Memory Lane

He put a penny in a gum
machine bolted to an iron pillar.
—Peter Quinn Hour of the Cat

That line in the Hour of the Cat propelled me back in time. Gum machines on the platform stations in the New York City subways belong to a different era.

Put a penny in the machine, select a flavor, turn a metal lever and the vending machine released a small box containing two Chiclets.

Another vending machine held miniature chocolate bars—each bar cost one penny, or was it two pennies? I recall selecting either a dark Hersey Bar or a Nestle Crunch. Occasionally the vending machine refused to release the gum or candy and an irate person throttled the machine—to no avail.

Once on my way down to the Art Student's League where I took art lessons Saturday mornings, I splurged on every possible chocolate selection —five. I was in the seventh grade and wanted to attend Music and Art High School so, along with a friend, we traveled two different subway lines to Manhattan for our lessons.

After class we usually went to the Horn and Hardart automat for lunch. I loved walking back and forth in front of the huge horizontal vending machine made up of shelves of glass compartments holding sandwiches and pies. Put a coin in a slot, turn the handle and remove the plate of food. As quickly as you removed your plate someone behind the display replaced the dish.

And that memory sent me down a culinary memory lane: hot steaming sweet potatoes sold on the Lower East Side, pickles from a barrel, hot potato knishes on a cold winter day, a brown bag of hot chestnuts in front of the Museum of Modern Art, and my grandmother's honey cake with cream cheese.

Later on other dishes overtake those culinary treats of the past. The Friendship Fruit starter contained brandy. You made it and passed on a portion to a friend who added more fruit and followed the directions to create their own salad and then passed on a portion to another friend.

Memories, one links to another and before you know it you're remembering things that you thought you forgot.