Cranberry Juice and Penny

Mom always kept something for us to drink in the fridge other than water. Usually it was Kool Aid and Mom had her own particular way of making it for us. She did not use all of the required sugar, one cup, I think. Instead, she used only about half. I'm sure she wouldn't admit it, but I also believe that she used more than the required water. What that would do to the Kool Aid is make it almost like colored water with a bitter flavor. You got used to it and it was, in fact, better than water. The funny thing is, had you been blindfolded and forced to take a sip, you would not be able to determine which flavor you were sampling!

On Mom's days off, she would set out a glass jug of water with tea bags inside, right under the sun, starting early in the morning. We would enjoy the sun tea later that afternoon and it was a nice treat. Sometimes she made Country Time lemonade. Lots of times, she had apple juice in the refrigerator too. The point is, she very rarely provided us with soda when we were kids- she always tried to keep us hydrated and if we did ever have soda, it was a nice treat. I don't think we ever noticed that there wasn't soda around, but if we were at a birthday party or had some friends over, there would be some soda and it was fun to drink.

I'm not sure when it happened or even why it happened. Someone must have had an infection or a kidney issue or something random and the doctor said, "Get Cranberry Juice." And Mom did. She kept it in the fridge and suddenly my sister, Penny, took to the juice as if it was her lifeline. Instead of waking up and saying she had a bad dream, or had to pee, or couldn't sleep, or wanted to read a book- all of the usual excuses kids come up with- she used to say she wanted her cranberry juice. She had her own particular way of saying it too- "Cran-burrry" and usually didn't even include the "juice" at the end. My sister had very unique facial expressions that made her so cute and so precious, and her face would change as she said cranburrry and you couldn't help but get her a glass.

Eventually Mom was buying cranberry juice on every trip to the grocery. Soon, she got a little smarter and started watering it down. It can be expensive and she drank several glasses of it a day- sometimes Mom would try to convince her to have a glass of water instead and Penny would cry until she got the cranberry juice. "It's good for you, so nothing wrong with that," my parents would say. My brother and I would stare it her in disbelief with our Kool Aid, thinking it was the strangest thing. Penny drank cranberry juice for years. I bet she still does. I wonder if she calls it "Cranburrry" though.