Tuesday is, believe it or not, Black Forest Cake Day. Which makes me chuckle. Not because I find the chocolate-cherry-whipped cream confection funny but because of the place of honor said dessert has in the history of my family.

See, Black Forest cakes were the celebratory confection of choice when my daughters had their first periods. Yep, we threw period parties. Years before commercial kits for marking one's first menstruation appeared on the market.

I wrote an article on our period parties long, long ago. Like, way back in the '90s. But the site for which I wrote the piece (and many others) is long gone, as is — I learned while searching my computer and external drive for that particular piece — every single article I wrote for ULiveAndLearn.com in the early years of the web... which I copied and saved for safe keeping somewhere, but that somewhere now escapes me since it obviously isn't on my computer.

Darn!

Anwyay, there are a couple sites that have quoted me on the period parties we once threw. One is a piece on SheKnows.com that says, in part:

Lisa Carpenter, blogger at Grandma's Briefs, celebrated all three of her daughter's first periods with a "Period Party." The occasion was marked with a Black Forest Cake, purchased by their father, and the presentation of a bag of pads. They also all danced to the song "Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon," sung by Urge Overkill. For Lisa, the party was her family's way "to ensure the moment would not be remembered with shame and secrecy."

There's no doubt I love Black Forest Cakes. I love more, though, the memory of our freaky family fun in which Black Forest Cakes played a big part.

Happy Black Forest Cake Day!