Have hope for future

With all that is going on in the world today and especially the turmoil in our country, I was thankful to read Brenda Looper’s column in the July 19 paper on focusing on the good things of life. That view is becoming increasingly blocked by mendacity, the lack of honesty.

Having passed the three-quarter-century period of my life, I can look back on those times when life was good, the so-called good old days, which I truly believe they were, given the current drama and mendacity in our country. Food has a particular way in bringing back good memories.

I remember way back when my maternal grandfather took us for a walk to get ice cream. We got double scoops of vanilla on a cone. After that day, vanilla, especially good vanilla, became my all-time favorite. That taste was reawakened by a vendor one day in Washington State Park near Hope, where my wife and I went to attend a Civil War re-enactment. Boy, was that good!

I can remember walking down the street in our neighborhood in Chicago around suppertime and enjoying those marvelous aromas from many different ethnic groups.

Finally, as a youngster, there were Saturdays at my maternal grandmother’s house. She baked and cooked and created marvelous delicacies. My brothers and I bicycled over, and although we knew she would rather have been left alone, she treated us to some of what was being made.

Remember the past, but have hope for the future. GEORGE WILKEN Little Rock