Ernest Hemingway’s Father: He Was a Chocolate Soda

By James Banakis

September 11, 2024

 

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these, you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. –

                                     Ernest Hemingway

The great man was a complicated wacko. He was a myriad of contradictions. He lived life abundantly, yet he was obsessed with death. He worshiped women but could be cruel and abusive to them. He wrote confidently of interpersonal relationships and love as only one who experienced life could, yet he was a failed friend, father and husband. He cherished food and drink but consumed both to a destructive excess. In short, he embodied almost every admirable human trait and exhibited the opposite. Above all else he was an individual. Which is why he never really bought into Communism and the glorification of the state. He had a love of nature established in Thatcher Woods west of Oak Park and at his family’s summer home in the Michigan woods.

In today’s woke culture his stock is at an all-time low. He’s the poster boy for the toxic American male. I think that’s why I love the guy. Hemingway was a voracious letter writer, as were so many of his era. I’ve found much of his wisdom and observations on the human condition his in letters. He once famously said, “As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.” When I read this recently, I understood it as only an older guy could. So many of our childhood heroes cannot live up to the aura we once imagined. As we mature, we reluctantly realize that we’re all very flawed individuals. Once we submit to this, we see those around us differently. We only obtain grace when we understand our own imperfections.

I first became aware of Hemingway on the day he took his life in 1961. I was in 6th grade while staying overnight with my grandparents. When the news came on TV my recently retired grandfather slapped his knee and said, “the stupid SOB did the same thing that Doc did.” Doctor Hemingway, Ernest’s father, had been a friendly customer at my grandfather’s soda fountain. He then off handedly told me, “Doc used to complain all the time that his wife drove him nuts and one day he killed himself. Doc’s son wrote those dirty books.” This sparked my interest, and I asked, “Did you know Ernest Hemingway? What was he like?” He thought a moment then replied, “he was a double cholate soda.” He only knew him by what he always ordered. I remembered being disappointed not to find out more about the dirty books but then and to this day I remained charmed by his answer.

The opening quote at the beginning of this piece is from A Farewell to Arms. It is my favorite Hemingway passage. I’m sure that most people would find it negative and disheartening. I did the first time I read it at 20. Like most great works of art, we view it differently at different stages of our lives. I now know that the world can be unmerciful and that yes, we’re all mortal.

However, I find the essence of the statement is, “many are strong at the broken places.” This phase personifies the spirit of Hemingway’s definition of courage, i.e. grace under pressure. How do we adapt when we arrive at those broken places? We can feel helpless and crushed, or we can uncover our inner strength. It is precisely at this low point that some find a renewed purpose to their existence, and they become heroes of their own lives.

 “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”

Recently, Ken Burns produced a six-hour documentary film on the life of Ernest Hemingway. Even though I’ve read everything by and about him, I found it absorbing. Interestingly, I found that when I discussed the series with friends and customers, so many were turned off by it. I’m not sure, but I’d bet it was the lowest rated Ken Burns production. Why? Probably because we’ve become so used to any type of alpha male behavior branded as toxic masculinity. In Hemingway’s lifetime, his behavior was approved of, even admired universally.

Today, the Democratic nominee for Vice President championed a law in Minnesota stocking tampons in all boys’ bathrooms. He’s become the left’s example of the new ideal male. No thanks! Young boys coming of age need their fathers and strong male role models.

I recently reread Islands in the Stream. It’s the story of a man named Thomas Hudson, an artist and adventurer, as he reflects on his past and drifts through the trials of love, loss, and fatherhood. It’s obviously autobiographical in a novel format. It was published after Hemingway’s death, and I’m sure he was not completely happy with it. Maybe because the protagonist is so vulnerable. I found it to be one of his best self-reflective works. Being a father was the part of the story that I identified with. Fatherhood is hard, and it’s easy to feel inadequate and ill equipped at times, but it’s at those broken places that fathers can rise to the challenge. Any father could empathize with Thomas Hudson. This could have been Hemingway’s most exposed lead character. My own father who seemed to instinctively embrace fatherhood, would lead his sons though the mine fields of adolescence. Without this male supervision and guidance, young boys cannot mature into manhood.

Moving on to the main reason I’m writing about this man who left us over 60 years ago. I’ve always collected quotes. When they move me, they are added to a journal I keep. I still marvel when one of these pearls of wisdom really connects with where I find myself in life. It’s as if someone from the distant past is sending advice or a warning. Many of our great thinkers and leaders have done this. Eisenhower did this in a farewell address. At the time few understood his forewarnings, yet his predictions have all materialized time and again.

In my personal book of quotations, I found this one from Hemingway just yesterday:

“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring temporary prosperity; both bring permanent ruin. Both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

Some time ago I must have found this important and filed it away. When I reread it, I almost fell off my chair. Initially it really didn’t sound like something Hemingway might have been interested in, yet he couldn’t have been sent a more astute warning. If ever we’ve been mismanaged in this country, it’s been the past four years.

The economic opportunists who have created the rampart inflation and war are now suggesting price controls, as they blame greedy capitalists for our current dilemma. Concerning inflation, Milton Friedman once said,

“Inflation is just like alcoholism; In both cases, when you start drinking or when you start printing too much money, the good effects come first, and the bad effects only come later.”

The idea that businesspeople would create inflation is political deflection by the left. There is nothing more destructive and fatal to our economic wellbeing. The current inflation is in an agonizing downward spiral and could have been avoided. Every aware businessperson and every economist knew this was going to happen with the reckless spending during the Biden/Harris administration.

Now, much like a patient with a serious illness, we need to commit to the painful treatment our economy needs to regain good health. Most Americans are blissfully unaware of the serious crossroads we find ourselves. Kamala Harris has already told us how she intends to deal with this issue – more giveaways, more spending, more taxing. That’s why Republicans need to hone their message. There is nothing more urgent to our way of life than the economy. James Carville, Bill Clinton’s political advisor famously said that when it came to elections, “it’s the economy, stupid.” I agree with Carville on virtually nothing except this, and never more than this year.

For better or worse, Donald Trump is an accomplished salesman. Like a good salesman he tends to sometimes drone on and on trying persistently to close the deal. In doing this he loses some of the electorate. So many Americans are really hurting as they live paycheck to paycheck. That should be the centerpiece of his message. Sometimes he gets close to the message and then tales off talking about crowd size. When a box of Cheerios that cost $3.50 four years ago now cost $8.00 Americans can relate. Unfortunately, Trump spends too much time trying to entertain at his rallies when he only needs to lay out his plan for the economy simply and soberly. Again, Hemingway wisely once wrote, “The way to make people trust-worthy is to trust them.”

If our leaders trust in the goodness and common sense of the American people, they will earn the people’s trust. The most important discipline of history is learning from those who came before us. Ronald Reagan was a master of making complex issues easy for the electorate to grasp. If I were advising President Trump, I’d ask him to review the debates and the closing month of the 1980 campaign, Reagan vs. Carter. There are many similarities to the issues this year. Inflation and major unrest in the Middle East, and out of control gas prices were the major campaign issues. We need President Reagan’s commonsense style of leadership now more than ever.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same”.

Ronald Regan

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Jimmy Banakis is a life-long restaurateur.  He was an honorary batboy for the White Sox in 1964. He attended Oak Park River Forest High School, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Chicago-Kent Law School.  He claims the kitchen is the room he’s most comfortable in anywhere in the world. He published an extremely limited-edition family cookbook. He’s a father and grandfather, and lives in Downers Grove Il.

Comments 36

  2. Excellent read. It is stunning that people accept or believe they will get $25000.00 for a home. I continue to be scared at the way media has manipulated America trying to obtain information on the important issues the are before us. God help us all.

  4. Dimitraki,
    Spot on and thankyou. Where are our heroes when we need them now? I was so fortunate, growing up in a nuclear Greek family environment. My Dad was my hero. Even though I watched the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Howdy-Doody, the thought of them as my heroes never occured to me. It was always my Patera. He came to America as a 16 year old, escaping the hardships of our island of Ikaria, sent by my Yiayia who feared my Pappou would drown my Dad on his caique – seeing as how he foundered and lost 3 of them! Today, the woke socialists want to dilute and/or destroy any trace of masculinity, to make us more pliable to their leftist montra…in other words, become sheep. Fall in line, accept the handouts, don’t question. Shut up and move on. Sound familiar? See Venezuela, N.Korea, China, Russia. This non-democratic movement must be stopped soon, or we’re goners. I just don’t know how to wake up America seeing as how we’re constantly misled and hoodwinked by the “media” whose pockets are lined with socialist dollars. Let us pray……

  5. Bullseye Jimmy!!!

    “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring temporary prosperity; both bring permanent ruin. Both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

    Where have all the grown ups gone? Fiscal hawks? Meanwhile another 2 trillion deficit ( credit card borrowing) for this fiscal year. National debt of 33,000,000,000,000 .00!!!!!!!!!

    No one talking about it, SOUND THE ALARMS!!!!!!

    1. Good one, and great article. What a wonderful thing to do – collect quotes – like Thomas Jefferson’s “commonplace” book. That one from Hemingway

      “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring temporary prosperity; both bring permanent ruin. Both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

      Thank you Mr. Banakis, and thank you Mr Kass for your beautiful editing. I have published exactly two articles – one for Dawn Trice at the Tribune – both were unrecognizable to me afterwards. I wasted my time

  8. Mr. Jim you nailed it. Trump debated the Three Stooges last night and I gave him a B+. He veered from what should have been his core messages. Crime, the Economy and the wars in Ukraine and Israel. He took the bait too willingly and his messaging got muddled a little bit. Thankfully this was Kamala he debated mostly. Even with the assist from ABC’S propagandists she still gave muddled word salad answers. Yes, you’ll get a chicken in every pot. A bicycle for Christmas? You got it. An elephant? We’ll get you one. How do we pay for it? Guess the wags “moderating” the shit show couldn’t be bothered to ask. The two fools didn’t even bother to ask her about not conducting any press conferences or who exactly is running the country right now. Trump debated the Three Stooges and still got the better of them…

    1. No Enrique- Mr. Trump did not get the better of anyone. He got shown up last night for the buffoon x a clown that he truly is. He had very few intelligent answers- just the same old worn out, whiny playbook. It was pretty pathetic actually. Most of us are pretty tired of it.

      I agree that the national debt is a huge and growing problem. And what did Mr. Trump do when he had his chance? He ran up the largest annual deficit in U.S. history. What he cares about is his own glory and nothing else.

      Regarding crime, which is always a problem, have you bothered to check the actual national statistics? Mr. Trump is gaslighting America. You are being suckered by a self-serving narcissist. Were you actually convinced that pet eating by immigrants is an important problem because Trump saw that on TV? C’mon man!

      Mitt Romney, who I bet most of the people on this site voted for in 2012, was correct when he proclaimed Mr. Trump to be a fraud and a conman. For anyone that objectively listened to the debate last night, there is no other honest conclusion.

  9. Thanks for a superb essay.
    In addition to praying for Trump’s success, I pray an invigorated Republican party will shake off its uniparty habits, and differentiate itself by not undermining Trump once again.

  10. The beta men told us if we take the Native princess off the butter, our Aunt off the Pancake and syrup bottles and got rid of Uncle Ben….the world will be a better place….well, butter is $7/lb now, race hustlers are everywhere. String men make good times, Good times make weak men, Weak men make hard times, Hard times make strong men….we are in the weak men stage. War somewhere is inevitable if the Democrats win.

  11. The beta men told us if we take the Native princess off the butter, our Aunt off the Pancake and syrup bottles and got rid of Uncle Ben….the world will be a better place….well, butter is $7/lb now, race hustlers are everywhere. Strong men make good times, Good times make weak men, Weak men make hard times, Hard times make strong men….we are in the weak men stage. War somewhere is inevitable if the Democrats win.

  17. Plain words in a brilliant essay.
    Our country is trillions in debt and people across the board are hurting.
    Yet Kamala wants to spend, spend, spend.
    In her delusion of joy apparently she never heard there is no such thing as a free lunch.
    And freedom isn’t free.

    Donald Trump has common sense and tells it like is.
    Kamala Harris has no common sense and no sense of grounding in today’s world.

    1. Totally agree freedom isn’t free when freedom is at stake. The problem is that war-lovers use it as an excuse to justify, instigate or wage unnecessary wars at great cost in human lives and treasure. Our wars in Iraq and Vietnam are two examples of the lies that we were fighting for freedom.

  18. Mr. Bannakis- I was a big fan of Ernest Hemingway in my youth and read most of his novels.
    I also was a fan of Reagan’s common sense style of leadership.
    I was enjoying your article up until you politicized it.

    But you, like Trump and his mostly low-information followers grossly mislead/exaggerate about the economy.
    You don’t need to do that.

    Agree, the inflation spike we recently suffered through dusting the past 3 years has been a serious problem. The culprits were overspending by Trump, Biden, and Covid induced supply chain interruptions. It wasn’t just the U.S. but most other developed countries experienced the same problem.
    For perspective, I’ve listed below the inflation rates during the first four years of the Reagan presidency compared to the Biden presidencies-

    Reagan/Bush
    1981 10.3%
    1882 6.1%
    1983 3.2%
    1984. 4.3%

    Biden/Harris
    2021 4.7%
    2022 8.0%
    2023 4.1%
    2024 3.2%

    Inflation was an actually worse during the first 4 years of Reagan and we simultaneously suffered through a severe recession during that time. Surely you can remember those years, Mr. Bannakis!

    Besides inflation and a corresponding spike in home mortgage rates (which are still not bad from a historical perspective over the past four decades), most of the other economic indicators have been quite good, e. g. GDP, unemployment rate, stock market indices, corporate profits, etc. have been very respectable.

    Be fair-get your facts straight.
    Stop the gaslighting, Stop the polarizing. It’s not good for America.

    1. Well I disagree. The appropriate statistic is YOY – year over year inflation – which gives the best index of inflation over time. As such, Mr. Lee, you are incorrect:

      The YOY inflation rate during Carter’s Presidency was almost 10% (9.9% to be exact). That is what Reagan was faced with when he assumed office. The YOY inflation rate during Reagan’s Presidency was a much lower 4.6%; and contrary to your assertion, still lower than Biden’s YOY of 5.7%. The really big issue here is Reagan took over from Carter, who presided over one of the worst economies in American history. It was an economy not only plagued by record busting inflation but unemployment as well (stagflation). Contrast that to when senile ole Joe Biden took over from Trump: In Jan 2021 the YOY inflation rate was 1.4% despite the delusional lying Biden claiming it was 9%. So perhaps, Mr. Lee, maybe it is you who are guilty of gaslighting?

      1. Mr. Kleinman- The numbers I posted are YOY inflation stats. I’m not sure what data you are referencing but if you have significantly different and credible YOY inflation numbers for the years I listed I’d like to see them and the source you are citing.

        I agree, Reagan inherited a mess from Carter.

        And who’s mess did Biden inherit?
        Who ran up the largest annual deficit in U.S. history? Who mismanaged a pandemic? Who instigated a violent insurrection and desecrated the peaceful transfer of power, which is the bedrock of our Republic? Who polarized the country like no one has ever done before(Trump talk)?
        As Harris put it in the debate last night, my hope is that enough Americans truly decide to “Turn The Page” on Nov. 5.

          1. Mr. Kleinman- I don’t know whether you deliberately try to deceive or you honestly just don’t understand the data.

            The inflation rates you cited-
            9.9% for Carter, 4.6% for Reagan, 5.7% for Biden are
            “Average Of Year-Over-Year Inflation Rates For ALL MONTHS of Each Presidential Term” as clearly stated by the investopedia chart you referenced.

            My post correctly listed yearly YOY inflation rates for the first 4 years of presidents Reagan and Biden.
            Reagan was president for 8 years. The yearly inflation rates dropped during his second term and that is why the average over his ENTIRE term was “only” 4.6% (which is still quite high BTW!)
            By comparison the same chart shows that the average inflation rate under Trump was 1.9% and Obama 1.4%.

            Was Obama therefore a better president than Reagan or Trump ?

          2. Of course you chose a specific epoch. You are a perfect example of that old book “Lying with Statistics.” Reagan picked up a total disaster form Carter that took a lot of time to correct. The fact remains that under Biden – since his Presidency is not over – we have experienced the highest inflation rate in 40 years.

            And we are talking about inflation; one of many criteria that determines Presidential efficacy. Therefore your question regarding Trump v Obama is a nonsequitor.

    2. However, you slice the numbers, what is undeniable is this is the worst multi year inflation s we’ve seen in 40 years. Anyone with a simple knowledge of economics knew this was going to happen then Fed printed money during COVID. Unfortunately, most voters are economic illiterates.

      The names change but the plot repeats itself. The government creates a problem (COVID lockdown), then fixes the problem it created (print money), but that creates new problems (inflation). Over time, the government gets larger and more powerful, and citizen gets smaller.

  19. BINGO Chris, we need more articles like this than being reminded daily what the Trib did to John. Enuf already, we get it, you got screwed. I’ve been canned 3 times and each time I did better afterward. Pick yourself up and move forward. Stop the whining about the Trib.
    Some points: massive tax cuts to the rich and corporations under Trump helped cause this inflation. Money that could ve been used to pay the debt.
    Our economy is a war economy. We make things that kill and then sell to whoever can buy it.
    Trump last nite got his ass kicked hard and then KKK (KACKLING KOMIE KAMALA) handed it to him. Race is over. The moderate undecideds are going over to KKK. TRUMP was a total bust. Yes I know ABC was unfair but a true leader/fighter (like Hemingway) overcomes this and fires back hard pointing out the unfairness of it all. Remember Donald: FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT. Or did you forget. There was no fire in the belly of this corpulent, confused Orange beast. Pure flatulence is all he offered. And he stunk the place up like a dead political corpse that he is.
    He’s not the same as he was in 2016 to 2020. He may be getting like Biden.

  20. Jimmy. Well done. Since you are a collector of quotes and this is 9/11 consider this. Regarding your reference to Hemingway’s definition of courage, i.e. grace under pressure, can any quote in American history exceed this brief classic: “Let’s roll.” And Todd Beamer wasn’t even a famous author. Just an ordinary man, doing extraordinary things. Talk about being a man!

  21. What a fabulous column by Jimmy Benakis. If he’s as good a chef/cook as he is at understanding the life of a complicated guy like Earnest Hemmingway, then I definitely want to eat in one of his establishments.

  22. Great article. I remember seeing that Hemingway quote “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places” when I was going through my divorce. Have no remembrance of the book I was reading, but I remember that quote.

    Yeah, Hemingway hated his mother. Didn’t even attend her funeral. With his general treatment of women, had he lived today, he would have been hated.

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