. Feel my gratitude. D

Reader Reminder:

More interesting facts will be revealed by clicking on mustard-colored links.

Great Migration Library website

The Great Migration Library’s highlighted links often connect you to more information, books at AbeBooks, or other independent booksellers, available at the time of our posting. Note: Before selecting from a link, sort through available offerings for desired condition; new or used.

Bookmarks:

Cinco De Mayo: How did the holiday become more popular in the United States than Mexico? By Jordan Mendoza, Maria Jimenez Moya, USA Today (Online 05/04/2022).

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams (Greenwillow, 2007).

El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition by David Hayes-Bautista (University of California Press, 2012).

Coming Together: Celebrations for African American Families by Harriette Cole, John Pinderhughes (Little Brown, 2003).

Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Grandmother by Lois Wyse (Avon, 2000).

Memory of Kin : Stories about Family by Black Writers by Mary Helen Washington (Doubleday, 1991).

Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx by Jonah Winter (Scholastic, 2009).

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Contact me for permission to reprint Great Migration Library photos, or photos from the Battle Family Archives.

Please note: I often reference Wikipedia.com as a second source for dates, locations and other information.

Join the Book Search

Please join in my continued search for information regarding From the Plantation to the Doctor’s Office by Dr. H. Roger Williams, published in the mid-1920s. Contact this great-granddaughter with any tips (from libraries, media archives, elders and more — including psychic readers).

© 2026 Donna Battle Pierce and Great-Migrations.com. All photo rights reserved by Battle Family Archives.

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1960s Milestones

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed into law, ending segregation in public places and schools.

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

Growing up as the first generation of my parent’s courageous Great Migration move from the Gulf Coast to a midwestern college town, Mom and Dad lovingly referred to their four children as “little soldiers of integration.”

Spending my formative years negotiating life in classrooms, playgrounds, clubs, libraries and retail stores dominated by white people, was a challenge that didn’t go unnoticed by our dad, a Tuskegee grad (and senior class president) who had studied under George Washington Carver before WWII.

Looking back, I’m certain my dad, a high school guidance counselor, purposely integrated two non-negotiable daily readings for his children.

1st Reading:

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.” -George Washington Carver

Desiderata

(desirable/essential actions)

Actor Morgan Freeman described Max Ehrmann’s poem, Desiderata, as personally life changing during a 2012 Oprah Winfrey Master Class interview for subscribers: “I had never heard of it, but…I will never forget.…You really should go and read it. Trust me—it will be worth it.”

I remember appreciating Desiderata as a first grader. I still do—you will understand if you read it aloud now.

2nd Reading:

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

This Week’s Great Migration Library Q & A:

This week’s Question: After passage by Congress, which American president signed the historic (and long overdue) Civil Rights Act of 1964?

---

Answer to last week’s Question: Based on the novel by Fanny Flagg, what is the name of the cafe associated with the 1991 film, Fried Green Tomatoes? Answer: The Whistle Stop Cafe.

Thank you for joining me in the Great Migration Library. The doors are always open. Your chair is waiting.

“I am very grateful when you help spread the word about the Great Migration Library by clicking the Like (heart) button and sharing this message with friends, neighbors and family. I welcome comments.” -Donna Battle Pierce

Leave a comment

Get more from Donna Battle Pierce in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Reader Reminder:

More interesting facts will be revealed when you click on mustard-colored links.

Great Migration Library website

The Great Migration Library’s highlighted links often connect you to more information, books at AbeBooks, or other independent booksellers, available at the time of our posting. Note: Before selecting from a link, sort through available offerings for desired condition; new or used.

Bookmarks

The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West (The Free Press, 2000).

Woodstock FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Fabled Garden by Thomas Edward Harkin (Backbeat, 2019).

Exploring America in the 1960s: Our Voices Will Be Heard (Grades 6-8) by Molly Sandling & Kimberley Chandler (Routledge, 2014).

The 60s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker Magazine (Modern Living, 2017).

Jimi Hendrix (Johnny Allen Hendrix)
(1942-1970)
Birthday: November 27
Photo source: Hendrix in Stockholm, Sweden, Wikimedia commons, 1967.

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Contact me for permission to reprint Great Migration Library photos, or photos from the Battle Family Archives.

Please note: I often reference Wikipedia.com as a second source for dates, locations and other information.

Join the Book Search

Please join in my continued search for information regarding From the Plantation to the Doctor’s Office by Dr. H. Roger Williams, published in the mid-1920s. Contact this great-granddaughter with any tips (from libraries, media archives, elders and more — including psychic readers).

© 2026 Donna Battle Pierce and Great-Migrations.com. All photo rights reserved by Battle Family Archives.

Subscribe now

“I was born in Murray County, Tennessee in 1857, a slave,” Estes wrote in 1911.

Each time I open the 1999 edition (edited by D. J. Frienz) in my Great Migration Library, I visualize him gardening with the mother who helped ignite his curiosity.

After turning to the Sketch of My Life section, I read Chef Estes’ words describing his post-Civil War move (50 miles north to Nashville, TN) so he and his mom could be with his grandmother while his mother still mourned the loss of two other sons who had been killed during the war.

“When summer came, I got work milking cows for some neighbors for which I got two dollars a month. I also carried hot dinners for the laborers in the fields, for which each one paid me twenty-five cents a month,” Estes wrote. “All of this, of course, went to my mother…I thought I could be of better service to her and prolong her life by getting work,” Estes added.

Railroad Dining

“Among the distinguished people who traveled in my care were Stanley, the African explorer; President Cleveland; President Harrison… I also had charge of the car for Princess Eulalie of Spain, when she was the guest of Chicago during the World’s Fair.”–Rufus Estes

Green Tomato Recipes

Next time you’re searching for a side dish or dessert, I recommend Green Tomato Pie by Rufus Estes. His short, paragraph-style recipe allows you to make your own choices about when and how to serve it.

“Take green tomatoes and peel and slice wafer thin. Fill a plate nearly full, add a tablespoon vinegar and plenty of sugar, dot with bits of butter and flavor with nutmeg or lemon. Bake in one or two crusts as preferred.”

In 1911, when The Chicago Defender praised Estes and his new book, the story described him as “one of the best-known chefs in Chicago,” with one editing error. The popular newspaper referred to his book as Things Good to Eat instead of Good Things to Eat.

I don’t disagree with either title.

This Week’s Great Migration Library Q & A:

This week’s Question: Based on the novel by Fanny Flagg, what is the name of the cafe associated with the 1991 film, Fried Green Tomatoes?

---

Answer to last week’s Question: What did Freda DeKnight name the tiny meme she invented to help readers understand and enjoy recipes? Answer: The Little Brown Chef.

Thank you for joining me in the Great Migration Library. The doors are always open. Your chair is waiting.

“I am very grateful when you help spread the word about the Great Migration Library by clicking the Like (heart) button and sharing this message with friends, neighbors and family. I welcome comments.” -Donna Battle Pierce

Leave a comment

Get more from Donna Battle Pierce in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Reader Reminder:

More interesting facts will be revealed when you click on mustard-colored links.

Great Migration Library website

The Great Migration Library’s highlighted links often connect you to more information, books at AbeBooks, or other independent booksellers, available at the time of our posting. Note: Before selecting from a link, sort through available offerings for desired condition; new or used.

Bookmarks

Good Things to Eat, As Suggested by Rufus: A Collection of Practical…by Rufus Estes, edited by D. J. Frienz (Howling at the Moon Press, 1999).

Dining by Rail: The History and Recipes of America’s…by James D. Porterfield (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998).

Dinner in the Diner: 300 Recipes From America’s…by Will C. Hollister (Trans-Anglo Books, 1986).

An Anthology of Respect: The Pullman Porters National Historic…by Lyn Hughes (Hughes-Peterson Publishing, 2007).

Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin (Clarkson Potter, 2019).

Lee Bailey’s Tomatoes by Lee Bailey (Clarkson Potter, 1992).

In Praise of Tomatoes: Tasty Recipes…Legends & Lore by Ronni Lundy (Union Square & Co., 2006).

Subscribe now

Contact me for permission to reprint Great Migration Library photos, or photos from the Battle Family Archives.

Please note: I often reference Wikipedia.com as a second source for dates, locations and other information.

Join the Book Search

Please join in my continued search for information regarding From the Plantation to the Doctor’s Office by Dr. H. Roger Williams, published in the mid-1920s. Contact this great-granddaughter with any tips (from libraries, media archives, elders and more — including psychic readers).

© 2026 Donna Battle Pierce and Great-Migrations.com. All photo rights reserved by Battle Family Archives.

Subscribe now

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