Hick also played bingo this week at the Senior Center. He says it is fun again. Which means he's winning "prices" when he plays. This time he didn't send me bragging pictures. He carried in a plastic bag when he returned from whatever he does on Tuesday afternoons. It sat on the table until Thursday evening, when I asked what was in it.
"Oh. Thems my winnings from bingo the other day. I forgot. There's a dessert in there. I'll have it now."
Hick took out a small styrofoam container, saying it was a blueberry muffin. What was inside looked like a big flat cookie.
"Huh. That looks better than the Fruit Fluff you brought in my dessert!"
"This wasn't for everyone. No carryout. We had a potluck to celebrate 25 years of something, and everybody brought stuff." (Except for Hick, I assume!) Here. Do you want it?"
"No. I'm good. It has teeth marks on the edge."
"Well, I tried it already. I got some other stuff here. Look. Milk!"
"That's not milk! That's milk powder!"
"Same thing. The girls up there say it's good. They use it all the time. You can put it in stuff you cook that needs milk."
"You have mistaken me for somebody who cooks! I hardly ever need milk for anything, unless it's corn muffins."
"And here. A little flower for you. And cookies. Do you want some cookies?"
"No, that's okay. Where'd they come from?"
"From the grocery store."
"They're usually dry."
It was nice of Hick to offer me some of his treasured winnings.
At least Hick won sugar-free cookies this time! Although you can see he hasn't opened the package. And the BEST BY date is April 19, 2025. The little flower is fake, of course. Probably out of somebody's closet when they did spring cleaning and donated it. There's the bag of milk. It's12.8 ounces. Not sure how they chose that number. It's 362 grams. Seems kind of random.
Anyhoo... the dry milk is NOT expired! It has a BEST BY date of 02/23/26. I know! I'm as shocked as you are. But here's what really caught my eye:
The bingo milk is packaged by TRANSYLVANIA VOCATIONAL SERVICES! I'm sure it's perfectly fine. You notice this info is on the back. At least that's not their brand name, which appears to be Mountain Maid. It's hard to imagine using milk from a Mountain Maid in Transylvania...
Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteYou need some Transylvania bingo milk for your baking experiments!
Delete"Vocational Services" indicates (I think) that the milk is packed by a facility that hires disabled people. I think those places are a great idea, they help people feel more worthy and they get to earn a bit of money to supplement their government disability allowances. Hopefully the government in Transylvania does give such allowances.
ReplyDeleteThat could be. The address for it is in Brevard, North Carolina. Not sure why they picked "Transylvania" for their name.
DeleteHere, "Vocational Services" could mean anything that helps people find a job or get training. A local school for upper level high school students is called the "vocational school." Back in my day, it was called "trade school." And later, "tech school." It's for training in various trades, rather than a college prep type of curriculum, and all high schools in the area can send a certain number of their students, whether they have disabilities or not.
That soinds more correct than my idea. I remember trade schools and later tech schools and wish the trade schools plus apprenticeships could make a comeback.
DeleteYour idea was correct, according to the comment below. Trade schools are great. The kids are prepared for a job, and can make more money than college graduates, depending on the degree.
DeleteI googled that company and indeed they are a non-profit who are "dedicated to the meaningful employment and empowerment of persons with disabilities and other barriers to work" fascinating! Mountain Maids from that Transylvania area probably only working during the night on account of being probably vampires :P
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh, that could explain a night shift at that company. I suppose being a vampire would be a barrier to obtaining work.
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