Dodgy Food from “Overtown”

I’m unsure how it started. Most likely no one is sure anymore. But, one of the many curious aspects of growing up on Whidbey Island is that, if you indeed have grown up local, then there is a strong possibility that when you have to make the trip over to the mainland you will say that you are going “Overtown”. Going “Overtown”, as in, “Sorry I can’t, I have to go Overtown". Or, “We were on the eight o’clock boat back” “Oh really? Where’d ya go?” “Oh we just went Overtown”. Or, “My mom is making me go Overtown tomorrow.” Mind you, I don’t know what happened to me, but I never said that I was going “Overtown” when I was growing up. Maybe I had a mutated gene or something, or maybe I'm not really a local kid after all. But be that as it may…

Feeling landlocked after last week’s snap cold and beautifully clear weather gave way to a Saturday of bleary rain, I figured I had to get off of the island for a few hours before the new week starts and so I drove myself down to the ferry dock and caught the 11:30 AM boat “Overtown”.

Now, generally people who live full time on the island save up their “Overtown” errands as long as they possibily can and when the list is long enough they will go over in the morning and try to get every errand ticked off the list in a single day. Generally people who do this freak out after just a few short hours and with only a slight dent in the list of errands. They come back in every kind of horrible and stressed out disposition, and, generally, I fit this category. But I did, I got my mind into the fun of a Sunday mission and reassured myself that my “Overtown” list of errands consisted of really only two: some new small blank journals for carrying around, and dodgy food imported from England.

In the end, my missions for going “Overtown” really only took three-and-a-half hours at the outside. First stop the bookshop for a package of three little Moleskine journals. Check that one off. Then the real fun started….two more stops total and now I’m back on the island and feeling none the worse for the wear. What a fantastic haul! Along with the journals, a packet of McVities digestive biscuits found cheap. A jar of orange marmalade. Two jars of creamy looking Korma sauce which I had to think over because usually I make my own curries from scratch, so I put them back on the shelf but in the end decided to have a go anyway. Then there is a box of Twinings Peach Tea, and nice looking super inexpensive tea biscuits from Spain to go along. Then there are two tins of Heinz beans in tomato sauce, and the real score – four packets of Tayto Prawn Cocktail crisps. I’ve just opened a package of them now and they are everything I could have hoped for. They even have MSG and I don’t really care, they’re Prawn Cocktail crisps and it’s all for the fun of it. Also, I splurged on a couple of frozen Piccadilly Meat Pies. My friend Ally says their good eating, and my grandfather used to drive many miles to the single English import shop way south of Seattle that carried them. He was serious about this Meat Pie operation and would heat them up for me when I visited him on the weekends. Ally, like I said, describes them as “good eating” while my grandfather always described them simply as “nice”, and he and I would sit in the evenings eating our Meat Pie dinners while watching episodes of Love Boat and Fantasy Island back to back. So when I found the same pies “Overtown” this morning it was a tossup between the Steak and Mushroom, or the Pork. But, well, in the end, as the little budget for this silly operation dwindled, I splurged and went in for one of each.

And now I’m safe home and it’s only twenty to Four in the afternoon. Dodgy food enough to last a good while, and a good book for the evening. I’ve been reading through “Women and the Great War” edited by Joyce Marlow. It’s journals and letters and stories by women who served in World War One. It’s completely fascinating. Check it.

In other news, the DVD releases of the “Old School” Sesame Street shows from the 70’s are better than you can imagine. Or, maybe even remember. More later. But for now I’m serious, anyone on for the Ladybug’s Picnic? Anyone?