Opinions

Can’t think of anything to fix for supper? Tired of the same-old, same-old in the lunch bag? What to take for that family reunion potluck? Having trouble even making out a grocery list? Join the club. After 65 years of keeping house and putting meals on the table, there seems to be nothing new or tempting left to try. And then, a strange thing happens and cooking becomes an adventure once again.

I could hardly believe my ears. Right there on national television, on the 5:30 p.m. news, someone was ranting about a strange new sandwich that had become popular. A woman, who apparently just sampled it expressed disgust, saying it definitely was not for her. This purportedly latest addition to that convenient innovation was age-old news to me.

The seed catalogs have been thumbed through, pages have corners turned down, order blanks have a few tentative lines filled in, but the past six weeks or so have not been encouraging. We have put off starting those first seedlings in the greenhouse, sun porch, or under plant lights in the basement. Not long ago, we looked out the window at the patch of earth we’d hoped to have already tilled and partially planted and what did we see? Snow. Not in piles, granted, but lurking in chilly little patches where the meager sun seldom reaches.

While cleaning out a drawer the other day, I came across an old typewriter ribbon. (I never actually “clean out” a drawer in the sense of emptying it and putting its contents somewhere else; mostly I just look through stuff and put most of it back.) I don’t know how long the typewriter ribbon has been there, but it must have been a good long time, as it was a ribbon for a little portable Olivetti I had while in college and used for maybe 25 years afterward.

Indulge me for a few minutes; yesterday was my birthday and, after this many years, everybody is entitled to a little wallow in the past once in a while. I spent a good deal of the day writing birthday cards for a number of my friends who are also April babies. At our age, receiving cards on or before the exact birth date is immaterial. The big thing is just to have people remember we are still around and able to read and comprehend.