Tales from the Trail
When I make candies and such, I'm not just thinking about those tasty treats. Often times I'm resurrecting something from my past to share with the current. Not for the nostalgia, but for time traveling. It takes time for sugar to boil, and it takes time to pull a taffy. This leaves plenty of room to reach back and touch the past, keeping those moments as fresh as the present. This is the more meditative approach, the slow-cruise of time travel. But often times it comes unexpectedly in an electric jolt, like touching a doorknob unawares of the static built up waiting to pounce. It's amazing what can be a portal to the past if you let it in. A pull of breeze in the trees, a flash of plum, a rose cupped in hand. A pot of sugar at a rolling boil will never not instantly throw me to mid-90's Ames, Oklahoma, as I stand beside my Great Grandma Betty as she busies herself with batch after batch of Christmas brittles, fudges and divinities.
I wouldn't be what I am today without all of these moments, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem on first glance. What better way to give a nod to such things and people who shared that time with me than to give them a spotlight through my candies?
Now, if there's a candy you're wondering about but don't see it here yet, it just means I haven't put pen to paper yet. Just keep checking and eventually it will be here!
Rosemarin' my Darlin'
Me and my cousin Turner with the grain elevator in Ames, OK, sometime in the early 90's.