Jar of Sunshine

Last week was cold and windy - we had long underwear, hats and gloves on to watch baseball.  While grocery shopping, I saw these lemon drops in the bulk bin aisle and scooped out a bag to fill this jar.  When John came home from school and saw the jar, he said "Wow, what a pretty jar."  And it is.  Or, it is when it's filled with lemon drops.  This picture, of course, is in the sunshine but last week, the jar was on the kitchen counter, looking sunny, cheerful, & sweet.
When I was in elementary school and the weather was "inside recess weather", my teacher allowed me to go to the media center and help Mrs. Hewlitt, our school librarian, re shelf books and dust the surfaces.  I loved this job.  I sometimes convinced my teacher to let me go even when the weather was fair.  Mrs. Hewlitt and I talked about the books I was reading, the books I loved, and the books she thought I would love.  Many of her suggestions, I did love.  She always wanted me to read Harriet the Spy, though, and I never did.  I just did not think it was my cup of tea.  Having seen the movie as an adult (I know, not the same as the book but...), I realize that she was spot on - I would have loved that book.  Why did I resist?  Mrs. Hewlitt had a jar of lemon drops in her little coat locker behind her desk and, when I came to help, she allowed me one drop to suck on while I did my chores.

Many years later, when I worked in the children's literature department of a bookstore, I found this book, The Lemon Drop Jar by Christine Widman, and had to buy it.  The small girl visits her aunt who hands her a paper bag of lemon drops upon her arrival.  They fill a jar with the drops and set the jar on the window ledge where the sun twinkles off the cuts in the crystal.  After a walk in the fall leaves, they return home to make lemon tea, sweetened by a lemon drop.