THIS IS US
Sweet ’N Low Packet Hoarding For A New Generation
Grandma, why do you have so much hand sanitizer?
My great-grandmother saved Sweet ’N Low packets. Those little pink rectangles of currency now only found in very old, very sticky diners where rent is minimal and corporate interest in property nonexistent. In her lifetime I don’t think my great-grandmother ever purchased an artificial sweetener of any kind. She never needed to. There was always a healthy supply in whatever giant purse was within arm’s reach. If those ran out (they never ran out), there were old shoe boxes in cabinets serving as secondary stash. It wasn’t about Sweet ’N Low being amazing—it was about her coming from a generation that learned the hard way that free meant you were obliged to take as much as possible, and that you never committed the felony of letting something go to waste.
You should have seen her scrape a baking bowl—my god. There wasn’t one calorie of cookie dough or Passover brownie mix left behind. If it was hers, she was claiming it, and heaven help every atom of you if you got in her way. I’ve recently had occasion to remember my great-grandmother’s behavior, because I just moved to Louisiana, Covid cases are rising like it’s May 2020, and almost by instinct I just placed an order for disinfecting wipes, toilet paper, and…
