Saturday, February 25, 2023

Kitchen Trash


By G. E. Shuman


            (Dear Readers, if this column looks familiar, you have a good memory. I first wrote it about four years ago and received many positive comments on it. I thought I'd share it with you again.)

           

            Around my house, I’m the one who takes out the garbage. It’s just always been that way. At one time I tried to get that to be one of my kids’ jobs, but somehow it never got done on time or when it got full or something else happened that made me give up on the kids’ chore idea. Ever since I have just done it when it needs to be done.

            Some time ago, (I guess everything happened ‘some’ time ago.) I found myself with the pleasant job, (sarcasm) of actually having to paw through one of those big black bags of trash after I had already put it in the outdoor trash can. I don’t remember the reason I was there under the carport with my head nearly in that bag, but there I was. One of us had evidently lost something… car keys, I think, and ‘someone’ had to look for it. For some reason, at our house, when we get a new car it becomes my wife’s; when some really gross job must be done, it’s always mine. Go figure. It’s somehow probably related to why I’m the one who takes out the trash, too.

            As I said, for whatever reason, and for whatever I was looking for, I was under the carport with my garden gloves, carefully removing the trash from that bag, piece by piece, and placing it into the open end of another one. As I did so I became more and more disgusted, and nauseated, especially, and I remember this part well… I never found whatever it was that I was supposed to find.

            Later that day, after I had recovered from the sights and smells of the trash, I began to think a bit differently about that awful experience. I had already told several people about how poor old me had to do that disgusting job and had likely listed the ‘stuff’ I had pawed through, to them. The items were still fresh in my mind, if the word fresh can be used in this story, and it was truly an amazing list, believe it or not.

            In that trash was the envelope from a wonderful card my granddaughter Sofi had given to us just days before, for our forty-sixth anniversary, and to thank us for picking her up at summer camp. That young girl is such a treasure to us, as are all our grandkids. There were also several empty and discarded toddler food containers from the last time we had fed another beautiful granddaughter, two-year-old Nahla. She loves having Grammy and Papa feed her. I had to move many bags from recent trips to Walmart, Hannaford’s, and T J Max, along with others. Evidently, in the time that trash bag was in our kitchen wastebasket, we had been able to make a lot of purchases at those stores.

            There was a broken toy. (It’s fun to watch Nahla play, but she tends to be a bit rough on her toys.) There were a few empty medicine bottles; We had received new ones. What would we do without that medicine? There was also a wrapper from a new shirt I had purchased, and several candy and cookie bags. I also remember seeing a soft drink-soaked coloring book picture that one of the grandkids and their grandmother had done together when they were visiting together around the dining room table. Of course, there were lots of slimy food scraps and gross coffee grounds in the mix. Evidently, we had food, and plenty of it, including my morning coffee.

            We in our country have so much to be truly thankful for. As strange as this may seem, counting our blessings may be as simple as counting our bags of trash. If you’re the one at your house who always takes them out to the can, be thankful that you have them to take.





Saturday, February 4, 2023

Thoughts on Valentine’s Day

 


By G. E. Shuman

 

          The celebration of, or lack of celebration of special days like Valentine’s Day is a strange thing, at least it is to me. If you have followed this column over the years, you know already that I truly do love my dear wife, Lorna. After over fifty years of marriage, we are still in love and are still having fun together. For this and many other things about my life I am truly thankful. God is so good.

          It is not for a lack of love or caring, but there does seem to be an ebb and flow to things like celebrating Valentine’s Day. I mean, I no longer buy heart shaped boxes of chocolates for my wife, (since she confided in me years ago that she’s not that fond of boxed chocolates) and/or flowers, (since she also told me, years ago, that cut flowers are a waste of  money because they die too quickly.) Oh well.

          Celebrating any holiday simply by a repetition of things done at that same time every year is what seems like waste to me. I especially feel this way about the ‘big’ holidays, and really especially about Christmas. I once proposed to my family that we skip Christmas, or at least only do the tree and presents part every other year. This idea was not met with much enthusiasm.

          For times like February 14th, it seems that Lorna and I have settled into a very comfortable, but not boring place in our very comfortable old home. The day will come, and then it will go, perhaps with tokens of our love for each other, but definitely with the calm knowledge that much love is still here and is actually stronger than on the day we said “I do” all those years ago. We may go out to dinner that night, or simply snuggle in for a quiet evening of favorite movies and snacks. There is a lot to be said for the peace, quiet, and honesty of such times shared with the one you love most. What a wonderful wife, and wonderful life I have!

          And the tokens of love may not be all that original this year, after all, since my wife just reminded me today that she DOES love ‘dark’ chocolate… and roses.

          It is my hope that you have a special someone to share the cold February nights with and the love that will make those evenings priceless, as do I. If those times have passed for you, simply remembering them is also a wonderful thing.

Happy Valentine’s Day Lorna!

With all my love, forever!

George

“Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be!”