Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Making And Selling Happiness

Rich brown textured fabric peppered with tiny peach-pink dots greets the viewer of The Nightly tonight. Her first job had been at a candy kitchen in one of the tourist meccas downtown.  She had to wear an old-fashioned dress and mob cap, both in pink-sprigged calico, and a pristine white ruffled apron.  Her favourite days were the fudge-making days, which she cooked in a huge copper kettle right in the large front window of the shop, overlooking the street.  A crowd always gathered, especially when she swung the pot over to the marble slab and poured the stuff out, immediately working it with the two wooden paddles.  Little by little, the rich chocolate liquid became stiffer, and by the time she had worked it into long loaf-shaped logs, it was solid.  During its time on the slab, she could make it any flavour she wanted, adding nuts, fruits, marshmallows, or a stream of peanut butter fudge from a smaller kettle.  If there were lots of children in the crowd, she merely cascaded a handful of multicolored sprinkles along the top, and labelled it "Circus Fudge" or "Rainbow Fudge." It would sell like crazy.