October 3, 2014 (Friday)
In 1942, just before the Easter Holidays at school, I was ill and stayed home. That afternoon, a neighbor girl who was in my class at school, stopped by to deliver a chocolate rabbit. The delicious treat had been distributed to all the kids in our class, and my friend had thoughtfully brought mine to me at home. Boy, did it taste good.
Four months had gone by since Pearl Harbor was attacked and the war got underway. It wasn’t very long until chocolate delicacies would become extremely hard to find. Scarcity of certain food items and rationing of others would become commonplace, but everyone at home in the U.S.A. knew that such sacrifices were nothing in comparison to what millions of soldiers and others in war-torn countries were experiencing.
While doing without chocolate treats could hardly be considered sacrifice, still we missed being able to pick up Hershey bars, Butterfingers, Baby Ruth, etc. at the store.
Chocolate in one form or another can be found in most of our homes. Some people are allergic to it, but most folks love it. The History Channel’s “Modern Marvel” series has a program all about chocolate. It comes from beans nestled inside cacoa pods (Picture on right, pods 6-10 inches X 3-4 inches) that grow only in the moist, warm climate of equatorial regions. Quite a long, involved process, including fermentation, is required before what we recognize as chocolate is derived. The program is well worth watching.
Chocolate is just one of the foods that may appear on our tables at meal times. From the farms to the processing plants and distribution centers, many people perform many tasks to provide our food. We are very fortunate indeed. The average American consumes about one ton of food each year. A lot of organization and work goes into feeding us. Of course, we don’t all eat chocolate. But I think most of us do.
When we think of Earth as a giant spaceship always on the move around the sun, then we see how miraculous is the process by which this ship produces its own food. Don’t believe in miracles? Just take a look at the food on your plate.