The Little Old Lady Who Could Not Read

This past weekend, I watched “A Chef’s Life” on PBS. Vivian is the chef, and she was being honored in Kentucky (for her new cookbook, I think), so the episode was about bourbon.

At the honoring dinner, they prepared and served Pepsi /peanut ice cream floats, topped with a little bourbon to your liking. Vivian said it represented the tobacco workers who would drop salted peanuts into their Pepsis on their breaks.

I immediately thought fondly of my Aunt Jan (Janet Thelen Overgaard) who would serve us this very same treat (salted peanuts dropped into a bottle of Pepsi—not the float) in the 1960’s. It was in Breda, IA, at Henrietta’s Cafe, where she worked.

I was inspired to try the float! So, off to Wohlner’s I go to get ice cream, peanuts, a bottle of Pepsi, and Bourbon. They don’t have peanut ice cream, only peanut butter, which would probably work too. But, I chose to add peanuts to vanilla ice cream.

So excited! This will be my lunch today. I drop a scoop of ice cream into the glass, add some peanuts, then the Pepsi. It is then that I realize I’ve bought flavored Pepsi! It’s vanilla, so it’s fine, but I really wanted only a regular Pepsi.

To make up for having the wrong Pepsi, I pour in a little bourbon. Yowza!! That was so good! This may be our signature condo cocktail (which I’m always dreaming about having but have never settled on one) to serve guests.

This has happened before, my not reading carefully. A few years ago, I complained to my quilting buddies about reaching for the conditioner instead of the shampoo in the shower, and sometimes mistaking the gel for the shampoo, if it happened to be nearby.

Bonnie gave me the tip of placing a big magic marker initial on each: S for shampoo and C for conditioner. Very useful! One year, our Mahoney Retreat quilters had a challenge project: Depict your favorite tip from Retreat in a small quilt. This was mine:

Here is something I wrote on 8-5-2010, at 3 AM:

Up at night, reflecting on the meaning of life. Thinking about lots of things at the lakehouse (like the hole in the basement floor-the covering should be more permanent than a board over it, and toilet replacements taking place on Bryan and Amy’s arrival day—does that mean we won’t have water?)

Also, thinking about how, when planning a residence, you can spend lots and lots of money and time and still not get it right. Or, you can make improvements and not get the value back when you sell.

Then, I think of the lakehouse itself. So expensive, and yet, it was built and furnished in 1990. Updating it would add more expense. Not likely to happen. And not worth it at this time. Proximity to the lake is its biggest asset.

All of this makes me hungry, so I go to have a bowl of Rice Krispies with bananas and milk, adding a spoonful of natural peanut butter on the side, which I’ve just opened and stirred. Uh oh! this tastes sweet! I bought the peanut butter with honey! Not my favorite.

I’m now reminded of a silly kid’s book we used to enjoy, “The Little Old Man Who Could Not Read”. When his wife goes away on a trip, he has to buy his own groceries. He buys buttermilk instead of regular milk, and onion soup instead of chicken soup.

And now, I have bought peanut butter with honey instead of regular peanut butter. I’ve become “ The Little Old Lady Who Could Not Read”

Shirley