Monday 10 June 2013

On a bench with a sandwich...

Catching the bench scene from the corner of my eye, an elderly couple with each their sandwich.

You may think that is is just an everyday event and nothing special about it but wait up!

The bench chomping reminded me of my mum and dad and of how, what we eat and things we do have changed so much since I grew up which is not even that long ago - in my humble opinion.

We did eat sandwiches when I grew up but in Denmark the sandwich is slightly different from the one we eat here in the UK because it is the open sandwich on brown bread or sometimes even a 'klemme' which would be two brown breads smacked together in a closed sandwich, still on brown bread but similar to a 'normal' sandwich.

Sandwiches will be waiting somewhere are hard work on the beach
It would be snatched from the kitchen as we would run out and play while chomping aways or it would be wrapped in celophane and packed into a box for later consumation while on an outing to pick berries somewhere nice and greet, or on the way to a campside, or going to the beach and eating sandwiches that lived up to their name...full of sand - that was my 'klemme' anyway.

It wasn't a glamorous sandwichas we see them today. Back then you wouldn't realise exactly how hungry you were until your teeth sank into the bread and you would start chewing your way through it. The brown bread was handcut and I remember my friend Birgitte's mum who sliced bread unevenly and it was often thick at one end and see-through thin at the other end. It took time to chew your way through it and you were left with a sense of energy and ready for more play. Yum!

So today's scene is different because of a variety of factors coming into the big picture, for example multi-cultural food, breads from around the world, buying your sandwich from a shop or cafe instead of making your own ones - yeah, different times, different customes. Ready meals are on the menu!

The old couple on the bench reminded me of my mum and dad later in life, as they laborously ate their way through their sandwiches there on the bench. Labourously, not in a 'hard-work' sense but moreso in a way where the breadstick it was made up of was thick and crusty, tough for old gums and false teeth.

They were together, though, and there was love between them as they sat there on the bench.

So, REMEMBER the days when TV was grey and life was outdoors. Love is what we need and the sharing of a sandwich on a bench.

Long live uneven bread slices and celophane wrapped sandwiches!

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