It could be that this title is clear only to me. I want to write about something that happens to me because I'm curious to see if anyone else experiences it.
There are certain things I do, often or not, that remind me, pretty much every time, of certain people.
1. Sifting flour reminds me of my friend K's mother, who was famous when we were growing up for being a home economics major and who once suggested that my demonstration project for 4-H could be measuring and sifting and re-measuring flour to show how sifting removes some by adding air. It actually gave me new respect for the chemistry and physics of cooking, and I think of her every time I sift and every time I simply stir the flour up in the bag to add air because I'm too lazy to sift.
2. Draining pasta out of its cooking water reminds me of my friend D's mother. I once "baby-sat" him (truly, only the one time) when he was almost but not quite old enough to be on his own and I was just barely older. His mom made a big deal about making sure I knew how to pour out the pasta water away from me so I didn't get a steam burn. At the time, it seemed a little over-careful to me, but I've steam-burned myself a couple times in the years since. Those were probably the times I thought of her.
3. Brushing my teeth frequently makes me think of Bobby Goren from Law & Order: Criminal Intent because in one show he announced that someone was right-handed (or maybe left; I don't remember) because of the uneven wearing on her gums and something he supposedly knew about how most people brush a certain side harder than the other. It seemed like bullshit at the time, but it haunts me and probably makes me a better, which is to say more even, teeth-brusher.
4. Applying or contemplating applying self-tanner (more on this soon!) makes me think of my former yoga teacher, who is the first person I ever had a serious conversation with about how to do it and whether it works or not. She had all these tips about certain body parts, like elbows and ankles, that required special care. She was right!
So are there actions that make you think of certain people? I probably have more, but those are the ones I've collected at the moment. I can't really be the only person who does that, can I?
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2 comments:
Self tanner?!?
Since I don't take special care to sift my flour, even though I know how important it is, it makes me wonder about whether other adults have greater long-term impact on certain kinds of lessons than parents. THere are other things I do that make me think of mom - but flour sifting isn't one.
Taking an apricot pie out of the oven on a hot night last week, though, I thought of how many pies my grandma must've baked for the threshing crew in the summer - and how ungodly hot it must have been. Strangely, it was as much an intellectual connection as personal connection. (I've eaten her pies and I've read about farm women feeding threshing crews, but was never personally instructed on how you've got to bake lots of pies for the threshers.)
Also - isn't communion kind of a version of this? Do this in remembrance of me.
Eating corn on the cob reminds me of the foreign exchange student from Germany that my family hosted my senior year of high school. She was amazed that we ate corn, since in Germany they apparently (at that time anyway) fed it only to pigs. Sweet corn came to be one of her favorite foods!
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