To my children
My first memory of an orange juice is when I was 4-5 years old. I went to a circus with my uncle and he bought me an orange soda in a triangle plastic bag. I saw, on television, they were still selling drinks in these plastic bags in Southeast Asia.
The next memory of an orange juice is related to my older sister. She was in middle school. Therefore, I probably was 10-11 years old. We were at my grandmother’s alone. In that neighborhood, a recycle vendor came around every afternoon. Most recycle vendors carried popped corns and Korean candies to exchange with recyclables. He carried more stuff. He carried cheap cookies, candies, and plastic toys.
Almost every thing was recycled then. They recycled cans and bottles, newspapers, magazines, even used notebooks. My grandmother saved bottles in a box at the corner of the storage area. My sister took a bottle from there and exchanged it for a bag of orange juice powder. It probably was good for 8oz of water. We wanted to drink more. She filled a large plastic bowl with water and put the powder in. Well, use your own imagination and figure out what happened.
Sometime after, we could drink orange juice mixed with real powders at home. My mother bought a bottle of ‘Tang’ from a lady who sold American food smuggled out of US military base.
On hot summer days, my sister made ice cubes with ‘Tang’ juice. I used to put them in the mouth and sucked on it. Sour and sweet juice would come out first and left the ice clear.
I first ate orange fruit after I came to the United States. How sweet and good they were!
A cocktail called ‘screwdriver’ is an orange juice mixed with vodka. An old man named Bob used to work where I worked before my retirement. At the employee’s annual conference, he used drink it at the breakfast. I assume he drank it day and night. He was always drunk. Tip of his nose was red and his speech was always somewhat slur.
Since he was the district manager, no one stopped or challenged him when he hugged and kissed female employees, and talked trash. It is unthinkable now. 30 years ago, people smoked freely in the office and no one talked about the sexual harassment.
I like orange flavored jelly and candies. But when it comes to fruit juice, I prefer pineapple juice. I like it with a couple of ice.