The Initial of my True Love

 

Lately I've been off-line due to a hideous cold that has left me tired and fighting to regain my energy.  For those who've seen this as an opportunity to delete me from your followers list ... well ... c'est la vie. 
Back in the days of cavemen and dinosaurs I went to a friend's birthday party; the invitees, all young ladies, were not yet going steady, let alone engaged. We were a giggling bunch and all dreaming of our future prince charmings. There was a game we played that day; each girl was given a small apple and a vegetable peeler or paring knife, with the object of peeling the apple in as long and as thin a strip as possible. Once we each had our covetous apple peel spiral we were instructed to drop it over our shoulder and let it fall to the floor while reciting " Apple peel please reveal the initial of my true love". Perhaps it was wishful thinking but we would always see the initials of someone special in our apple peel pile. As for all those peeled apples ? Well I suppose my friend's mother ended up baking a lovely apple pie ... what a sneaky way of getting us to peel her apples for her.

Now step back about 3 weeks ago. I saw a recipe on another blog (thank you LanyardLady) for an apple crisp; the tender slices of juicy cooked apples topped with a crispy, crunchy crust of brown sugar and cinnamon truly looked delicious and I decided to try making it. So John and I headed to the store where I purchased a few nice Granny Smith, green, tart apples. Upon returning home I washed the apples and as I began to peel the first one I was jolted back to that day a million years ago; seeing my group of girl friends giggling over the initials of their true love revealed in apple peelings. Carefully I peeled, round and round and round ending up with one long continuous spiral. Since I am already married the formality of dropping it over my shoulder and onto the floor became irrelevant and instead I held the spiraling peel high above the kitchen sink and then ... released it. There in my sink was the initial of my one true love. Normally the last place I'd wish to photo would be the inside of my kitchen sink but as I peered at the apple peel it was so unmistakably clear that I had to get my camera and take a photo; otherwise no one would believe it.

 Photo above - The peel looks like a perfect cursive J, the first letter of my hubby's name, John.

Photo below - However when I looked closer I noticed that below the J was a perfect e, John's middle initial is e for Evan.  Yes coincidence but still very interesting.

Another silly game involving the apple was to take firm hold of the apple stem and  turn the apple, with each full rotation of the stem we would start through the alphabet ... a ... b ... c ... d etc.  At the letter where the stem finally breaks off would be the letter of one's furture boyfriend.  So while we girls were busy with frivilous games trying to foretell who our prince would ultimately be the boys had their own game that they played with the apple.  After eating the apple and left only with its core the boy would shout; "Apple core" to which someone replied; "Baltimore ... whose your friend?"  Someone would shout out a name of another boy in the group and then the apple eater would throw the apple core at that boy and shout out; "Not no more !"  Just one of the many ways that the sexes are different. LOL

Do you recall any cute little games or traditions such as these and if so please share them with me, I'd love to read them.