Monday, August 31, 2009

Does anyone remember living in this world?

From The I Hate to Cook Book, by Peg Bracken:
Afterthought Cookies

Should you ever need cookies for children and do not feel up to making any, you can spread confectioners' sugar moistened with cream and vanilla between graham crackers.
I retain an affection for this book, which happened to be on the shelves when I was growing up, and which is hilarious both as an artifact of a lost time and as a piece of comic writing in its own right. But that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is this: is it wrong to say that, after a day in which I
  • wrestled with exporting a presentation into Quicktime which, inexplicably, has an low volume on the audio,
  • chatted with a colleague about the status of the College climate, a conversation after which I found myself feeling rather low,
  • went to College Senate, where I felt simultaneously a little vulnerable and also like the Paragon of Pomposity (but not a nattering nabob of negativity, so whew),
but then went a-visiting, first to the historian's son's house for birthday presents and greetings from a passel of granddaughters, and then to my middle daughter's for dinner, water games, cupcakes, chalk-drawing with one grandson and holding/squeezing the other, liberally sprinkled with passionate, uproarious conversation--is it wrong to say (reprising the subject and predicate of this syntactic machine) that I kind of long for the days when I might find myself surrounded by children, and, as a matter of course, making cookies for them, afterthought or no?

4 comments:

  1. It is so very, very right.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The graham cracker "cookie" was a staple at my house, made, however, with leftover birthday cake frosting, or, in a pinch, frosting in a tub from the store. (My house, I mean, as a child.)
    Man, do I long for those days!
    How I wish I could just sit around and make cookies today. It is not to be, however.
    Sounds like you had/are having a great birthday week.
    Let it continue!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I want those cookies. Actually, I eat any cookies right now. I would have made these cookies tonight but I don't have graham crackers. It's a sad world when I have to plan ahead for frosting & graham cracker cookies, let alone regular cookies (which, if I had any energy or any eggs, I would make right now. Because you made me want cookies.)

    ReplyDelete

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