Summertime
is the time of year when Americans go on vacation. This year is different
because we need to shelter in place to stop the spread of the Corona virus so
fewer people are taking those trips. Of course, we are Americans and it is
built into our national character to bristle at someone (God forbid, the
government!) telling us what to do, so people who haven’t seen the devastation
of this virus—the people who don’t believe in science, the people who have to
see it to believe it, the doubting Thomases, the people who think it’s the flu,
the people who believe you are a liberal wuss if you wear a mask—seem to be
going out and spreading the devastation of their disbelief to the masses as the
numbers and death tolls increase. But, lest I digress too much, it is vacation
time in America. One of the best parts of a vacation for me is indulging my
sweet tooth and I don’t eat salt water taffy many other times than summer
vacation.
Since
I won’t be taking any vacations this year aside from some daytrips and maybe an
overnight camp out (where I am alone) I guess I’m just going to have to imagine
walking a boardwalk in Seaside, or even Sherman Avenue in Coeur d’Alene, and stopping
in a candy store where they make fudge, serve ice cream and pull salt water
taffy. I love a nice chocolate taffy, soft and wrapped in wax paper. Fresh
huckleberry or blueberry is also a luxurious escape from everything but heaven.
People are milling about on the streets of that mountain town where the heat is
dry and short lived of a summer afternoon. Sunglassed mothers are pushing
chubby little babies in strollers while their bearded, tank topped husbands are
walking beside them holding the hands of an older child gazing into the windows
of a sweet shop. At this point my indulgence runs toward the soft taffy with
just a little black spot in the center. Licorice is the flavor I can buy that
will be mine. The kids won’t walk off with more than one of those before
realizing it’s not for them. Or maybe a spicy cinnamon starburst center. How do
they get those designs so perfectly centered in those little candies?
I
can see the machines stretching and pulling the taffy reminding me of winters
as a child when family and friends would gather for a taffy pull. It makes you
forget the sunglasses you’ve perched on top of your head and you enter another
world. Maybe now you’re out in an Adirondack chair in a hayfield at the base of
one of the Green or White Mountains of New England enjoying the breeze of an
afternoon as you indulge in a little maple gem of a taffy you just purchased at
some little shop with a quaint name like Sleepy Hollow or something like that.
Their flavors in that sweet, chewy stickiness can take you anywhere in this
country of ours without really needing to go any further than your back porch.
Do you feel that relentless sun in the heaviness of humidity from a thunderstorm
as you try to gain relief by putting your feet in the warm bathtub of the Gulf
of Mexico? The only possible relief is that little Key Lime taffy to get away
from the oppression of a Florida summer.
You
know, I think I can get to all those places I’m thinking about with a quick
masked trip to the grocery store where I can find a nice bag of salt water
taffy (probably from Salt Lake City) and I will be able to transport myself
anywhere with just a quick taste of somewhere else. I really love a vacation in
a staycation bag of salt water taffy. I’ll be saving some money this year…
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