Wednesday, July 15, 2009

How quickly we forget

A week ago (7/7/09 to be exact) one of my relatives returned to the States after long 'religious' travels all over the world, the last stop of which was the great country of Ukraine.
It's possible that one of the few readers that I may have actually hails from that great country and still has lots of fond memories associated with it.

My relative and family had lots of fond memories of that great country, too. However, as they observed strict dietary laws even in Ukraine, they seem to be delighted by things and foods that stopped exciting me looooong time ago (can it be 20 years?).

For one thing, they couldn't get enough of those mediocre tasting chocolate vanilla ice cream, aka Dixie Cups. Naively I asked them if they like such ice cream. They just said that in Ukraine, they used to get dairy ( chalav israel) ice cream one a year, for Shavuot ( holiday) and to eat ice cream whenever was a real treat! A real treat to eat Klein's Dixie Cups!

How many times did I pass by Dixie Cups without even thinking of them as Ice Cream? I'd be embarrassed to admit. However, the Dixie Cups are my new symbol of how quickly we get used to something that's good and forget how good we have it.

2 comments:

SubWife said...

This reminded me of a dream I had a long time ago when still single and didn't bake.

I dreamed that I went back to Ukraine for a visit and invited a few people over for tea. When thinking as to what I would serve them, I figured - what's the big deal, I'll serve them Reisman's cakes. So, 15 minutes before their arrival I run out to the store to get Reisman's cakes and on the way realize that my Ukrainian local supermarket most definitely doesn't have them or anything kosher for that matter. The feeling of doom ensued etc.

needless to say the next time I went shopping, I was very greatful to find a wide variety of Reisman's cakes on the shelves.

Sally Hazel said...

And it goes far beyond food- it's easy to get used to good life, stop appreciating it , and start perceiving it as not-so-good... But I'm beginning to preach...