9th May, 2006
Fruitcake Hoarding
by
I had to get more baking tins to get ready for summer orders of Okanagan Harvest Cake(tm), and went to my favourite kitchen supply store, the Kitchen Niche in Orchard Park Mall (referred to as Torture Park Mall by some).
The young woman in the store helped me find the tins, and in conversation mentioned that her mother owns the store. I told her that I knew her mom from coming into the store, and said “she’s Swiss, right?” For some reason I felt the need to prove to her that I did, indeed, know her mom. I then added, “I know her because I gave her one of my fruitcakes at Christmas.”
She said, “Oh you’re the one that my mom hid.” I knew what she meant, as for the purposes of shorthand it’s easy to say, “I’m the fruitcake.” Or, from the public, “Oh, you’re the fruitcake.” She told me how her mom hides things that she doesn’t want the other family members to eat. I left the store feeling proud, and marveling at the sheer volume of people who have told me they have hidden the fruitcake from loved ones.
Our son’s piano teacher hid the last of a loaf from her adult daughter who was home for Christmas holidays. A colleague hid an entire fruitcake at her desk at the office and didn’t take it home lest her terminally ill husband would eat some of it. My sister-in-law hid the rest of one from my niece. At least the fruitcake was hidden to be eaten, and not for nefarious purposes.
Last summer I decided to finally clean out the bookshelves in the basement living room. That’s the room where, at one of the boys’ birthday parties, the kids threw chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies up to the ceiling, as they would stick if thrown hard enough. I decided I’d better take every single book off the shelf and dust them. As I removed them and could see behind, I was quite surprised at the half-eaten foods that had been preserved in an almost mummy-like condition, especially the half-open can of sardines in oil. It was almost like opening a time capsule, as I recalled various foods that had fallen into, and then out of favour with the young princes.