Tiny History
Actually, It’s All History
Little Bean and I are standing in front of a farming exhibit at a rest stop near Rochester NY looking at an apple parer.
The parer on display dates from around 1895.
“So that huge thing just cut apples?” she asks.
“Well, technically, peeled them,” I say. “It’s a parer.”
“That whole thing to peel apples?”
“Yeah but that’s how they did it in the olden days,” I say.
The ghost of my father laughs at me. Olden days. I said that.
She studies the device for a second longer.
“But the peels are good.”
I nod.
“Ok we’ll…” She shrugs and moves on, the apple parer gathers a bit more dust. Every little thing will be history. Even an apple peeler.
Two comments:
I say "olden days" too!!!
I have an apple peeler, more modern day in size, but still an annoying contraption. A cooking group I used to be in made apple pies to sell at a bake sale, and we peeled all the apples with that thing. I wound up buying one for myself and almost never use it. It's actually easier to use a knife
OK, three comments - I LOVE history of things and the way things were, the olden days again!
Technically, it peeled and cored them, and they still make them. Funny enough, even though they are much smaller now, the technology hasn't really changed. "Old school" still works. I have a hand-cranked, double-barreled egg beater, too....just like my mom's.