Thinking of Others

SOL Challenge Day 11

I like to think of myself as a person who has other’s best interests at heart.  This is not something that has started recently, rather, I have doing this for years.  An incident comes to mind that occurred while I was in elementary school.  Yes, I actually can remember that far back.

I lived in a town where every summer each church held a block party as a fund raising event. There was always lots of food, drink, and games of chance at these events.  One stand sold “goodies”.  You could find almost any kind of sweet treat here.  This is where my concern about others took place.

Two things could always be found at this stand: flitch and mosie (molasses candy).  These were probably two of the worst things that could be sold.  Let’s start with mosey. These hard molasses candies resembled amber hockey pucks since they were usually made in muffin pans.  Mosey could also be made in a 9 x 13” pan and then broken into pieces, but the rounds made for nice individual servings. Each round was placed in a paper cupcake paper to further entice the unsuspecting (usually children).

The resemblance to hockey pucks is intentional because you could not bite into these candies.  You had to lick them and suck them.  Now I ask you, what if some unsuspecting parent came along and bought one for their child?  If that child tried to bite into one s/he could easily have broken a tooth.  The parents would then have a crying child who had to go to the dentist.  Think of the undue financial burden this could place on the parents.

I couldn’t let that happen.  I had to buy at least two pieces.  This way I know that I was saving at least two families from pain and hardship not to mention the sticky mess these candies made of the hands and face.  I do not look for gratitude.  I was just doing my part to be helpful.

Then there was the flitch.  The idea of using potatoes in a candy recipe!  Potatoes are meant to be served as a side dish topped with butter and gravy and not mixed with powdered sugar and vanilla to make a concoction that was then rolled out and spread with peanut butter.  This was then rolled into a log and cut into slices.  Imagine if some poor kid had a peanut allergy.  This kind of thing could cause all sorts of problems.  So once again I stepped in not thinking of myself and bought several dishes (usually 5 or 6 slices on a paper plate).  After all, I didn’t have a peanut allergy.  As before, I was only thinking about all of those poor children I saved.

To this day whenever there is a bake sale going on I must buy several things just to keep them out of the hands of young children who could suffer adverse effects from eating these kinds of things.  I know, it is a big responsibility, but someone had to do it.