The Taste of Childhood with a Twist

When we were kids, James, Sarah and I spent a lot of time at piano lessons. Sure, we played the piano. We played the piano as much as we played rummy, swatted at house flies with rags, salted slugs and watched them morph into orange ooze, and got fed. Sometimes, Piano Teacher (that was her name) would take out a whole jar of peanut butter and mix honey into it. It was peanut butter with a twist.

One sultry, summer evening in Philly, more than a decade later, Sarah and I were grocery shopping at Frogro, when we happened upon a jar of JIF peanut butter with a yellow lid instead of the characteristic red (creamy) or blue (crunchy). It was honey-flavored peanut butter, Piano Teacher's special creation, on the market. Well, I thought, it took a while, but they've finally caught on.

Despite all the rages of the present world, we can still go to the supermarket and purchase a jar of good ole JIF peanut butter for that homely, classic, creamy taste of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. The availability of our "taste of childhood" is a decent measure of the state of our nation. If things are not so bad that we cannot enjoy a PBJ at the kitchen table, then we can be sure that problems will mend, scars will heal, despite all the rages of the present world.