Nuts

Every fall, mom would fill up a bowl with fresh mixed nuts, walnuts, pecans, filberts, brazil nuts, hazel nuts and whatever other nut the grocery had. The, of course, she would throw in the nut cracker and some nut picks. We never saw these primitive tools any other time of year!

No one ever ate these! They just sat there in the bowl through the winter and then when spring came, one of the spring cleaning chores was to get rid of the nuts.

Well, I found a use for these nuts, walnuts in particular. Using the nut cracker and applying pressure, you could open the two halves of the shell. Then inserting the pick you could slide it around the seam and cleanly separate the shell into two halves.

Here is where the fun began! I would then take out the nut meat, the real term, and glue the two halves together and return the empty walnuts to the bowl! It then was obvious that someone did eat those nuts, my father. He would be cracking nuts open for a snack and finding the walnuts empty!

The first few did not seem to phase anyone, but then they soon realized many if not all the walnuts were empty. I do not recall how it was discovered it was me, but it was. I still do a few every year.