I just finished reading Meredith’s article in the Baltimore Jewish Times. She makes reference to the plastic polka-dot cup and dime store silverware that she used as a child on Passover. Passover, in my memory, has always been simpler in a very beautiful way.
Forty some years ago, my husband was traveling in the Lancaster, PA area a few weeks before our first Passover together. He called to tell me he was in a pottery factory that had two sets of dishes for $3.98 each. One was white and the other white with a green border. I said, "Buy both”. We now had Passover dishes. The white ones were the fleishig (meat) and the other ones, milchig (dairy). My mother had always changed dishes so that was all I knew so therefore, I decided to do the same. A trip to the five and dime store resulted in the purchase of silverware and glasses. I use the term silverware loosely. Just last weekend, I mentioned to my husband that I’d like to replace those dishes with glass ones that I could use for both meat and milk. He quickly replied,"Please don’t. Those dishes ARE Pesach."
I used to spend a week cleaning the oven and refrigerator and packing up the dishes for storage in the basement. Thank goodness my new home allows me the luxury of keeping my Passover dishes in the kitchen. I put stickies on all the chometz cabinets. PASSOVER KEEP OUT has always been a warning to my family that the kitchen was ready.
Every Pesach I think about the early years that I made Pesach. I remember vividly my first trip to the Acme (our only big grocery store at the time) and asking the manager where the Passover foods were. I had searched high and low and couldn’t find any. He directed me to the front door that was open and behind the door was a card table with two boxes of matzoh, two boxes of matzoh meal and two jars of mayonnaise. He said in a very nasty way, "There’s your food." I looked at him and said, "I buy here every day, and that’s the best you can do for our holiday?" After that year, my husband and I drove and hour each way when Passover came, to buy at a store that had a more respectful supply of “our food.” There was, of course, matzoh, matzoh meal, (we could make those lead muffins), salami, mayo, seltzer water, tuna in oil, grape jelly and a few other delicacies. Now I walk into the grocery store and walk down two aisles of Passover goods. I have the choice of five different kinds of matzoh,whole wheat, plain, and ten flavors of jelly and preserves. I now can get noodles for kugel, marshmallows, tons of candy, sodas, pancake mix, cereals, potato chips, granola, spaghetti sauce, chocolate chips. There actually isn’t much, with the exception of bread, that I can’t get.
Do I need all this variety? Is this what Pesach is all about ? My daughters use to take hard boiled eggs or tuna on the matzoh muffins to school. My husband and I took gefilte fish or salami with matzoh to work. We survived. It really felt like a week different from all other weeks. It felt like Pesach.
If you can, think about changing your dishes this year. It doesn’t have to be a financial burden. Buy inexpensive things and add to them every year. It makes it more fun. Try to stick to the traditional Passover foods. Passover noodles are terrible anyway and we can all live without pasta for a week. You may find that the simpler the better and it will truly feel like Passover. It’s also not necessary to throw all of your chometz out. I dedicate one shelf in the pantry and cover with a cloth so we know not to touch. Use Passover as an excuse to Spring clean. It’s amazing what you’ll find in the back of the pantry or fridge that should have been thrown out anyway. You know, that jelly jar with the sugar on top or that spaghetti sauce that’s a little green, and those soggy crackers. We all have some of those. So, have fun this Pesach. Your family will love the change from the normal routine. Have a good holiday!
And as my mother always said, I wish for you everything you wish for yourself.
Buddee
By the way, if you have any questions, or have ideas for something you’d like me to write about, email my daughter and she’ll tell me (I’d say to email me, but…well…let’s just say I’d won’t be giving advice on how to use a computer.)
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