I, along with everyone I know, have used Vick’s at least once in their life. Growing up in Pennsylvania the winters were cold. Like they are this year. Cold and snowy- lots of snow!  Families didn’t make it through a winter without someone getting a cold. That’s when the little, dark blue bottle came out of the medicine cabinet. Your mother, father, or big brother would tell you how it made all the difference in their cold recovery. It was either slathered on your back or chest or put in boiling water for you to breathe the menthol steam. Smelling the stuff now makes almost makes me nostalgic.

There is a new use for the stuff -still helping us get through a cold though. If you have a cough that is keeping you awake at night. Drag out the old Vick’s in it’s new jar and slather it on your feet. Yep, your feet! Then put on an old pair of socks and snuggle down in the covers for a good night’s sleep. Isn’t it marvelous that this over the counter remedy has a new application?

I was in the first grade when I started having headaches and vision problems so my mom made an appointment with the only eye doctor in town. Can you imagine a town where there is only one choice in an eye doctor? Fortunately the one choice was a well qualified opthamologist. And the doctor was a woman.

She did it all, from routine eye exams and fitting the glasses to complex eye surgeries. Our little town was very lucky to have her and everyone knew it.

My first encounter with the lady doctor led to my wearing glasses. I cried because I knew I was going to be called Four Eyes! I knew that because I had called kids that wore glasses Four Eyes. We did that sort of thing back then. It was called teasing. It taught the concept of reaping and sowing.

Once my eye problem was diagnosed and I was going to need glasses the next step was picking out the frames. It was almost as hard back then as it is now except for one thing. My mother! She could only stand so much indecision, after all it was just frames and I was only 6 years old. So she stepped in and chose them. The ones she selected had a modern look with contemporary colors (sounds like a brochure, doesn’t it?). They were a lovely shade of pink and blue. I’m not kidding! I thought they were going to look so cool!

Just like my online order, I had to wait a bit for the glasses to come. (One hour glasses were 30 years in the future.) Once they were ready it was back to the Doc for a final check and a fitting.

I loved my new glasses. I could see with ease and that was worth the teasing about having an extra set of eyes. I was beginning to read so I was happy to wear them. I was sure the colors looked great on me too. All in all I felt pretty special wearing my pink and blue plastic glasses every day to school.

Until I saw my school picture. I guess the mirror was magic or something because I’m certain I would have noticed how stupid I looked. How dorky and ugly. I had a major meltdown when I saw myself in my first grade photo. I tried to throw the pictures away. My mother refused to let me. I never exchanged photos with my classmates that year because that would mean they would see them. All in all it was a real blow to my self-confidence.

I was in my early 30’s when a church we were attending put a bulletin board up in the back and invited the congregation to share photos of themselves through the years. I decided it was time for me to get over that first grade picture. So I took a thumbtack and stuck that picture up for everyone to see. And the more I looked at it the better I felt. Seeing my picture all those years later I realized I wasn’t so ugly as awkward. I was glad to finally close that door even if it took over 25 years.

Now I’m wondering if my mirror is still magic when I look at my new glasses? I guess I better have a photo taken and then see what I think. I will say this the frames are not pink or blue!

As I wrote in an earlier post, I have made and still make a lot of pies. The last of this summer’s blackberries went into 2 pies yesterday. I shared one with my granddaughter and her folks since she has become my biggest pie fan. So the gift I received has made making pies even more fun.

It’s a Pastry Cloth and Rolling Pin Cover and I highly recommend it. The concept is so simple and yet has eluded me all the years I’ve made pies. The cloth is made of canvas and the rolling pin cover is like a cheese cloth. You sprinkle the cloth and the rolling pin (in it’s cover) with flour. It creates a non stick surface to roll out the dough. The idea is you won’t need to use more flour to roll the dough. We all know tough crusts are are the result of overworking the dough. This cloth allowed me to roll the dough with no more flour than I covered the cloth with. And it only took a few minutes to get the dough rolled to the correct size and thickness. It makes for a very flaky crust without the work. I bet Betty Crocker had one of these years ago!

I love it when I learn something new.  This little gift has given me new joy to something I have always loved doing. I’m not planning on making a pie a day but maybe once a week. I need to consider that my sweet husband’s metabolism has changed a bit since 1972.