**Maraschino Cherries**

As the countdown to THE MOVE continues, I looked at some of the random jars sitting in the door of my NEW fridge (story for another time but it definitely involves Murphy's Law), I came across a jar of maraschino cherries. I opened the jar and popped one in my mouth. I have no memory of buying them which might be one indicator of how old they might be. But the shelf life of these things must be extraordinay given the dye and preservatives.

The taste of them was like brought on a time warp and I was in the kitchen of my grandparents' summer home on Long Island. Somewhere in the late afternoon (probably when the grown-ups were prepping for a marathon cocktail hour after an afternoon on the beach) my grandfather would take me into the kitchen and give me a maraschino cherry with a stem. I would suck on it and then chew it slowly to make the flavor last as long as possible. It was a signature summer ritual with my grandfather. That and feeding the racoons dinner scraps:)