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Trampling Out The Vintage

Not one time in my entire adult life of buying grapes, have I ever brought them home and not remembered one of the finer memories of my childhood: my very first taste of grapes.

When they were on sale, which was rare, my mother bought them. I remember her coming home quite excited and exclaiming, “Grapes were 20 cents a pound!” The first time I remember this we were living in Southern California, where grapes were plentiful. I must have been four or five years old. She placed the clusters in a —- and washed them clean. Their skins were pulled taunt cradling inside the meat and juice of the fruit. I could have eaten my weight in grapes.

***

My nephew recently told me about a family he knows. They have five children and must feed them all on $200 a month. Tonight, when I went to the grocery store and I bought grapes – red ones for $1.25 a pound – I thought of them and how they probably eat a lot of pasta and potatoes. And, I thought about buying my weight in grapes and giving them to that family. The smallest thing can transform the deepest longing and the sweetest taste can nurture enough desire to find the escape hatch in the floor of poverty.

Gen X Blog Jennifer Chronicles

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4 Comments

  1. JenX67

    BKN: that is so awful. Let me know if you want to do something for them together.

  2. Brandon

    Ya it is a sad situation. It is actually 6 kids; ages 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, and 14. They do eat a lot of pasta, and cheap veggies. They also eat massive amounts of “instant” dinners in a cup (cup ‘o’ noodles), as well as food like ramen. The little ones eat cans of off-brand spaghetti’o’s. On “special” days their parents will take them all to Taco Bell and they are each allowed to order 1 item off of the dollar menu. They will order 1 drink and share it between the 8 of them because there is free refills at Taco Bell. This is just so foreign to me because when I normally go to taco bell I spend more than this entire family does in 1 sitting.

    Once every couple of months they may take a trip to CiCi’s pizza buffet, which is a HUGE deal to them.

    Sarah and I try to help them where and when we can. Just picking up a large box of Cheez-Its (one of their kiddos fav snacks) was a huge deal to them. We also pay their oldest son (who just started high school) 10$ a week to take out our trash for us. Sometimes his Mom has to borrow this money from him just for gas.

    They also have to rely on the Hope Center for school supplies, school clothes, and many other things we all take for granted.

  3. Just like me ...

    Your word images are beautiful .. they come alive with feeling.

  4. Julia Sommer

    I love that little story

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