A Light Bulb Moment

I have a new cleaning lady.  She is fairly young and is a city girl who didn't grow up as we rural types did, preserving our own food.  So I was rather surprised yesterday when she had finished her job, she came to me and said, "I don't mean to be nosy, but when I was dusting those jars of food on your shelves in the bedroom, I saw jars of cream cheese.  And butter.  And bacon.  Why do you do all of that?"

Now usually if someone comments about my shelves full of home canned food, it is accompanied by remarks about tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theory nuts.  But she was genuinely interested, so I explained that should there be an emergency like a storm that knocked out the local power for any length of time, I didn't need to worry about food going bad when the freezer wasn't working or that should there be a national emergency, I had enough food canned to last a long time without having to go to a store. 

This conversation took place in my living room where another shelf of home canned food sets against a wall.  She wanted to know about those jars, so I explained about canning different kinds of soups and the makings for stews that fill two shelves and about the fruit on another shelf.

Then she said, "So that's why you keep all those cases and bottles full of water.  If the electricity doesn't work, the water won't work either."

It is fun to watch a person pick up on a new idea - sort of like watching a light bulb slowly become brighter.  She had questions about how to can different foods and questions about other ways to prepare. 

It isn't often that we who believe in being prepared have a chance to answer legitimate questions about the life style.  We usually get ridicule.  This was one of those rare 'light bulb' moments and I enjoyed every minute of it.