Blue Hair and City Bound

“Immediately after breakfast, the sacred bottle of brandy was taken from the bottom shelf in the kitchen cupboard. Story had it that the bottle, and each bottle that followed, had been blessed by the monks!!! The bottle was wiped down carefully, and carried with great ceremony to the center of the kitchen table, where it stayed until the last light was shut in the evening. My childish curiosity would always wait to see who tapped into the bottle first each day.

Drinks in the house were referred to by the French term: “petite cou” which translated into “small drink.” Mysteriously, by nightfall, that bottle of monk juice was almost empty, everyone fretting over “how did that much brandy disappear.” Grandmother, a non-drinker, called it the “devil’s brown cider.”