Raspberries

Big Guy and I would put the movie, 84 Charing Cross Road, at the top of our list of movies we watch often. We never get tired of the story of Helene Hanff and her twenty-year correspondence with Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks and Co. in London, England, and his team in search of obscure classics and British literature that she could not find in New York. As she stated, “I don’t browse in bookshops, I browse in libraries, where you can take a book home and read it, and if you like it you go to a bookshop and buy it.” Which she did often in the movie!

As I perused the fruit section at the store, I remembered another quote from the movie. Helene and her friends were putting together a Christmas basket for their friends in England to help with the post-World War II food shortage. As they reviewed the list, Helene’s friend from England noted the selection of items in the catalog they could select including raspberries. He said the word as “rahs”berries. Helene’s response, as she mimicked her friend was, “Raspberries, don’t you just love that. Imagine a whole country says raspberries. Raspberries, raspberries, raspberries!”

As the wind blows and the temperature drops, I was quoting the movie as I bought raspberries to add to my meals this week. “Raspberries, Raspberries, Raspberries!”