A Nutty Hodgepodge

Welcome to another edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go-

1. How did you meet your significant other? If you don't have a significant other, tell us how you met your best friend. 

I was looking back through some old blog posts recently, and came across one I'd written telling the story of how we'd met, which is what inspired this question today. The post is linked here-When Harry Met Sally . The short version is we met at university. We went to a medium sized school and that meant you knew a lot of people. He was in a fraternity and I was in a sorority so we attended a lot of the same events and had a lot of mutual friends. Mutual friends brought us together and together we've remained some 40+ years later. 

2. It's Department Store Day (October 16)...do you still shop in department stores? If not do you miss that kind of shopping experience? Do you have a favorite department store? Any fun memories of department store shopping when you were a child? 

I used to really enjoy shopping in the big department stores. Strawbridge and Clothier was a favorite when I was growing up. Most of the bigger department stores had restaurants on their upper levels, and it was fun to go to the mall with my mom and shop, then have lunch afterwards in the store's restaurant. I grew up mostly in the NJ suburbs of Philadelphia and at Christmastime we'd always go in to the city to see the light show at Wanamakers Department Store. Such a treat! 

I enjoyed the British department stores when we lived there-Harrods and Liberty especially, but also the smaller chain called Debenhams where you could easily find things you needed for home and wardrobe. 

I do still love Nordstroms, but we don't have one nearby. Most department stores are attached to malls and I rarely set foot in a mall these days. It's easier to shop online or in the outdoor shopping centers where some of my favorite stores are all in a row and you can park right out front. 

3. Something you're currently nuts about? 

Fall temperatures. I'm always ready for summer to take a breather. 

4. What's your favorite nut and is there a favorite recipe where this nut is used? 

I like all nuts. Cashews are a favorite for snacking, along with pistachios. I cook mostly with almonds, walnuts, and pecans and have a lot of favorite recipes that call for nuts. 

As the holidays approach I think of shortbread made with almonds, cranberry bread made with walnuts, and so many delectable Christmas cookies that call for chopped pecans. 

5. On Wednesday we officially reach the '70 days until Christmas' mark. Have you purchased any gifts? If you don't celebrate Christmas then how about Hanukkah presents? 

Nothing big, but I have purchased several smaller stocking stuffers for various family members. I also bought both girls, both sons-in-law, and all five grandchildren matching Christmas pjs. Best of all the pjs have all been wrapped and delivered, ready for opening once December rolls in. I like to give the pjs early so they can wear them in the weeks leading up to Christmas. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

I thought I'd try to dig out a picture of the hubs and I when we were in college but there aren't a lot. College students didn't take gobs of pictures 'back in the day' like they do now. It wasn't a priority, plus we had to use actual cameras and not very good ones at that. We didn't have phones with built in cameras, in fact we didn't have phones except the ones attached to the wall, so unless you lugged your camera to a party or event you didn't have pictures. Most Greek events had a paid photographer present so there are pics from a lot of those type things. 

A lot of our pictures have red-eye because you wouldn't know that until after they came back from the developer. This particular picture is in fact a Polaroid. I cropped it but there's no mistaking a Polaroid.  They had a white border all the way around and you could write on the bottom portion of the frame. This one has Spring Formal 1981 helpfully scrolled across the bottom, but I'm not sure if it was his formal or mine?

Regardless, I had a lot of hair that for certain had seen some hot rollers earlier in the day, and hubs was still sporting a mustache with not a single follicle of gray. 

I can very clearly remember the outfit. It was a silky jumpsuit with spaghetti straps and the bottom portion was all black, only the top half was patterned. It had a longish kimono style jacket? wrap? you wore over it and I loved it. 

Young love is so sweet. 

Old love is pretty sweet too. 

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