Saturday, December 10, 2022

This and That

 My cold seems like a minor one. Tim is on an antibiotic for whatever version of the 'creeping crud' that he got well over two weeks ago. He seems to be doing better, although he missed most of hunting season. William has minimal symptoms of covid, and we are hoping that we've taken a miss on that. He hadn't been here for four days when he tested positive. It will be a close one. 

Did you hear about the thirteen people who were stuck at an airport after their flight was canceled?

And curses to that huge heartless behemoth of a company who made what is arguably the sweetest commercial ever

I carried Grandma Violet's recipe through the grocery store yesterday, collecting the things for her fruitcake. Tim had been pushing the cart, and had headed over to the next aisle to pick up his Raisin Bran. I grabbed a bag of walnuts off the shelf and turned in an absent minded way, looking at my list. I set the walnuts in the cart and proceeded to push off before realizing that (number one): it was NOT my cart and (number two) it had someone's purse in it. I burst out laughing at my stupid self and a masked woman nearby looked back at me. 

"I nearly stole your cart!" I said. 

Her answer: "if you're paying for it, go right ahead." 

"Sure," I said. "No problem. I'll have your purse. I'm golden!" 

She got a befuddled look on her face, and I recognized it right away, although most generally, I am behind the face with that look.

Anyways, she said, "Do you bake a lot?" 

I admitted that I did. 

She held out two cans of baking power, one Clabber Girl brand, the other Rumford. "So what is the difference between regular baking powder and double acting? Which should I get?"

I told her that she could use them interchangeably, that it made no difference at all. I offered up that I buy Clabber Girl although I had no real reason why. She said, "I was leaning that way myself. I remember the picture from the can when I was a little girl." 

I stood there holding my grandmother's recipe with a $30 list of ingredients. She stood there with a shopping list, waxing nostalgic about a picture on a can of baking powder. Two old ladies trying to create the Christmas yet to be while mentally roaming through the memories of Christmas past. It was a sweet moment.

"Merry Christmas!" I said to her, and she returned the greeting. I headed down to the end of the aisle where Tim and my cart were. He had run into someone we used to work with years ago. He and 'Goof' were finishing up their chat as I headed up. 

"Who were you talking to?" Tim asked curiously. 

"Not a clue," I answered. 

 I didn't know her name, but she was familiar to me.




33 comments:

  1. I always use Clabber Girl, too, partly because my mother always did. I just got a new can this week.

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    1. *squints* Did some gray haired lady in the Walmart try to steal your cart, Kelly?

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  2. I don't bake and neither of us like fruit cake so I feel I am missing out on a whole social experience here.

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    1. I thought I did not like fruitcake either. Grandma Violet's recipe is gooooooood.

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  3. The Clabber Girl company will be making a commercial starring you! :)

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  4. I live for those chance encounters with people I immediately feel comfortable with. I really do.
    I watched that ad. It was a little too polished and a little too...much for me. But what a beautiful child.

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    1. The first thing that struck me is that the child was autistic. I understood the attachment to the globe. I loved the single father and his patience. I loved the neighborhood donations. The look of wonder on her face was just perfect.

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  5. I thought it was the law to use Clabber Girl! No other kind works. I firmly believe. I liked that encounter, too.

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    1. I am glad that I was not running afoul of the law!

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  6. Deb I'm sorry everyone's under the weather, but just wanted to tell you I very much enjoyed that baking powder exchange. It really took me back, and I'm not even sure why it just did. :^)

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    1. I just hope everyone is better by Christmas.

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  7. My mother always used Calumet, and I'll bet her mother did, too. I always used Clabber Girl because it was cheaper. Then I discovered that store brands work just as well and is even cheaper. I am all about cheap, LOL! What is different about Rumford, which is much more expensive, is that it is aluminum-free. This is a big deal for some people, especially those who have Alzheimer's in the family.

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    1. I was surprised to read all the ingredients in original baking soda.

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  8. That was a very nice supermarket encounter, with you both feeling good after the exchange.

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  9. Awww... That was really sweet, Debby. I'm making fruitcake too. Had the hardest time finding candied fruit mix. I finally just ordered it from Amazon.

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    1. I was thinking at the end of the season to get some and toss it in the freezer for next year. It was nearly $14 for the fruit alone.

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  10. Thank you for making me shed a tear. A beautiful post.

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  11. I still have tears in my eyes from the Amazon commercial. I don't remember what Mom used. I used Rumford. Red foil can.

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  12. That was lovely. I had a conversation with a man in a grocery store about a week ago. He either had dementia or mistook me for someone else. He was so sweet and said he'd see me again when we'd done talking.

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    1. Those small moments are wonderful. Last week (the day after the origami kerfuffle, I was standing in front of a rack of children's books trying to pick out books for under the tree for the grands. I was standing next to a woman of comparable years who said, "This looks like it would be a good thing." I kid you not, it was a book about origami, and came with origami paper. I howled. I told her about the flapping wing crane disaster, and she laughed right with me. It was such a wonderful small moment. I really savor them.

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  13. I need to hang out at the grocery store to meet some new old friends! I've "borrowed" a couple of tall husbands when I couldn't reach something on a top shelf, and their wives were very cool with it. Linda in Kanss

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    1. Oh, I'm the worst person for starting up a chnwag in a long line. People almost always seem to talk right back. I don't hesitate to ask a tall person to give a short person a hand. It seems to fly over much better than the time I was in the Wegman's and asked a store employee to get down a pallet of something from above to be put on the empty shelf below. The item was on sale. His response: If you can't reach it, I guess it's not on sale. I said, "Well, I guess if it is on sale, I can reach it then." And I climbed up the shelving unit and got it. The smart mouth employee disappeared. So did four of the five kids I was with (only my nephew stayed with his auntie.) I got my juice and was climbing back down when store security and employees converged on my location. I explained the situation. They were most gracious. I got a lot of free groceries that day. I gathered up my chicks and headed to the register. The manager escorted me. He was telling the cashier to not charge me for the juice, for the 30 lb bag of dog food, etc. etc. My nephew said, "Jees, Aunt Debby, if you'd have busted your neck, I bet you would have got it all free!"

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    2. We got back to my sisters, and my nephews went charging in the house yelling, "Guess what, guess what, Aunt Debby got thrown out of Wegman's!" I was escorted out. There is a difference, I say.

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  14. As I have written before, you tell/write these little vignettes so well.

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    1. Our lives are full of them. I just seem to notice them more than others. I have always been that way. I don't know why. I can tell you that when I was a child in the back seat of a car, I saw a woman out on the front porch of a ranch style house. She was wearing the belted house dresses of the day and she was shaking out rugs. I saw her, but strangely, she seemed to look directly at me. For some reason, that caught my attention, and I've always remembered that moment. I was probably 7 oir 8.

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  15. Christmas really is all about memories and tradition and touching base with our past selves.

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  16. We try to avoid Clabber Girl because as a few years back, it still had aluminum in it. Our store has other brands without aluminum in them. I haven't noticed a difference in performance nor do I know if aluminum causes any health issues but it just seemed wise at the time to get some without metal in it if available.

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    1. It still does. One of those things that I wouldn't have given a thought to, but now I know.

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