Good & Plenty

I know I have already written about licorice, but Good & Plenty are a bit different than licorice, don’t you think? They have that soft, yet crunchy out layer of pink or white before you get to the licorice part – a bigger bang for your buck, if you will!  I recently picked up a box of Good & Plenty at the store (they were having a 10 for $10 special, and no, I didn’t buy 10 boxes of candy, I only bought two!  I do have some self-control after all).  As I poured out a handful of candy I thought of when I was younger and how I would spend a whole box full trying to determine if the pink ones tasted different than the white ones!  My childhood self swears they taste different, but the grownup me knows they don’t (they don’t, right?). As I was making my way through the box of candy I started thinking about parenting and how when it comes to raising our children we always want to be different than how our parents raised us but yet we are kind of the same too.

Being raised a Kennedy in a family of 9 plus a dog, a parakeet, multiple hamsters, and a handful of motorcycles, things were pretty relaxed. The house wasn’t spotless (just ask my mom about how after cleaning the bird cage one day the bird seed sprouted in the bathroom and grass started growing in the carpet). No one seemed to care we were too busy with life! There is another side of being a Kennedy though, and that is the “stiff upper lip” side. We weren’t an overly demonstrative family, yes we loved each other (most of the time) we didn’t always show it. I may love my siblings, but I don’t think I ever told them that (at least not when I was younger). And there were certain things you just didn’t talk about  - for example, illnesses, feminine hygiene, sadness, etc. I’ll never forget that when it came time to go buy my first bra my dad asked my mom where we were off too – the response – to go buy an “unmentionable.” Say what??

Fast forward to being a parent myself. Yes, admittedly, I have kept much of that relaxed nature of housekeeping (maybe not to the extent of growing bird seed in the bathroom), but I have worked hard to shed that layer of stand-off-ness. I hug my kids and tell them I love them as much as possible. It is natural and not forced. I think I have done a good job being a more open and honest parent than my parents, But when I see Steve, my sweet husband, with our kids I know I have miles to go. There is no conversation that he won’t have with our girls, no matter the topic. He loves our kids openly and honestly without reservation. There was a reason he was the stay-at-home parent more than just income potential, he is a natural. And while there at times when Stephanie is more like a Kennedy than a Budge, Steve is in her face saying give me a hug, and she does!

So there you go – when you open a box of candy, you never know where it will take you! Today it was about being a better parent and about love and openness with your children. What will you think of when you open a box of candy? Go find out, they are on sale – 10 for $10!

Licorice!!

I know this is a written piece, but I want you to imagine Oprah saying “Licorice!!!!” In that voice of hers (you know, that loud high pitched voice that starts out lows and ends up high, right?) If you can imagine that voice that is the feeling I am trying to portray in the heading:  Licorice!!!! That’s right, whether it is Good n’ Plenty, Licorice Mix, Twizzlers, Red Vines, String Licorice, Anise hard candies, or even Luden’s Honey-Licorice Cough Drops there is nothing quite as good. The rich, almost heavy tasting candy has been around for centuries. It is even used for medicinal purposes. But none of that has to do with me, my friend Goldie Reinhardt, and string licorice!

It was fall and I was entering 3^rd grade at Groveland elementary school in Minnetonka. As with each new school year I was nervous and shy, wondering if would I find a new friend, would I fit in? I was placed next to a new girl in the school – Goldie Reinhardt. Oh, what an exotic name. Goldie, like her name had a round chubby face, and curly golden hair. I liked her immediately and we became fast friends. I was so happy!  Shortly after school started I was invited to play at Goldie’s house after school.

At Goldie’s house her mom gave us a bag of strawberry string licorice. Wow, this was a new experience for me. We took the string licorice and made necklaces and bracelets comprised of multiple knots. We would proudly wear the “jewelry” as we danced around the house (yes, my dancing career had started by then!). After displaying our fine wares we would eat our jewelry. If you have done this before you know that “knotted” licorice tastes better and different than the stringy part. I swear it does! Try it if you don't believe me. The bag of licorice would quickly disappear as we continued to eat what we made and soon it was time to go home.

But when my mom came to pick me up and saw where Goldie lived she immediately drew conclusions on not only Goldie, but her family as well. Goldie’s family lived in the basement apartment of a pink house in the “older” part of Minnetonka. I wasn’t sure why my mom didn’t like Goldie and her family – I thought the pink house was awesome, and her mom gave us licorice to play with.  I guess that was my first experience with discrimination. I’m not totally blaming my mom, I know she is a product of her generation, but my heart broke a little bit that day. I just didn’t get it. While Goldie and I continued to be friends, over time the friendship faded, more than likely because I wasn’t always allowed to play with her. Then Goldie’s family moved outside the school district and that was that.  To this day, it still makes me sad that I lost a friend.

That experience intuitively made me sensitive to any form of discrimination. You may not know this, but we raised our three kids while living in an apartment. We didn’t have much money, but we raised three beautiful, smart wonderful daughters. When I would see the parents of my daughter’s friends treat us “differently” I thought back to how Goldie and her mom must have felt. It simply isn’t right, people shouldn’t be judged based on the balance of their checkbook or their address. I am so incredibly proud of my daughters and how they didn’t let the fact that we didn’t have a lot of money affect them, actually, they wore that like a proud badge.

So forever, string licorice reminds me of my friend Goldie Reinhardt. It is a sweet memory for me.