Usually the routines and the memories that populate our life manage to remain in their separate spheres. Our work doesn't often bleed into our home, our commuter friends stay on the bus, and our relationships from the past don't intrude on our current ones. In the late sixties and early seventies, I had a connection to Akron Ohio. Dick Salem, my first husband and father of my two children, had an aunt and uncle who owned a potato chip factory there. K.T. Salem, who started making Salem's Potato Chips in 1927, and his wife Sophie, my father-in-law's sister, were the first rich people I'd ever known.

Dick was very fond of his aunt, uncle, and cousins in Akron. We visited off and on for ten years and left every time with a Salem Potato Chip bin the size of a footstool. The Salems lived in a beautiful brick Tudor with countless bedrooms, a servant's quarters, a formal dining room, clean sheets every other day, and a large kitchen full of children, Lebanese food, laughter, and lots of spontaneous, indiscriminate hugging. Aunt Sophie was a bit formidable—beautiful and aggressive—always impeccably dressed, full of humor and generous. Uncle K. was older than Aunt Sophie, distinguished, reserved and also always impeccably dressed. I trolled through Google today to see what I could catch. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_chip mentioned him as the first potato chip manufacturer to put chips in "glassene" bags. Salem Potato Chip bins are considered "collectible" on web sites http://www.rubylane.com/shops/noahsatticantiques/ilist/,cs=Collectibles:Advertising:Salem's+Potato+Chips,id=4.3.8.html.

I hadn't thought about the Potato Chip Salems for years, but during my 30 minute pedal this morning, I heard a Chrissie Hynde single, Love's  A Mystery, from her new album Breaking up the Concrete . In the 80's I loved The Pretenders—My City Was Gone still makes me stop what I'm doing and listen. Wanting more. I found a YouTube video of a live performance featuring Chrissie with an Akron T-shirt on. On her web site http://www.thepretenders.com/ I read: Akron Ohio, her hometown, is the city that was gone, she still lives in an apartment in downtown Akron, has recently opened a restaurant there, never sold out and never got fat. Akron doesn't come up in conversation very often, but today those connections from over thirty-five years ago seem recent and alive.
 
Boots of Chinese Plastic, Pretenders



Aunt Sophie's Baked Stuffed Eggplant

2 firm, shiny eggplants
1 12-ounce can of tomato puree

Skin eggplant. Cut in quarters lengthwise. Saute in butter or  olive oil, place side by side in baking tray. Slit pieces in center and stuff each piece with one tablespoon of stuffing. Pour tomato puree (thinned with a little water) over the eggplant. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Serves 6

Stuffing
1 pound ground lamb
1/2 pound butter
1 onion, fine dice
1/2 cup pine nuts
Dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute lamb and onion in butter. Remove from skillet and brown pine nuts in butter. Remove from butter and mix together with lamb and onion.