Candy Twice a Year

My wife and I were talking one night about how our kids had eaten candy twice that week.

When we were growing up, we had candy roughly twice a year. Once during Chinese New Year, for sure. The other time, probably at a family wedding.

It’s only when I look back that I realize how scarce material things were.

I rarely ate fresh ocean fish until graduate school. We ate fish from the river, or, once in a while, frozen fish from the sea.

Before I turned thirteen, my schools didn’t have indoor bathrooms.

Every year before winter, my family bought huge amounts of cabbage and potatoes and stored them, so we could eat them through the cold months, because there wasn’t much fresh produce to buy.

And yet, whenever I think of my childhood, the memories seem almost golden.

Despite all the scarcity, my childhood was full of joy.