Going to shop these days is a whole other adventure. Where once the list was autonomous and I hurried home for tea time, or coffee time, or even for Happy Hour, now a trip to the grocery store is more of a social and investigative adventure. Leisurely trips down the aisles, examining the ‘stacks’, enlarging my knowledge of what the shelves hold now besides the practical and familiar items of the past.
There was a time when I refused to buy cake mixes, looking upon them with uncanny suspicion and feeling quite virtuous that all the cakes and goodies and home made bread I fed my family were healthy and nutritious and lacking in any of those long chemical names you now find on the list of ingredients.
As I slowly make my way through the store I find there are the most amazing time saving, chemically treated items lined up right at eye level!
Some I buy – struck by curiosity – and some I turn away from shaking my head in disbelief.
I lingered awhile today at the magazine section and was attracted to the Scientific American which had an article on Building Blocks of Memory, a subject which niggles at my mind constantly………
I brought the magazine home, and lo, I find it is almost as I imagined it to be.
The mind is a series of drawers!!!!
I was not wrong when I claimed the drawer containing the file of my old friend So and So, whose name was right on the tip of my tongue, was stuck.
There was a picture to prove it! In the Scientific American…….
An interesting theory….although perhaps a little whimsical to think that a little 2 in 1 oil
could lend some veracity to my aging memory.
8 comments:
Oh Hildred, my life is a chest of drawers! Love it.
I know what you mean about shaking your head at cake mixes Hildred. Today is Shrove Tuesday and is also Pancake Day here, when everyone eats pancakes and I have never understood why people buy bottles of Pancake Mix when all you have to do is whisk together flour milk and an egg.
Interesting what you say about the brain too - I always think of mine as a filing cabinet and I am afraid that these days some of my cabinet drawers could do with a little oil now and again.
Hildred, I just got a new high-powered blender and am on a course of nothing artificial or chemical. When Bob hears the roar of the motor, he asks, "What are you making now?" Tonight, I actually made soup in it (tasty). I kind of like the idea of a mind full of little drawers. Except - I'd probably forget constantly which drawer I stuck what memory into.
What a fun post! I've also heard someone compare our brain and memory s a vast set of shelves and ledges... Our "know-ledges!" ;-)
I too have found the trip to the grocer has become a slower more social event now that the only choices are my own.
The choices are overwhelming at times.
I recall standing for a long while
reading Hot Chocolate mix labels this winter. All kinds of added, lengthy titled chemicals and extra flavors.
All I wanted was a simple cup of cocoa. It finally dawned on me that all I needed was a container of plain cocoa powder to add to my own milk and sugar! Good Grief some easy, simple things have sure been made complicated in the name of "convenience" !
Here's to plain old fashioned cocoa and simplicity in all we do and eat!!! Like make your own pancakes, - and macaroni and cheese! A grandson-in-law consoles my dear granddaughter by praising her Kraft Dinner - in public!
P.S. - he is the cook in the family, and a truly excellent one as well.
I'd need more than a little 3-in-1 oil I'm afraid! The fact that you read that magazine article and understood it is just one more example (of the many) that your mind is younger and more active than that of many people half your age!
When we traveled all the time, grocery shopping was a little adventure that I enjoyed...learning about different regional foods and chatting with the 'locals'....it was fun!
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