Sugar

Isn't it funny when you think about sugar? Well, I could tell you all about sugar.
From the time I was a small child, I really enjoyed dipping my fingers into the sugar bowl, which was my favorite thing.
I used to get the little round stool, bring it over to the dish cabinet in the kitchen, climb up on it, reach up to the cabinet doors, and open up the dish cabinet.
I would dip my fingers into the sugar bowl while Mother was sitting in the living room reading.
"What are you doing?!" she would ask.
One evening, when the table was being set up for dinner, as soon as the sugar bowl was placed on the table, I started up again,until Mother had to put the sugar bowl on top of the grand piano to keep me out of it.
Meanwhile, a repeat performance took place in the kitchen. I would pick all of the pieces of the yummiest chocolate cake that my mother kept in the dish cabinet for tea time.
One afternoon, I got caught red-handed! Oh boy, did my other get angry when she saw that the cake had been picked over by yours truly. Who else?!
"Zoe! Naughty girl! Don't you touch that cake. Now, do you understand me?"
I can still see that angry look on her face.
Shortly, before we left for California, we went over to Uncle Milton's Candy Store. Uncle Milton and Aunt Ellie were taking over the lease on our apartment. While Mom was talking to Uncle Milton, I went back behind the candy counter and tasted an orange-sliced jelly candy, then a lemon one. This is one time Mother never found out about!
After we moved to California, we had company one afternoon. The chocolate cake had been taken back to the kitchen. I exited the living room, to get away from the boring grown-ups or so my parents thought. I then took part of the icing off the chocolate cake. When Mother came into the kitchen and noticed the partly naked cake, I went back into the living room. I thought all hell was going to break loose, when Mother said, "Zoe, you took the icing off the cake!!"
When I was in my teens, Danish Almond Horns were my all-time favorite, courtesy of Ralph's Market. One day, Dad pulled a royal trick on me. He put the package of cookies in the washing machine instead of back into the kitchen cabinet. (I wonder why!)
This was to keep me from nibbling on them, so incessantly.
His message, and one by which I still struggle to abide: Leave some sweets for others!

Zoe Dawson is a member of the LAUSD North Hollywood Adult School's "Tea and Tales Writing Group." She is an avid chocolate fan, poet, essayist, as well as a lover of gardens, crafting, and singing.