Fruitcake

While growing up my parents had friends, Mary & Charlie, who, when they visited or we visited them during the holidays always gave us Claxton Fruitcakes as gifts. Fruitcake giving is the brunt of many a good laugh, however, oddly, I acquired a taste for it and to this day like it (although recent walnut allergies have kept me from enjoying it). The best part of the fruitcake visits though, were that Mary & Charlie (who were childless) collected Cracker Jack toys and my brother and I were treated with grabbing a handful of these fun little toys. Of course my favorite was when I grabbed a ring, oh the special plastic bling! Mary was from a farm outside of Knoxville, TN. I remember us visiting her elderly aging parents and being taken to my childhood dreamland on the farm. I loved chasing the chickens, going to the pig pen, petting the goats, feeding the animals, etc. I always wanted to live on a farm and would beg my dad to consider buying a farm once he retired from the Navy. Well, that never happened, The farm was sold to make way for the big new highway back decades ago. Coincidentally, my uncle and aunt bought their home not too far off that highway and for years going to visit them, taking the new fancy highway, kept those farm visits and the fruitcake gifts alive in my childhood memories each time we passed and looked with sadness to where the farm once sat. Claxton Fruitcake for me is more than just all the yummy fruit and nuts!