I wonder if this is a symptom of Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. I was online making a grocery list and earlier today, for no apparent reason I recalled that it had be ‘a while’ since I had had these biscuits. Since I wasn’t sure of the exact name any more, I googled them only to discover that they haven’t been made since 1996.
That was quite a shock since I remember them so clearly, which is exceedingly odd for me. My memories are rarely more than vague impressions of things past. For me to remember anything like colors or textures or anything of the kind is way off the tail of the bell curve.
But I grew up with these biscuits in my lunch going to school and I always really loved them. I’m actually not sure how I forgot about them for so long. I suspect it’s because they were usually one of the things I raided from the family pantry and it wasn’t long after 1996 that virtually all of my immediate family was gone.
Still, why they should have hidden in the recesses of my mind until today and then emerge with such disturbing bittersweet clarity . . . I don’t know.
I am not familiar with the biscuits you mention but I have an idea about why older people think and sometimes talk about the past so much. It’s because we have such an abundance of it.
Now, wouldn’t we be happy if we had an abundance of all those things we miss from the past?
As to why they should show up now, in particular–who knows? Memory is a strange thing, and its triggers are not always obvious. Some scent, or a particular quality of light, or just looking into the pantry at a certain angle as you made your list opened a closet door in your mind, and raisin biscuits happened to be on top of the pile of stuff that fell out on you.
Except for having currants instead of raisins, those are essentially the same as the Sunshine Golden Raisin Biscuits, which looked like this, not like those heavily encrusted abominations in the OP’s link. Here’s a little more info on them.
Oh, Garibaldi biscuits. They are still sold here in Australia in a couple of varieties - colloquially known as squashed fly biscuits. Nice - I buy them from time to time.
That’s the strange thing about it though, I don’t generally have much memory of my past. Actually, I do and I don’t, it’s a long story. Also my memory isn’t visual for the most part, again, long story. But time does tend to “telescope” on occasion such that distant events feel recent - like this one. It’s a little disconcerting but doesn’t happen very often.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to consider if I want to buy an entire case though. Otherwise, I’d be on top of that immediately.
Yeah, it’s really strange. It happened right after I woke up so maybe it was influenced by a dream I’d already forgotten about.
If you are near an Aldi’s market, they sell something very similar, I forgot the name, but they are bars in a white wrapper - “light and healthy” something - in their packaged cookie section. I think they have raisins and apples as a filling, but they were OK. Alongside the fig bars, the imitation Ding-Dongs and Ho-Hos… AND they could not be easier to make (just Google “Garibaldi biscuit recipe”). I made some after suffering a terrible craving and not wanting to be gouged by Vermont Country Store. They came out very similar to the old fashioned Sunshine Golden Biscuits. Not good. Not bad. Just satisfied that craving!
I dont know your biscuits and I don’t know your situation but I do share in common with you that odd “telescoping” of time.
Over the years it has become increasingly clear that time is relative and illusionary from my perspective.
As a child when I learned about WWII it seemed so long ago as to have little relevance to me. Now I realize that it had affected my father’s whole life and that I had been born to parents recently traumatized by war.
I was once hospitalized for about a half a year and during that time I learned what must be the tricks that people who are incarcerated learn to play with time.
I just wanted to address that portion of your post because you seemed distressed by it. And not having a biscuit for you I hoped to send another’s perspective.
Thanks. There are a couple nearby, but I haven’t gone into one in years. The first time I went to one I didn’t see the point of it - almost no variety and the whole place was a mess. There are more of them now, one nearby, so I’ll give it a shot.
It is distressing, but more because of the fact that it works forwards in time as well regarding things that you perceive as certain or inevitable.
The situations where it goes backwards makes me feel like I’ve lost my temporal bearings. But the truth is that because my memories are really more like shadows, except for the occasional exception like this one, I don’t expect to have a firm grasp of any sort of timeline. Everything is sort of inky to begin with.
But thanks for noticing that. There is a lot behind that that you astutely keyed into.
