So, I was in the vegetable market yesterday and a woman was arguing with a fruit vendor (NO! It wasn't ME.)about whether or not the tangerines he was selling were ripe. I tuned them out again and looked through the line at the bakery to see if my friend had finally gotten her bread so that we could leave together. That's when it hit me: the smell of December in my childhood.
The vendor had finally handed the woman a small tangerine to taste and as soon as she popped open the peel, I could smell the juice from it and it dragged me back 35 years (OH DEAR GOD....am I REALLY old enough to SAY that???) to when I was a little girl in Germany on St. Nicklaus' Day.
We would position our rubber boots (because they were the tallest and held the most
loot) outside our front door before heading off to bed. And at the crack of dawn, Denise and I were trucking down the hall in our pajamas to dump out all the tangerines and chocolates hazelnuts and sometimes small toys onto the floor before diving in!
"HEY! Are you in there???" asked my friend, now back from the seemingly endless
bread line. "Yeah, I told her...be right back."
And I bought 2 kilos of tangerine-flavored memories from the fruit seller.
1 comment:
Mom reminded me in a phone message that it was the feast of St. Nicholas last week and to put the kids' boots out. Since I had not remembered and the little toots had found my Halloween candy stash and helped themselves, I decided that they did not need anymore sweets and left the boots in the closet. BUT, funnily enough, I was at Target Superstore and they had bags of "little cuties" (perfect cute little tangerines) and I bought one. The kids and I have been chowing them like nobody's business. I was wondering why it felt so right....and now I remember. Thanks for sharing. Love you!
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