Today Devin and I made Rice Krispies Treats.

Where I’m from you’re not fully invested in childhood until you have tackled the sweet gooey goodness of of RKTs. The pure simplicity of the recipe made it a favorite of parents and kids alike. I come from a time when bake sales had actual home baked goods, not store bought partially hydrogenated crap. A time when a mother would bake 144 cookies for the baseball team fundraiser and another would whip up four pans of RKTs. The adventurous ones would add chocolate chips or M & Ms. Some would secretly add a touch of vanilla extract then blush when the kids said “these are better than my mother’s.” It was a different time and place.

Making the treats today with my son took me to the 80s. I could see myself in green shorts with white edging. Sweat socks with three horizontal stripes across the top pulled up to my knees. A white tank tops and a deep tan covering every inch of my body. My hair in a short afro trimmed by my dad. I’ll tell you, as Devin counted out the marshmallows on this unusually warm first day of fall in NYC for a second it was like I was back in south Florida. I had to consciously keep myself from turning on Tears for Fears. The only difference was the learning opportunity that it became.

Coming up as a kid in the south everything wasn’t about learning. Baking a cake wasn’t a chance to hone your measurement skills, it was a chance to lick the spoon. Nowadays the world is so competitive that you had better teach even when it seems silly. Devin counted out 37marshmallows, and six cups of Rice Krispies. I showed him what 3 table spoons of butter looked like before it was melted. We discussed the melting process that occurs when you apply heat to certain things. We discussed kitchen safety. It was fun watching the wheels turn in his head as we asked him how to spell “melting.” I loved every minute of the project. Somehow though I was left longing for the good ol’ days of mindless fun, which defined the 80s.