Sheltering at Home Week 4
The coronavirus pandemic is sending foods across our threshold that we’ve never had on our grocery list in all the years we’ve lived here.
Kettle corn is one of them. It showed up in a recent on-line order when we picked it up at a neighborhood grocery store.
Tiny apples that can be downed in four bites are another. This food order mishap was a welcome surprise. We hadn’t noticed that apple growers and marketers had come up with such an easy-to-eat fruit, or we’d have been shopping for it all along.
The weirdest surprise: When we ordered non-alcoholic beer, what we got was a bizarre, calorie-free beverage called Hoppy Refresher from Lagunitas Brewing Company up in Petaluma.
Hoppy has no calories, no alcohol and very little color. But it is carbonated. Which makes it a pop in my Midwestern lexicon of beverages. Hoppy pop?
But Think of the Homeless, Mom
When I mentioned our kettle corn disappointment to son Peter, he wanted to remind me that there were homeless people all over the country — the world — who’d be glad to have the bag of kettle corn that showed up in our food order. Think about it, Mom.
I do think about it. I think about how the coronavirus is about to rip through senior living homes, prisons, refugee camps and homeless encampments. That makes me fearful and sad. Which makes me feel powerless. Which makes me mad, really mad. I write a rant about the incompetent Donald Trump and post it here.
My post changes nothing.
I lose hope.
I need some hope. But where to find it?
Well, in the laugh Jon and I share when we find the bag of ready-popped kettle corn in our latest bag of groceries. Kettle corn? We had ordered a jar of good old fashioned Jolly Time or Orville Redenbacher popping corn. The kind you pour into a pan of hot oil and makes a tinkling sound as the kernels hit the bottom of the pan. A sound that takes me back to my girlhood, when my mother popped up bowls of popcorn on Monday nights to eat as we watched “I Love Lucy.”
Thank Those Time-Consuming On-Line Shopping Sessions
I’d rather laugh about the quirky bag of groceries that land in the trunk of our car after another of Jon’s time-consuming on-line shopping sessions. I’d rather think about that than about the deep disasters looming near and far:
The homeless person on his concrete bed under a freeway overpass, coughing.
The men and women in jails and prisons, sitting elbow to elbow in crowded dining rooms, unable to observe social distancing.
Families with small children crammed into refugee camps in Kenya, Jordan, Pakistan.
The resident of New York City spiking a 103-degree fever and wondering whether she’ll get a respirator.
I can’t do anything about the big things. I can’t even help with the small things — like babysit my grandchildren in faraway Minnesota so that their parents can get a break.
All I can do is help my readers with the very small things. Like how to find the humor, the pleasure, the companionship, the good moments in this strange life we are leading right now. That’s all I know how to do.
And maybe that’s something we are all called to do for the time being — find ways to keep our mental and social health intact, so that when the moment comes to put our lives and our country and the world back together, we’ll be ready.
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Looking for hope? Meet Geoff Machin at “We Go Looking for God, When We Could Be Having a Beer.” More about microbes at “How the Mother of Preschool Kids Outsmarts the Mighty Microbe.”
Good piece, Barbie. We do need to find relief in all the silly cartoons in our Emails and Facebook posts, the lovely musical collaborations, and in stories about how we are getting out to keep ourselves sane. We think our governor is doing the best he can to keep our disease numbers down and financial support up. The rest is up to us to find hope and humor.
In our family, we had popcorn on Friday nights, watching I Remember Mama. And probably Fargo pop.
We ordered one apple thinking one bag and got one large apple. But the fulfiller doubled our baba a order and gave us 16 bananas. Banana bread time next week.
Oh! I completely forgot about “I Remember Mama.” I loved that show. I wonder if it’s on-line somewhere.
And Faygo pop! I think we actually had Cokes with our popcorn. I don’t remember it keeping me awake, though.
Good to know you two are staying healthy.
I found the book that inspired the TV series a few years ago and bought it for my sister. We both had such fond memories of the program. The TV version was better.
I think I’ve heard other people say the same thing about the book. Sometimes TV and movie people are really good at what they do.
Good one, Barbara. Thanks!
Jan
Yhanks, Jan. The bag of kettle corn is still in our snack bin, half eaten. Maybe Jon will finish it off. We can’t bring ourselves to throw anything edible away.