Childhood Treats

I spent today on my weekly Skype call with my brother again talking about things in our childhood. Today was especially sweet remembrances. It was about what we had as treats growing up. Surprisingly, we both remembered most of the same things. We started with talking about where we went for candy (him) and ice cream (me) when we visited our mother’s mother, Gram.

             Gram lived in a poor section of town. At first, she lived in a very small house in an alley and then moved to the street where she lived on the second floor of a house she bought. She rented out the first floor. When we visited, my brother and I would walk a block to the next alley where an old man named Mr. Hall (or Paul) had an ice cream stand where he would sell candy as well. I remember the ice cream. My brother remembers the candy.

            We both remember a corner store on the way to grade school when we lived in town. We remember stopping on the way home after school and buying wax candy filled with a sweet liquid – never sure what it was, but it tasted great. Wax lips or small wax bottles were the most frequent buys. A benefit was that we got to chew the wax afterward. But we never swallowed it!

            Candy bars were always a favorite. Some of the most popular for us were5^th Avenue, Clark Bars, Zagnut, O’Henry, Almond Joy, Mounds Bar, Milky Way, Butterfingers, Chuckles, Sky Bar, and 3 Musketeers. A few of these are still around. The 3 Musketeers of our time actually had 3 distinct pieces connected into one bar. It resembled a rolling skateboard course. It made it easy to divide among 3 friends. My favorite was the Clark Bar which was a chocolate covered peanut butter crunch bar.

            For the summer, we loved popsicles and skyrockets, which were sort of mushy flavored ice as I remembered. And then there was the pop. Now we had pop, or soda, all year round, but it was especially treasured during the hot months. About every two weeks, we would go with our father, Pop (yes, that was what we called him, but that’s for another time), when he went to get a case of beer from the local beer distributor. We would go and get a wooden crate of 24 sodas. We got to pick the flavors. There were orange, grape, root beer, cherry, and our favorite, cream soda flavors. 12 each. About one a day.

            Another after-school treat we enjoyed when we came home from school when we lived in the country was one Mom made for us. She would take a slice of bread, white of course, usually Town Talk brand, spread butter – actually oleo – on it, and then covered it with white sugar. Absolute heaven! I’m stopping now; I’m suddenly hungry…

Current Reading

During this early winter freeze, I am reading “Endurance”, by Alfred Lansing. Written in 1959, it is about the 1914-1916 Ernest Shackleton expedition to Antarctica. It is unbelievable what the 27 men went through and what is even more amazing is that all survived! The book is not one that I would normally choose. It is the first selection for our book group that I belong to here in town. We meet the second Tuesday of each month (except December) at a local craft tap house. This is the second year for the reading group. It is an enjoyable group of people from a variety of backgrounds. Most are retired, but towards the end of the year, we began to pick up some “younger, working” people. I’ll talk more about the reading group in another post.

            Another book I am reading, or actually, just finished it in one day is a graphic novel called, “The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan”, by Bryan Doerries. It’s about a present-day Marine sergeant who tells the story of Odysseus and his attempts to return home and bring his men safely with him. The author is very into how Greek tragedies can help play a part in helping returning soldiers from war. This actually is not exactly a new idea.

            In 2003, Dr. Jonathan Shay wrote a book titled “Odysseus in America”. It had the same general theme. He had written another book in 1995 titled “Achilles in Vietnam” which initiated the subject with him. Anyhow, both of Shay’s books were done in the traditional sense whereas the Doerries’ book is basically a modern-day comic book. I imagine it was done as a comic book so as to be attractive to the young soldier of today.

            The third book is “The Inklings, by Humphrey Carpenter. It is an older book, written in 1979, and is about C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their friends who were members of the subject group, and met regularly, usually on Thursday evenings to discuss a variety of things, as well as read their writings and poetry. It’s a rather interesting read, though not light. But it is satisfying my craving for Lewis and Tolkien before I tackle their opuses.

            The last book I am just starting is “The Annotated Flatland”, by Ian Stewart, written in 2002. It is based on the original “Flatland”, by Edwin A. Abbott, written in 1884. The latter is my selection for the reading group and we will be discussing it in March. Since I will be leading the discussion, and have already read it, I am now reading Stewart’s annotated copy so I can have a better background. On the surface, it is supposedly about mathematics, space, and dimensions. Underlining all this, it takes on Victorian values and women’s rights and social standing in 19^th century England. I enjoyed very much. It will be questionable if the others will.