Life is full of small mysteries. For example, when I was young, jelly had no seeds, but jam did. Back then I did not like the seeds, but now I do. The problem is that now when you go to the store, most all the jam doesn’t have any seeds. I can usually find red raspberry jam with seeds, but a man can not enjoy his toast with one jam alone. Now it is true, that if I really persist I can sometimes find some other jams with seeds, but it is unnecessarily difficult. I can’t help but wonder what they do with all those seeds. I know that they put a mustard seed in little lockets, but I have never seen a locket with a blackberry seed. I predict that when they close the landfills near the Smuckers and Kraft jam factories, tremendous numbers of berry plants will spring up. The bears will love it.
Then there is the general belief that it is natural for people to get jealous if they see something that they do not have, but wish they did. If that is truly the case then explain this. There are lots and lots of people from the Pittsburgh area in The Villages. The Three Rivers Club and the Pittsburgh Club fill up with members. Now all of them are Steeler fans – as are a bunch of other people who live here. I have prominently displayed in our house (well, not as prominent as I would like as The Blonde in the house has her view of where things should be displayed) a beautifully preserved genuine Steeler helmet. It was worn during the 2011 season by Jamon Meredith who was a ferocious lineman. When a Steeler fan enters our house, you would assume that jealousy would be flashing out of his/her eyes, but not so. They are just happy for me – or so they say.
There are also the little mysteries that are grandchildren. One fine day, we had some of the grandkids in our house and The Blonde made them her famous waffles. The problem was that we had quite some difficulty getting them to eat them. The reason being the waffles were square, and all waffles as far as they knew were round. Once we got them to taste them all was well. These were the same grandkids who were served The Blonde’s famous pumpkin pie with fresh made whipped cream on top. The problem here being that the whipped cream did not come out of a can. They did, after some evaluation by each of them, eat the pie. Frankly, it would have been ok with me, if they hadn’t – as I would have!
A big little mystery though is still one that I have not solved. It relates to the fact that The Blonde in the house always knows immediately when I am considering buying a new car. It’s uncanny!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
