Jell-Ooooooooo

Jell-O is like Koolaid, clear, sweet and oh, so 50s! Every mom always had Jell-O and Koolaid. It was a good mom sort of thing to do. I can just see the quintessential 50s mom wearing her checkered dress and her white apron carrying a tray loaded with bowls of bouncing red Jell-O, smiling benevolently on her children and their guests. But that is just in advertisements on TV. Venturing a guess, I'm sure it was red checks with cherry Jell-O to match. Real mom's didn't look quite that good even though most wore aprons. Otherwise, Jell-O didn't impress me much.

Most good moms appeared to prefer cherry to every other flavor. I hate cherry. Now, black-cherry is good, if I had a choice. I question whether or not they ever asked for our opinion or if they just liked red. Really good moms would make the Jell-O squares. Now, those were fascinating and I could use my spoon to push and pull the perfect square into strange shapes and watch it bounce back when I pulled my spoon away from it. The squares, however, tended to be thicker and more rubbery and resisted penetration with the spoon, couldn't be cut, and the squares were little too large for my mouth. Many landed in my lap. They could also be picked up in the fingers and played with. So, they were a pleasant toy, great to look at but no more fun to eat.

Jell-O also appears to link itself automatically to tummy upsets and sore throats. This is not good for its reputation. The doctor prescribed it to stop diarrhea. It is an illogical correlation. Cherry Jell-O with banana slices comes to mind and mothers could save themselves some trouble if they made a big bowl of it in advance. It is not soon forgotten. To see that bouncy, cold, clear and bright colored bowl of Jell-O is almost enough to make me think I must be sick. I was such a good girl that I would obediently eat it just as well as I would take my Benedryl and with only a little less groaning than my Pepto Bismol.

Another thing about it that kinda makes me feel sick, as I remember it, is how many moms served it in those Tupperware bowls. They had that old plastic odor that could obliterate any other odor, especially the scent of cherry Jell-O. The bowls were usually heavily used and somewhat faded having originally been made in pale pastel colors, semi-transparent with spoon scratches all over them.

In short, Jell-O was not a good subject and Natalie really let me down on that one! Needless to say, I have no Jell-O.