and no, not my picture…
Translated…
Cranberries are a specialty fruit only found in the North Americas, they have a specific place that they grow in, spread out, in only certain regions, and they’re seasonal too, only in the autumn, are their freshly picked fruits, if you’d missed it this autumn, then, you can only wait for the next year’s harvest.
When I first met cranberries, I had just arrived to the States to take up the English language and to get to know the culture, from the conversations classes, I’d learned, that in the earlier days when the European settlers came, they didn’t have enough food, and were starving, and saw the birds pecked the cranberries, they were so ecstatic that they’d found a brand new source of food. Slowly, cranberries became a never-absent item for the Thanksgiving holidays that come at the end of autumn.
The first time I’d had some cranberry sauce, it was not too sweet, not too sour, just right, it’d left a deep impression in me. But, that sort of a savory taste, I just couldn’t find, in the jarred varieties you find in the supermarkets, and, I’d longed for that taste more and more often. Later on, I’d received a cranberry sauce recipe from a friend: a serving of fresh cranberries, half a serving of sugar, half cup of orange juice, small amount of orange zest, cook on medium heat, watch over the sauce while it cooked, then, it’s done. I was, somewhat, disappointed, that my longed for delicacy can be gotten so easily, how ordinary and bland! It should make me search for the ingredients harder, to spend more time and energy, in making it.
Disappointments aside, the simple way of making the cranberry sauces allowed me to make the sauces every single year myself, after my husband, my children all left the house, I’d enjoyed, this taste of autumn—“inviting them along to savor the taste of cranberry sauce”, this thought never came up to my mind at all.
Perhaps, it’s because of how that sweet and sour taste took me back to the beginning of my life in the States, I’d recalled the excitement, as well as the stresses from being dropped into a new culture, along with my hopes for my own future. This, was the secrets about the cranberry sauce I’d never told anybody about. But, at this time, I’m contemplating, whether or not I should share this amazing taste with the rest of my family???
So, you loved the cranberry sauces, not because of the cranberry sauce itself, but of the memories attached to the cranberry sauces, and, you were unwilling to share this with your families, because this, is a memory, ALL your own, and you don’t want anybody to take that special connection you’d shared with that particular memory away.
not my picture still…
Life, the Obstacle Course 