Hello, Jello

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1221

Abstract

ith orange sherbet (which I always thought of as <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/sherbet-vs-sherbert/"><i>sherbert</i></a>), whipped cream, and a can of mandarin oranges.</p><p id="eb93">Grandma made a recipe with your cherry flavor plus cherry pie filling; it was so rich and heavy that I could only eat a small amount for Christmas dinner and then for leftovers for the next couple of days.</p><p id="5bca">We thought of you as healthier than cakes or cookies, with your offerings of fruit and your fruity taste. In your basic form, you were easy to prepare, too. My mom poured the hot water in, but I was allowed to stir and then add the cup of cold. It was like magic to feel the water get thicker as I moved the spoon.</p><p id="3cb5">We also needed you if we got sick. You’d always help our bodies learn to chew and digest food again. It felt like kids were regularly getting one kind of stomach flu or another in the 1980s, or sore throats that made it hard to swallow.</p><p id="dbc1">Later I felt sorry to learn you were made from animals, but at least I know you have alternative varieties that come from seaweed, too.</p><p id="d128">I only see you now and then these days, like when I’m having a medical

Options

test and can’t eat solid food, which has been more often than I’d like sometimes, but you know how it goes. You come in lots more flavors, but I still buy green, my favorite color as a kid, and even now the color I painted my house, except the house is a lighter green, more pistachio like the pudding on the grocery shelf just next to you.</p><p id="a96c">I love to remember foods that I grew up with, so I couldn’t resist <a href="undefined">Trista</a>’s prompt about <a href="https://readmedium.com/your-fabulous-food-memories-44c323d1a82f">Your Fabulous Foods</a>. If my story felt familiar to you, I hope you’ll like the following one, too.</p><div id="fe08" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/dear-can-of-corn-eb92f67adb39"> <div> <div> <h2>Dear Can of Corn</h2> <div><h3>Remember the cupboard you shared with green beans?</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*jgHxy8OlZe9kgde5)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

A tribute to an old friend

public domain image from Ladies’ Home Journal, via Flickr

You were always a staple, your neat little cardboard boxes lined up in the cupboard in the utility room with the canned goods. My favorite was lime green, but we always had cherry red and orange on hand, too.

Sometimes we had you plain, served from a Tupperware or Pyrex bowl. Sometimes we had a dollop of Cool Whip on top, maybe in a special glass dish made for ice cream sundaes.

Mostly I remember you with a fruit cocktail and a cut-up banana mixed in by my mom at just the right moment as you set it in the fridge so that the fruit didn’t all sink to the bottom.

On holidays we had special versions of you, with variations in colors and textures, carefully created in mom’s kitchen and grandma’s, too. Mom always made an orange dessert that mixed you up with orange sherbet (which I always thought of as sherbert), whipped cream, and a can of mandarin oranges.

Grandma made a recipe with your cherry flavor plus cherry pie filling; it was so rich and heavy that I could only eat a small amount for Christmas dinner and then for leftovers for the next couple of days.

We thought of you as healthier than cakes or cookies, with your offerings of fruit and your fruity taste. In your basic form, you were easy to prepare, too. My mom poured the hot water in, but I was allowed to stir and then add the cup of cold. It was like magic to feel the water get thicker as I moved the spoon.

We also needed you if we got sick. You’d always help our bodies learn to chew and digest food again. It felt like kids were regularly getting one kind of stomach flu or another in the 1980s, or sore throats that made it hard to swallow.

Later I felt sorry to learn you were made from animals, but at least I know you have alternative varieties that come from seaweed, too.

I only see you now and then these days, like when I’m having a medical test and can’t eat solid food, which has been more often than I’d like sometimes, but you know how it goes. You come in lots more flavors, but I still buy green, my favorite color as a kid, and even now the color I painted my house, except the house is a lighter green, more pistachio like the pudding on the grocery shelf just next to you.

I love to remember foods that I grew up with, so I couldn’t resist Trista’s prompt about Your Fabulous Foods. If my story felt familiar to you, I hope you’ll like the following one, too.