by Joanne Wiklund
Information these days is presented in various formats. I get a magazine which features health related information. A recent one was about burns. The short article said that a canister of flour should be kept handy while you are baking in case you burn yourself. If your hand touches something hot you should dunk your hand all the way into the flour canister and hold it there for five minutes. Your hand should be better.
I remember my mom with flour spread all over the oilcloth on the kitchen table to roll out dough. We cooked together a lot. The only time I remember her with burns was when she opened the pressure cooker the wrong way while it was still sitting on the stove. It exploded and emptied its contents: boiling hot slimy applesauce hit her from her chin to her waist. She was wearing a maternity dress which was tied in the back. Mom screamed “Untie it, untie it” as she tried to scrape the mess off of her.
I was about twelve and scared but I got it untied and we tore the dress right off of her there. She had some bad burns we put cold compresses on. I don’t remember anything about flour.
Tonight while baking cookies I grabbed a hot cookie sheet bare handed and picked it up. I was tired and forgot I’d just taken it out of the oven. It was burning my hand terribly. I dropped it onto the counter where my big Tupperware tub of flour was sitting with the top off. I dunked my hand straight down into the flour which felt cool on my hand. After a few minutes I could feel it cooling down. At five minutes I was able to rinse the flour off my hand in the sink. It was fine. No blister, no red, no pain. An old Wive’s Tale? I’m not sure. But I’m an Old Wife. Maybe this counts.
Jude 24-25 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy, 25 “To The only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
