I Really Wish She’d Saved That Pepper
Posted by Moose on May 4th, 2009. Filed under: Family.What fussy little strand of DNA makes it so darn satisfying to clean out kitchen cupboards? I keep tip-toeing into the kitchen and throwing the doors open, just for the pleasure of looking at my neatly – maybe even alphabetically – arranged boxes of dried pasta and plastic tubs of cumin.
Apparently, this “cleaning” thing is all the rage. I had breakfast with my dad this weekend and, after telling me about weeding out his storage room, he presented me with a pair of earrings. Bought as a present, he’d somehow forgotten to fork them over. I asked if he meant to give them to me at Christmas. He replied, “No. They were for your eighth birthday.”
Oh.
My mom and I had lunch last weekend and she casually mentioned that she’d just thrown out pepper that she bought while she and my dad lived in the cabin.
They moved out of the cabin in 1978.
It was really quite a career trajectory for that little box of peppercorn. Purchased sometime in the mid- to late-’70s, it was sprinkled over seven grain casseroles served in avocado-colored pyrex dishes until it was moved to the suburbs, where it languished in dusty splendor for the next 30 years until being tossed in the bin.
Conclusion: 1) DNA has absolutely nothing to do with it, and 2) I wasn’t just cleaning cupboards this weekend – I was waging war against my heritage. Let the record show that the oldest thing in my kitchen was a box of crackers that would have tasted better in October of 2006.
Yes, I ate them anyway.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Haaaaaaaa. Oh, Moose’s Maw and Paw. Now you make so much more sense =)
May 4th, 2009 at 7:59 am
I hate cleaning cupboards. Fine, I hate cleaning in general.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Cleaning cupboards…*sigh*. So satisfying. I cleaned my fridge over the weekend (my god! that freaking smell still won’t go away!!!) and it was so nice to have everything in its (stinky) little place.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Oh, cleaning is amazing. I cleaned everything in the kitchen this weekend, too…organized it into new tubs AND USED MY LABEL MAKER! It was the best 4 hours I’ve ever had.
OK, maybe not, but I did love packing lunch in my perfectly organized kitchen this morning.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I did the same thing not too long ago….and threw out a bottle of condiment sauce that was purchased in 2004…I was ashamed. Sigh.
)
xox
May 4th, 2009 at 9:53 am
I threw out a jar of maraschino cherries that I’ve had for two years.
May 4th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I think it’s the condiments’ fault. How do some of them end up way back in the cupboard and are forgotten until someone – in the spur of a moment- decides to clean out their complete cupboard every few years?
May 4th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I hate cleaning. But for some reason, I actually don’t mind cleaning the cupboards in my new condo.
Also, I pronounce it cubburds, which makes it hard to spell. Cup Boards? WTF?
May 4th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Well, I feel I really must explain. I’ve cleaned the cupboards MANY times in the last 30-plus years, but the little tin of pepper STILL HAD PEPPER IN IT. How could I in good conscience throw it away?!?!? (That’s what comes from having Depression-era parents. At least I don’t darn socks any more….)
May 4th, 2009 at 11:53 am
When I moved out of my dorm into my first *real* apartment, I scrounged from my parent’s stockpile of spices and condiments to fully outfit my kitchen. To this day my father still complains that I took his “backup” bottle of Kitchen Bouquet. That had been in the cupboard, UNOPENED for 10 years. Good times.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Cleaning is my version of therapy. I do it to calm the voices in my head that say things like, You’ll never finish this novel! Or, this is a stupid scene.
And in some ways, the wackier the cleaning job, the happier my brain is with it. Dusting the slats on my laundry closet? Yes! Vacuuming under the bed? YES! Rearranging the spice drawer. Awesome!
May 4th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Oh, I love cleaning things out and organizing and throwing things away! So satisfying!
I want to know about the eight year old birthday present earrings. Diamonds? Puffy hearts? Wearable now?
May 4th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
We come from similar stock. Sometimes I have to clean out my cupboards just so I don’t wind up in the camp of relatives who find foods that expired ten or more years ago.
Besides, there’s something just so heartening about cleaning kitchen cupboards. It’s much better than folding laundry.
May 5th, 2009 at 6:50 am
I also have a strange obsession with cleaning cupboards. And, I get upset when someone comes over and they don’t get excited at the tidiness of my cupboards (because I show people, of course).
May 5th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Someone left a Dak ham (in the metal packaging that needs the little “key” to open it) in the cupboard of my husband’s (then just boyfriend) rental kitchen. When we got married (in 1994), he moved it in with us instead of throwing it out. It has since moved with us 3 more times. I don’t know if we’ll ever throw it out just because. I think it had a 1980’s date on the packaging.
May 5th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Can you come clean out MY pantry? I’ll pay you in cookies…
May 5th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I loved this post. Had me laughing and I so want to see the earrings. I come from a similar line of serious packrats and I’ve been fighting the urge to save everything throughout my adult life. Fight the good fight, Moose.
May 5th, 2009 at 9:10 am
i just recently read somewhere that you need to replace your pepper every six months. i’m thinking that I have had this giant costco-sized container of pepper in my cabinet since, um, 2001. i’m a little bit late on this one…
…but not as late as you. heh