Saturday, 9 August 2025

A Bit of Sunlight


      The coffee breaks we had at the Forest Service are among the most cherished memories of my many years of working there.  I loved hearing the hilarious stories told by the more senior forestry employees about their early adventures on the job, but one of the most memorable coffee breaks I had nothing to do with those stories, it was something that happened to me on a coffee break in 1994.

        My co-workers were always bringing in snacks for the staff to indulge in during the coffee breaks.  On this particular day, Dale Cinnamon, brought in a small bucket of ice cream along some butterscotch syrup to make it more of a treat.  I, of course, had scooped up a bowl of ice cream and dribbled some of the butterscotch syrup over the top.  

    When the coffee break and my bowl of ice cream was done, I went to the sink to wash my bowl.  As I waited in line for those in front of me to wash their bowls, I squirted some Sunlight dishwashing detergent into my bowl.  As the lineup slowly shrunk, I looked down at the bowl I was holding, and noticed there was still some golden butterscotch syrup in the bottom.  Not wanting to waste even a bit of that delicious butterscotch, I took my spoon and scoured out of the bowl.

    I put that spoonful of golden, transparent liquid into my mouth, waiting for the delicious butterscotch sweetness to hit my flavor buds.  Too late I discovered that it was not butterscotch syrup I had scooped from my bowl, but the forgotten Sunlight detergent that I had squirted into it.

    It was horrible.  I almost threw-up, and that awful lingering chemical taste stayed in my mouth for the next hour.


View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

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