“You don’t win friends with salad.”
The day is perfect, cool with sun and a bit of a breeze. This long weekend the cape is inundated with tourists. The lines of cars to go over the two bridges were long. The cape is calling this the second summer, but I’m still waiting for the first.
I ordered a new deck box, a large deck box. It was delivered earlier today and left near the front steps. The guy who delivered said it wasn’t heavy. He lied. That box had me in tears. I tried to slide the box up the front steps, all two front steps, but it got stuck on the threshold step, and I couldn’t lift the box off the step and it wouldn’t slide anymore. I sat on the step and felt sorry for myself. I almost left the box outside, but I am a stubborn sort. I got it back on the walk and started all over. This time I got it into the house. Henry is afraid of the box. I’ll slide it to the deck later.
My father didn’t believe in directions whether on the road or when putting something together. He thought of them as an affront to his manhood. The thing of it is we all knew how unhandy my father was. He could mow the lawn, trim the yard and bushes, put the barrels out and then take them back in on trash day, but that was about it around the house. Once when my mother was away, my father washed his socks in the sink, put up a clothes line in the kitchen and then hung his socks on it. My father did not know how to operate the washing machine.
When I was in Ghana, I craved root beer and cole slaw. I never found either. The only soft drinks were Coke and orange Fanta. In my town, there were three places where I could buy cold Coke. One was a hotel, the wonderfully named Hotel d’Bull, which was the social center of the town. Another was a store beside one of the market gates which had a table and some chairs out front. That was where a couple of white guys came to talk to us. They wanted to know what we were doing there and where they could find bare-breasted women. Bare-breasted women? Nope, none here. We lied. The other place with a fridge was the small DPW shop not far from my house. They had cold Coke, but, even better, they had Cadbury chocolate bars.
As for cole slaw, the only vegetables I could buy in the market back then were tomatoes and onions. I never saw cabbage or carrots. Mayonnaise was part of a daydream.
Ghanaians had a sort of salad. I found it disgusting. It had beans, yup canned Heinz Baked Beans served cold. Sometimes it had canned peas and hard-boiled eggs. The dressing was Heinz Salad Cream. I thought calling this a salad was an injustice to salads everywhere but Ghana.
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September 5, 2020 at 1:57 pm
Hi Kat,
Since the pandemic, most places that offered free delivery now will only deliver to your driveway or front door. When we bought some furniture in July we had to pay extra to have them deliver it into the room and set it up. We ask that everyone who comes into our house wear a face mask, even our pool maintenance guys.
My father loved salads and ate a tossed green salad before very dinner. His father hated raw vegetables and would accuse my grandmother of thinking he was a horse if she tried to serve him a salad.
When I was in Italy the salads were excellent except that they always added canned corn nibblets to the raw vegetables. The only salad dressing was olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Most restaurants had these double glass dispensers that had two spouts. The larger outside glass container held the oil while the smaller internal glass container held the vinegar. I stayed in a small town in Northern Italy on Lake Maggiore, Sesto Calende. There was a large store similar to a Target Store which had a large grocery section. When I was there I looked for Italian salad dressings and couldn’t find any salad dressing of any type. I found a manger who spoke English and asked him where the Italian dressing was located. He laughed and said that there was no such thing as Italian dressing. The stuff we call Italian dressing they call Vinigarete and they didn’t carry any salad dressings. Real Italian salad dressing is extra virgin olive oil and basalmic vinigar. When I eat at an Italian restaurant here in the states I always ask for real Italian salad dressing. They don’t understand and then I enlighten them by asking for EVOO and balsamic vinegar. It drives my wife nuts.
Today the sun is shining with a predicted high in the low 90°s. After all that rain the pool is full and the water might be chilly but we’re going swimming later this afternoon. Next week a real cold front is approaching with more rain and the highs in the mid 80°s. We are not through with summer yet. It can be in the 90°s here the first week in October.
September 5, 2020 at 6:57 pm
Hi Bob,
The only people who have been inside the house are my cleaning couple and they always wear masks. Most places where I shop have free delivery, but you have to spend a specific amount. A couple of places are local while two others use FedEx or UPS. The boxes have frozen packs so everything is still good and fresh.
I don’t think I ever saw either my mother or father eat a green salad. They were never served at home, but we didn’t miss them. Now I make salads with all sorts of ingredients.
I don’t think I ever ate salad in Italy. I ate bruschetta before dinner most evenings, and that does have tomatoes, a stretch I know.
Your poor wife!!
It is 70˚. Tonight will go down to 63˚. I haven’t needed the AC all day.
Enjoy the evening.
September 5, 2020 at 2:32 pm
Chilly and windy here and it was tricky to figure out when the showers would pass, mostly they came when we were out on a walk and as far away as we would be on the walk.
I’ve never tsted root beer but read about it since I was a kid 🙂 Thry mention root beer in lots of books and stories so I’ve always wanted to try it. The Swedish Wikipedia compared the taste to a back in the days popular chewing gum so now I’m not sure I really like to try it any more 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
September 5, 2020 at 7:02 pm
Hi Christer,
You would have loved today. It was a total delight. It is now chilly enough I need a sweatshirt. That is perfect!
I think root beer as its own taste. I’ll have to try to find root beer life savers. They are delicious. If I find them, I’ll send you some.
Enjoy your Sunday!!
September 5, 2020 at 6:59 pm
Cold baked beans with salad cream? Oof.
September 5, 2020 at 7:13 pm
Exactly! The salad even looked awful. I guess not having lettuce made compensating necessary but why beans?