By Merlin Lessler —<\/p>\n
I pulled a loaf of bread out of the cupboard the other day. It had been there for the better part of the week, so I checked it for that greenish, bluish sign of mold. None!<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t like this growing up. Bread would start turning green after a day or so. I know, I was my family\u2019s \u201cbread man.\u201d Every other day, my mother handed me a cloth sack with a drawstring closure and said, \u201cGo over to Bill Scales’ grocery store on Pennsylvania Avenue and get a loaf of Spaulding bread.\u201d<\/p>\n
Off I would go on my bicycle, with a dime and a penny in the bag, swinging from my handlebars. The dime was for bread; the penny for a piece of Fleer Double-Bubble Gum. I liked it better than Bazooka Bubble Gum because it came with a tiny comic strip inside the wrapper.<\/p>\n
I would stop at the top of Moore Avenue on the way home to pull a slice out of the middle of the loaf, hoping my mother wouldn\u2019t notice. It was so good when it was fresh. I couldn\u2019t stop myself. I still do that to this day when I buy bread from a bakery. I can never wait until I get home. Same thing when I pick up a pizza. It\u2019s never perfectly round when it gets to our kitchen. <\/p>\n
There aren\u2019t many neighborhood bakeries around anymore. They\u2019ve disappeared, just like the neighborhood grocery stores and neighborhood schools.<\/p>\n
Life was on a smaller scale back then. We walked to Longfellow Elementary School every day, walked back home for lunch, and walked back to school again. We got as much education on the sidewalks along the route as we did in the classroom. Even when we graduated and moved up to junior high, we still walked to Longfellow to catch one of the two buses to the junior high on the other side of town.<\/p>\n
But, oh, those \u201cgood old days.\u201d Back in the 1940\u2019s and 50\u2019s I started walking to school with my friend Woody when we were five years old. Our parents weren\u2019t involved, except to say goodbye and be careful on our way out the door. Quite a different world!<\/p>\n
But, back to the bread. Today\u2019s bread, made in factories, doesn\u2019t turn green. Mothers don\u2019t have to cut moldy crusts off before making their children peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. The aging process in bread is virtually eliminated by preservatives. I just wish those preservatives did the same thing for me when I consumed the loaf. <\/p>\n