sales are booming

....With all the complaints about cost of living increases, people still seem to be buying lots of fireworks.  At least in our neighborhood. Today, according to my west coast brother, is 'American Redneck Day' and also 'National Independent Beer Run Day.'  Please understand, I'm not disparaging rednecks.  I come from a long line of men who worked outside in the blazing sun and definitely had red necks.  I'm not sure what independent beer is but it does seem appropriate to stock up on it for Independence Day.  Coincidentally, my spouse and I saw what I think were some rednecks getting ready for tomorrow.  We were driving through a parking lot when we had to stop for a bit to make way for three gentlemen (I'm not saying they were rednecks, but they were wearing flannel shirts) pushing three shopping carts full to overflowing with fireworks across the lot from the fireworks store.  They proceeded to load all of this bounty in their pickup, after which we could proceed on our way.  I'm not sure where their fireworks ended up, but, based on the noise around here this evening, they may have followed us home.  Enjoy your 4th everybody. 

a remembered taste

 Today is "National Anisette Day."  I really appreciate that my west coast brother searches for these nifty bits of information.  I have a two-part history with anisette, or anise as it's more commonly called in the US.  Anisette is the Italian word.  First the disaster.  When I was in eighth grade our teacher brought a treat for Valentine's Day.  His wife had made a large sheet of hard red anise candy in the shape of a heart.  We were all excitedly looking forward to sharing in the treat. She had made one for us the year before so we knew it was delicious.  Keep in mind that I was 12 going on klutzy.  At one point in the day, before the candy was shared, I walked up to the teacher's desk, I don't remember why, and bumped against the candy in its pretty heart shaped pan.  The pan and candy went flying off the desk and onto the floor where it shattered into a bazillion shards.  At that point my face was as red as the candy.  Our long suffering teacher (who was also the principal, church organist and choir director) took a deep calming breath (his restraint was admirable) and told me to go get a broom and sweep it up.  Which I did of course.  Could anything be more embarrassing?

On a much happier note, when I got to college I roomed for three years with a great roommate.  She was great for many reasons.  This is just one of them.  Each year as Christmas and finals were approaching, her mother would send us a large tin of anise cookies.  They were wonderful.  Pressed into thick square shapes, almost jawbreaker hard, as anise cookies should be, and absolutely delicious.  The real benefit of these cookies was that you had to nibble at them so slowly that one or two would last each of us through a whole evening of studying.  Later in life I was given some so-called anise cookies but they just weren't the same.  The flavor was ok, but they were soft and not nearly as satisfying as those college cookies.  Ah well, maybe it's better for my teeth this way.

television tales

 Today is "National Television Heritage Day" according to my west coast brother.  It seems to me he should be getting special treatment today. He got his training in the Air Force and has been involved in television broadcasting for almost 50 years.  Alas, he tells me he had to go to work anyway.  So sad.  But the topic did stir up memories for me.  My aunt and uncle, who lived a mile down the road from us, had the first television I ever saw.  We spent a lot of time with our cousins watching static and fuzz with an occasional picture popping through. I was in sixth grade when my family got our first TV.  It was a Zenith 13 inch table top model hooked up to a butterfly antenna on the roof.  Happily it had much better reception than my uncle's model.  The first shows we saw on that set were Howdy Doody and Flash Gordon.  Even then I thought that the way Flash's space ship landed looked pretty fake, but we were thrilled to watch anyway.  Then came Superman, and, in the mornings, Captain Kangaroo.  Of course we only watched that to keep our little brother company.  On Saturday nights we watched Gunsmoke and Ed Sullivan while munching popcorn and drinking Coca Cola.  We were allowed one coke a week.  Bliss!  Many years later my first husband and I celebrated our first anniversary by buying a COLOR TV.  "When it's in color, Rarick's is open." was a frequently heard ad around Fort Wayne. We bought that TV to watch the first walk on the moon.  As it turned out, the moon shots were all black and white and gray, but it was still so exciting.  Do you remember how you had to adjust the color on color TVs?  Sometimes people looked fairly normal but sometimes they were purple or sun-burn red.  Now we just plug it in, turn it on, and get perfect color.  And we won't even talk about how heavy those old sets were, especially the console ones.  The last time I bought a TV, a 21 inch flat screen, I was able to easily carry it out to my car by the handle attached to the very light weight package.  I love heritage, but there's also a lot to be said for progress.