Following Traditions

When I was younger, right before Christmas, my family would drive to Kearny, NJ, where there was a street of Scottish import stores. We would get our all-important Christmas meat pies and sausage rolls, and eat our the traditional pre-Christmas fish-and-chips supper, followed by gigantic empire cookies.

My granny would get nostalgic over all the foods “from home” and the Scottish accents of the women in the butchers’ or the chip shop. I remember her showing me the candies she’d liked best as a child in the highlands, but unfortunately I also remember not being very impressed, and thinking that all candy is candy, so what’s the big deal with those toffees, Granny?

Yesterday, Stick and I took a pre-Christmas cross-town pilgrimage to Jenny Lou’s. Jenny Lou’s is a Western-import supermarket, and we thought we’d get some Christmas presents for ex-pat friends and some treats for ourselves. I’ve heard it’s a chain, we went to the one at the northwest corner of Ritan Park, and I was pretty happy with the selection.

It turns out that my granny was right, and all candy isn’t just candy. Stick and I found little packets of Jelly Bellies and Haribo gummy bears, so we each had a chance to make the very romantic announcement “You can get this for my stocking!”