Tell me everything you know about Jell-O. This was the prompt I came across this week in a writing book.

I hadn’t thought about Jell-O that much until a couple months ago when my nieces came here for a day during that surprise extra week they had off after Christmas. We talked about school and Covid and teachers and masks and hot lunches and that’s when I found out that THEY NEVER GOT JELL-O ANYMORE. With whipped cream. And that this was one of the great disappointments they’ve had to bear during this pandemic. (I’m not really sure why but I took their word for it.) Since they would be at my house for a few hours, I suggested we make some Jell-O. If we started right then, it would be ready for afternoon snack.

Of course, I had some packages of Jell-O around because – Hello? – I was raised by my mom who became a housewife in the fifties. That’s when the necessary refrigeration to make Jell-O became de rigeur. As we boiled some water, I told the girls that when I was their age, I helped my mom make Jell-O every Saturday night for Sunday dinner’s dessert. Nothing about the process has changed: empty one package of Jell-O (or jelly powder if you eschew the name brand) into one cup of very hot water – measured with a Pyrex measuring cup, of course – and stir until dissolved. Then add one cup of very cold water and stir again. Mostly I “helped” because Mom would always pour me a teensy glass of the hot Jell-O water before she put the rest into a cut glass bowl to set in the fridge. It was like a warm liquid lollipop. Usually it was fake strawberry flavor, sometimes it was fake lime or fake orange. I don’t think it was ever fake grape.

Nothing could be simpler. Mom once got frustrated with someone “who couldn’t even make Jell-O!” – sort of the way you would get mad at someone who couldn’t boil water. However, everything seemed easy for Mom in the kitchen – she was such a good cook. But that didn’t exclude putting Jell-O on the menu every weekend.

It also did not mean that every time I saw Jell-O in the Co-op Cafeteria, I didn’t want some. The whipped cream they put on it was part of the allure – that and those sexy cafeteria sherbet glasses. (You can buy six dozen of those for $237.00 online – but that doesn’t include shipping.) I didn’t have any fancy bowls, but I did have some leftover whipping cream in the fridge from Christmas, so I whipped it up for the girls when the Jell-O was ready. It was a pretty easy thing to do for them.

I guess that is part of the charm of Jell-O – it is easy. But another part is that you have to wait for it. (Unless you just want to drink hot Jell-O water.) When my boys had their wisdom teeth out, I made sure that I made Jell-O before we left for the dentist’s office. Jell-O marked both the low bar and the high bar of my career as a mom. Easy to do, but you had to remember to do it.

Got any Jell-O memories? There’s always room for Jell-O – and memories.