A Christmas Karo

A Christmas Karo

By Rod Jones Artist-Writer

Crestline, California, a small mountain community where I grew up. Just about this time of year or nearly so, my mother, Helen Jones, would start her kitchen magic. Cookies, fudge, fruit cake, and my all-time personal favorite, that I’m not going to share with you just yet.

My mother was not what you would call a Martha Stewart, but she knew how to please her family with delightful holiday dishes, and desserts.

One of her, not-so-secret ingredients that she used to make my favorite holiday treat was Karo Syrup. Can you guess what that simple but yet pleasing to my taste buds holiday treat was?

My favorite holiday treat, which I learned to enjoy as many times as I could throughout the year, was about the size of a baseball. It can be green and they can be red or they can be kind of yellow with cashew nuts embedded in them. What do you think?

After I graduated from high school I went into the United States Navy and was stationed aboard a submarine. We traveled all over the South Pacific doing covert operations. I was often away from the United States a year or more at a time. On one Christmas, we were out at sea. But we received orders to meet up with an aircraft carrier to pick up our mail. The crew was ecstatic. We had not received mail in well over a month. The mail was transported over to our submarine via helicopter. There were several mailbags full to the brim.

As was the custom, the mail was distributed by the Yeoman. When he found me in the sonar room, he was all smiles because he had a nice big package for me along with several letters. I looked down to see who the package was from, and it was from Helen Jones, my mother. I had no idea what my mother would be sending me. Of course, I immediately opened the package. It was stuffed with my all-time favorite treat.

Yes, popcorn balls. Some red ones, some green ones and those heavenly delicious natural ones with cashews. As was the custom in the military, if you receive a food gift, you would share it with your fellow crew members. I have to admit I wasn’t too happy about doing it, but of course, I had lots of great buddies on that Sub.

You’ll never guess what happened. As I went through the submarine offering popcorn balls to various members of the crew they all told me, “ Congratulations on your wonderful food gift, but I don’t like them.”

As it turned out, I never had to share any of those popcorn balls with anyone. I managed to eat them one by one, usually after I came off watch. They lasted me a couple of months, probably by far one of my happiest Christmas memories.

Merry Christmas to everyone and especially to my fellow Navy Veterans who are out at sea this Christmas. Thank you for your service. Stay safe and blessed.