The next generation of my family
My niece came over last night to pitch me on Cutco knives. I had to smile when she called to make the appointment since my two older brothers sold Cutco knives when I was a youngster. One of them even, if I remember correctly, managed a Cutco knife store. There were always Cutco knives in our drawers naturally. And the truth is they do last. I was still cutting tomatoes with mom’s Cutco knives when I’d go over to her house for our meals together.
Cutco knives are a like a madeline in my imagination – the very name brings me back to my childhood, my brothers young adults (very slender and dark), my parents getting rid of all their other knives to make way for Cutco cutlery in all shapes and sizes.
While I listened to my niece work through her sales pitch, I blew my nose three or four times (still working through this cold) and couldn’t help but think of my mom, her drawer full of Cutco knives (all looking almost brand new having been through the dishwasher a zillion times), our life and how it has been so wide and yet so quick, and I felt the circle, the one that comes from generations blurring into generations and suddenly being aware of where you are in the life cycle.
I came upstairs after and wrote a delayed condolence note to a friend who recently lost her mother. We were kids. Then adults. And now she and I are becoming the older generation. Scary.