Di, at Pensitivity101, is once again our host for Share Your World. Here are her questions for this week.
1. What food item has gone up out of all proportion in your opinion over the last year?
Everything has gone up. The price of meats and fish, coffee, cereal, eggs, fruits and veggies. It’s crazy.
2. When Covid hit in 2020, did you get caught without vital provisions, or were you able to buy what you needed when you needed it?
I remember, in particular, there was a run on paper products, like toilet paper, facial tissues, and paper towels. For weeks, the shelves carrying those paper products were empty, and when stores finally received any inventory, they limited each shopper to two rolls. We came dangerously close to running out of toilet paper.
3. What food item was popular when you were a child that no longer seems to be readily available now?
When I was a kid, I remember my parents having several bottles of a carbonated beverage called Coffee Time in their refrigerator. It came in amber, tall-necked bottles, and even though my parents didn’t allow me to drink coffee — when I tasted coffee, I didn’t like its taste back then, anyway — I did like the taste of that carbonated coffee beverage that my parents would occasionally let me drink. But I can’t remember the last time I saw Coffee Time on the grocery store shelves. When I saw this question, and remembered Coffee Time, I Google it. Here is is what I found out:
The nostalgic beverage you remember was “Coffee Time” Carbonated Coffee Soda, which was a popular regional favorite primarily across New England and parts of the Northeast. [We lived in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC at the time.] The brand eventually faded from store shelves due to corporate acquisitions and shifts in consumer tastes, leading to its quiet discontinuation.
Google did mention that the company that used to make the carbonated beverage still makes Coffee Time Syup, which is available on Amazon.
Google said that by mixing 2 to 3 tablespoons of that syrup directly into a cold glass of unflavored club soda or seltzer water, and stirring gently with ice, I could “replicate the exact carbonated, sweet coffee-forward punch of your childhood.”
4. Do you/your partner shop to a budget, do a big shop once a month and then small top ups or buy what you need as and when necessary?
We do a “big shop” usually twice a month and there is no set budget — we get what we need or want. There is a Safeway about a mile from where we live and a Whole Foods Market about three miles away and we will either make runs to those stores if we need something to “top up,” or we will order those items online for delivery.
Gratitude: Grandchildren
Yesterday for Father’s Day, our son and his wife brought our two grandchildren over. They were with us most of the day. At one point my six year old grandson and I were alone in a room we have set aside in our house as a playroom for them. He and I were playing with some of the toys we keep in our house for when they come over, in this case with cardboard bricks of various sizes that he uses to build forts and castles and with a bunch of little LEGO “army men.”
We were having so much fun together and suddenly he stopped, looked at me, and said, “I hope I remember this after you die, Poppy. I hope I remember you.” And then he gave me a hug.
He melted my heart.
Facts, Fictions & Fantasies 
