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Meet Ginger Betty of Ginger Betty's Bakery - Paula and her friend Ginger Betty of Ginger Betty's Bakery are swappin' stories about the start of their businesses.
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#pauladeen #loveandbestdishes
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0:00
- I've got a real question for y'all out there.
0:04
Who likes gingerbread?
0:06
Personally? I love it.
0:09
Who likes gingerbread men?
0:12
(laughing)
0:13
I'm going to make me one,
0:15
he's going to be about 6'2''
0:17
and he's going to have eyes of blue
0:20
(laughing)
0:21
because you know what?
0:22
I got a girl here that can make him,
0:24
if you don't know this woman, you need to know her.
0:30
This is Ginger Betty, y'all.
0:33
And where do you live, Betty?
0:36
- In Quincy. Quincy, Mass.
0:38
- Yes, that's exactly what you told me.
0:40
And she's got an accent y'all
0:42
(laughing)
0:43
but I hope that y'all will be able to understand her
0:46
'cause once she starts talking,
0:48
she don't up.
0:49
- All right.
0:51
(laughing)
0:51
Should we get this out of way? Should we just say,
0:53
"Park the car in the Harvard yard"?
0:54
Yes. I love it. Park the car in the
0:56
- Harvard Yard.
0:59
- Harvard yard.
1:00
(laughing)
1:02
I love y'all's accent, Ginger Betty.
1:05
So she has got such an incredible story.
1:08
So we're probably gonna be shooting several videos together
1:12
because I want you for the people that don't know ya
1:18
to know who and what you are and how you got started.
1:24
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
1:27
- Oh, thank you.
1:28
- You have the same colorin' as my mama.
1:30
- Aw.
1:31
- I'm partial to red heads.
1:32
(laughs)
1:34
So I want you to tell them everything.
1:39
She started this business she said when she was seven
1:42
(laughs)
1:43
and she's been doing it for 27 years,
1:45
but I'm going to shut up and let you talk.
1:48
Y'all are gonna love this woman.
1:50
- Well first of all, I just want to say,
1:51
thank you, thank you.
1:52
And you're such an inspiration
1:54
- Oh.
1:55
- And it's such an honor to be here and, you know,
1:57
and thankfully for Sugar Shane,
1:59
our mutual friend,
2:00
- Sugar Shane
2:01
- Sugar Shane.
2:02
- Sittin' right over there.
2:03
- And Decadent Diane.
2:04
- Decadent Diane.
2:06
(laughs)
2:07
- Hey, y'all.
2:08
- [Paula] We actually have an audience today.
2:10
- We're the live studio audience,
2:11
we've got cue cards ready.
2:14
(laughing)
2:14
- [Paula] And Michael is holding the applause sign, right?
2:16
- [Shane] He's watching football,
2:18
but I think he's coming back for the applause.
2:20
- Molasses Michael. He might better be called
2:22
Bittersweet Chocolate Michael.
2:25
(laughing)
2:26
- [Shane] Careful with those letters you're rhyming.
2:29
(laughing)
2:30
- So, but talk honey, talk, talk, talk.
2:33
- Talk, talk. Coffee talk. Okay. So anyways,
2:36
it all started way back in the day.
2:38
- Started.
2:39
- Started. I was about seven years old
2:42
and my sister's a pastry chef,
2:45
so talented and so, you know,
2:47
so always when I would come home or wake up in the morning,
2:50
- Uh huh.
2:51
- She was making some type of confection,
2:52
whether it's cakes or pastries, pies.
2:56
- It's a wonder y'all weren't fat is a feather, you know?
2:59
- Oh yeah, you should have seen me 10 years ago.
3:02
(laughing)
3:03
- I laid off the gumdrops. It was a bad addiction.
3:06
But um, anyways,
3:07
so I just started doing the gingerbread houses and I,
3:11
I mean, what seven year old doesn't like
3:12
working with frosting and decorating.
3:15
- Yes, children love to decorate the sugar cookies. Yeah.
3:19
- And so then I went on in high school
3:22
and I would make them for friends.
3:24
Onto college, and you know,
3:25
I would bribe some of my college friends.
3:27
I said, I paid for the beer and the chips and everything.
3:30
So, and I was selling them to Mister Donuts,
3:32
which is kind of funny because...
3:34
- Who is Mister Donuts?
3:35
- So Dunkin Donuts cousin,
3:37
(laughing)
3:39
- Is this a true story? Right.
3:41
- Yes.
3:42
- You can't write and make up this crap.
3:43
- No, it is. So anyways,
3:44
I go to school in New York
3:46
and then I'm working at Mr. Donuts,
3:48
which that was the brother-in-law to Dunkin Donuts.
3:51
So it was so funny and the first one was in Quincy, Mass.
3:54
And so then where I was living from my dorms
3:57
were at Hicksville motor lodge.
4:00
This is a true story, by the way.
4:02
(laughs)
4:03
And the first Howard Johnson's motor lodge was from Quincy.
4:05
- Right.
4:06
- Yeah. Yeah. So anyways,
4:08
and I would bribe mys my friends and we would make
4:10
gingerbread and I would sell them to Mr. Donuts.
4:13
And I would sell them to the country clubs.
4:14
I'd be making Merry Christmas,
4:16
Happy Hanukkah and just all for extra money.
4:20
- Uh huh.
4:20
- And I think he felt bad for me because
4:22
- Well why didn't Dunkin' buy your gingerbread?
4:24
- Well, he wasn't there.
4:25
- Oh.
4:26
- The Mister Donuts was there.
4:27
- Oh, okay.
4:28
- But I have a plan for Dunkin'.
4:30
- Okay.
4:31
(laughs)
4:32
- So, so yeah.
4:34
And I just kept doing it all through college and everything.
4:37
And so when I moved home,
4:39
I ended up working in hotel and restaurant.
4:42
Well, that was my,
4:44
- I do know.
4:45
Excuse me for interrupting you, Ginger Betty,
4:46
but I do know that she was a, she got a full scholarship
4:50
to college uh, playing volleyball.
4:53
- I did.
4:54
- Yeah. So if you won't, if you won't tell how good you are,
4:58
I'll will won't ya know?
5:00
(laughing)
5:01
- All right. Tell me more.
5:02
(laughing)
5:03
No, so it was fun playing volleyball, you know,
5:06
got to travel and everything and met so many amazing people.
5:10
And then when I was coming home,
5:12
I ended up looking for jobs, and there weren't, you know
5:14
there weren't many jobs in hotel
5:16
and so Christmas rolled around again.
5:18
And I said, all right, like any other Christmas,
5:21
I'm going to make them.
5:22
And I'm selling them to friends and family.
5:24
And so then something came up
5:26
if you had an idea for a business in, in Quincy,
5:30
and so I had all these little napkins
5:32
because in this whole gingerbread making over the years,
5:35
you know, you'd need the gingerbread boy
5:37
and the gingerbread man,
5:39
we need a little girl power.
5:41
- Yes.
5:42
- So yeah. So I said,
5:43
let's invent the gingerbread girl and let's try to,
5:45
you know, sell the magic of Christmas all year long
5:48
because you know, when you have a dream in, you know,
5:52
if you have hobbies and things, they become your dream.
5:54
It's I think you have to be in tune.
5:57
- Yes.
5:58
- So your dreams can become a delicious reality
6:01
as I like to say.
6:02
- Exactly.
6:03
It's great when you can take your hobby
6:05
and actually make you a living with it.
6:07
- Yeah. Yeah. So that's what, 26 years later.
6:10
But so I started making the, um,
6:12
the gingerbread and it was so funny how the people,
6:16
you know, they want to be helpful and everything,
6:18
but you have to get the permits.
6:19
You have to get the equipment, you have to get the loan.
6:21
You have to get everything.
6:22
- Yes.
6:24
- And I had this one guy, he was at the,
6:26
the health department.
6:28
So I went down there and he's looking at me like
6:31
gingerbread, what?
6:33
So he said, Ginger Betty, come over here.
6:35
- Ginger Bready. It's Ginger Betty.
6:37
- He said, I'm going to talk to you like, you know,
6:40
you're my daughter.
6:41
And he said, "Are you sure you want to do this?
6:43
This is an awful lot of work. This is..."
6:44
and I'm sitting there going, hello?
6:46
Hello. I'm trying to like sprinkle some ginger joy
6:49
to the world like all year long.
6:51
(laughing)
6:52
Like Christmas cookies all year.
6:53
How fun would that be?
6:55
And so anyways,
6:57
I sat outside on those steps for a while and I'm thinking,
7:01
no, you know,
7:02
they tried to burst your bubble
7:04
and probably try to be helpful.
7:05
- Yes.
7:06
- But then I thought about it.
7:07
My mother would always say, "Go for it, go for it.
7:09
If you have an idea, work with it."
7:11
- Absolutely.
7:12
You know, I say, if it fails, so what?
7:15
The sin is in not trying at all.
7:19
- Exactly.
7:20
- Okay. So then how long do you do the,
7:23
- So then I got a store front.
7:24
- Out of your house?
7:25
- I just for...
7:27
- 20 years.
7:28
(laughing)
7:29
- Yeah, ever since, ever since I was, you know,
7:31
in high school and stuff like that,
7:32
but then I got a little 1300 square foot building.
7:35
- Oh.
7:36
- But it was funny. And the other thing was he's like,
7:38
how is this going to work?
7:40
Because we were literally on a side street.
7:41
So we were tucked away. And that's what he was saying.
7:44
He came back, his name was Fred Prezioso.
7:46
My gosh, he was so nice, such a good guy.
7:48
But he said, Betty, the first time I'm in your store,
7:51
I can't believe it. I have to apologize.
7:53
We were taking bets on how long it was going to take
7:56
before you close the doors.
7:57
- No.
7:58
- Yes. And I said, don't triple dog dare me.
8:01
(laughing)
8:03
So we were selling Christmas cookies.
8:03
So Christmas was easy.
8:04
- Double dog dare.
8:05
I hadn't heard that in a long time. I double dog dare ya.
8:08
- Yeah, Christmas...
8:09
- Whatever that means.
8:10
(laughing)
8:12
- Don't tempt me. That's what it means.
8:14
So I, so, you know, Christmas was easy,
8:16
but then Easter came around
8:18
and it's so fun because the kids love it.
8:19
So for Halloween, we do the pumpkins
8:22
and the ghosts and stuff.
8:23
So it really started to catch on.
8:25
And then we did corporate and then we did weddings
8:28
and brought in the kids parties.
8:30
- Yes.
8:32
- So like after that and like 2004,
8:34
I moved to a 5,000 square foot place.
8:36
- Wow. All right, now,
8:37
what year did you open the 1300 square foot?
8:40
- 1995.
8:41
- Oh gosh. So you were there a good while?
8:44
- Yeah.
8:45
Yeah.
8:46
- Wow.
8:47
- In 2004 we moved over here.
8:48
So it's in a little neighborhood.
8:50
So it's really cool.
8:52
The kids, you know, sometimes that's the first place
8:53
they get to go is up to Ginger Betty's
8:55
to get cookies and candy, so.
8:56
- Yes.
8:57
(laughing)
8:58
So now that you have met Gingerbread Betty,
9:05
that's, this is the video for the day,
9:10
but so you have to watch the next, maybe two videos.
9:15
I don't know, maybe three,
9:16
because I've just had such a good time with her,
9:19
just met her.
9:20
And I already feel like she's a good friend.
9:23
- And I did just want to give these to you.
9:26
These are two of my books.
9:28
Ginger Betty, the Gingerbread Girl.
9:30
That's the girl power.
9:31
And there's A Merry Ginger Betty Christmas,
9:33
A Magical Ginger Betty Christmas.
9:35
- Yes.
9:36
- And also you have your very own.
9:38
- Oh!
9:39
(laughing)
9:40
- Ginger Betty apron.
9:42
- I love it.
9:43
- It says always sweet, sometimes spicy. Just saying.
9:45
- Oh yes.
9:46
- I think you'd be on the spicy side.
9:48
- Guilty.
9:49
(laughing)
9:50
In fact, my Aunt Peety will say,
9:52
"Paula, now please watch what you say a little bit."
9:55
(laughing)
9:58
- I ain't got that much sense though Betty.
10:01
Well I love it.
10:02
- It's so nice being here, honest and truly.
10:05
And this is kind of the whole combination of the business
10:08
is about sharing cookies, making friends.
10:10
And that's how we met Shane, Sugar Shane and,
10:12
- Yes, and encouraging other people, other women.
10:16
- Exactly.
10:17
- You know, to get out there.
10:19
If I can, you can.
10:20
- Absolutely.
10:21
- If you're willing to roll up your sleeves
10:23
and work real hard, wonderful things can happen.
10:26
- Amen. Yes.
10:28
- I mean, look what happened?
10:30
- Look what happened?
10:32
(laughing)
10:33
Oh my God. Sweet Ginger Peppermint Paula Butter Dean.
10:37
That's her new Ginger Betty name.
10:39
- I will never be able to remember my name.
10:41
(laughing)
10:42
But I thank you so much for the books.
10:44
I love them because they're retro lookin'.
10:47
- Aren't they fun.
10:48
- Yeah, they look like books
10:50
that I read in the first grade.
10:52
Or tried to read.
10:53
(laughing)
10:54
- Yeah, he did a great job.
10:56
- What was it, Jane, and?
10:57
- Oh, um, Dick and Jane?
10:59
- Dick and Jane!
11:00
- And Spot? Was that the dog?
11:01
- Yeah. Yeah. Um, she reminds me of Jane.
11:05
- Yeah. He did a great job.
11:07
I would draw the characters and then I had Tim McLaughlin,
11:10
what an illustrator.
11:11
So he really brought them to life off the pages, yeah.
11:15
- It's precious, and I can't wait to
11:17
sit down and read 'em to my grandchildren.
11:19
- Awesome.
11:20
- So thank you so, so much.
11:21
So y'all make sure that you hang around
11:23
for the next couple of videos because
11:26
Ginger Betty is gonna teach us
11:29
how to make gingerbread men and women
11:32
or boys and girls,
11:34
and gingerbread houses.
11:37
- Mm hmm. So much fun.
11:38
- I tried one time and I couldn't get that sucker
11:40
to stick together for nothing.
11:42
(laughing)
11:44
- All right. Well, we're going to teach you
11:45
a few of the tricks of the trade.
11:46
- Okay.
11:48
- Yeah. We're excited.
11:49
- I'm lookin' forward to it.
11:50
- And Shane and uh, Delicious Diane,
11:52
they're over there, and they're going to help us
11:53
assemble and decorate.
11:54
- Oh, they are?
11:55
Yeah, if that's okay with you?
11:57
- Yes, yes, they're both good workers.
11:58
(laughing)
12:00
- So let's milk it.
12:00
- All right, let's go.
12:02
(laughing)
12:03
Till next time.
12:04
- Yes, sir.
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