Trina Machacek: Buttering toast | Serving Carson City for over 150 years

I have noticed many things in my life regarding the development of relationships. A good relationship will have things that stand out and stand alone. According to Hoyle, there will never be one who will not have hard times. But those who have been or are in a relationship will attest to the fact that the act of taking the hard times and making it up afterwards is something to be reckoned with.

Here is a correlation I want to share that over the years I have noticed and in noticing I have come to believe that, when connected, it can be fates.

I loved that when we went somewhere my other half would hold my hand and I believe he did because I buttered his toast to the brim. Yes, this was something he noticed and mentioned to me more than a few times. Well, it wasn’t just the toast that kept us together for all those 43 years, but! Yes, a “but” buttered to the brim. Making toast with butter was something he not only noticed but appreciated. This, it was that assessment, that had a lot to do with what kept the toast warm in our lives.

Now not everyone is going to like buttered toast. No, some will like a pad or pat of butter in the middle and like to spread it on their own once it’s warmed up and completely melted. The secret is to find out what your crush likes and cook buttered toast that way. Then do it this way every time you toast your other half. I am a creature who notices the people I care about, and when I saw so many years ago that the new guy in my life not only liked my fine black and white borderline drinks and my banana cream pie, but that his toast was buttered all the way through. the edges? These were the things I tried to keep in his life as best I could.

If you’re in a new-to-you thing and things aren’t, well, let’s just say, not all smooth and soft? Don’t you dare talk about buttered toast to your young heart’s desire. No, you have to take a step back here and figure out how you can like butter on their toast. Then, in the next few days, find a way for that person to paint something for you. That will tell you, I’ll bet, if things are going to be more of that smooth spray or if your butter can be cut from a hard cold cube. I wonder what you will find?

A story my father told several times about butter is this. When he was a child—a long time ago—his mother ran a boarding house in a railroad town in South Dakota. The railroad workers stayed in her dormitory and they were a rowdy bunch who worked and played hard. And they ate, a lot. So much so that in order to reduce the amount of butter they consumed, she made her own butter in a round mold. Then he cooled the butter and just before putting it on the table, he put it on a slightly warmed flat plate. This way, the men couldn’t easily cut butter because it was hard and if they stuck a knife in the ball, it would just slide around the bowl. Oh, I can see her ball as it was attacked from all sides.

That story taught me a lot about life and how to relate butter to life. When you find that you’re chasing something around and around and you can’t seem to nail it, to enjoy what you’re chasing? Warm up everything about your desire and maybe things will slide more easily. Or not. We all learn as we go.

Making buttered toast is such a small but mighty thing. Almost as reliable as listening to what mom or dad tells you as you move forward in life. Now my dad, yes the butter storyteller, liked my other half from the first time they met. Mother, however, was a different story. Oh, she loved it. Until he caught a fish bigger than her.

Then, to add insult to injury, he wanted to mount her, so he kept her in her bathtub for a few days so he could safely take her to the “dead fish guy.” Suffice it to say she then invited the butter when we went to her house for dinner.

Trina Machacek lives in Eureka. Her books are available wherever you buy books or email her at [email protected] to purchase signed copies.