The View From Mrs. Sundberg's Window

Something Good for No Real Reason

March 24, 2008

Listened to the show Saturday and it was not bad. I'd spent the better part of the day at the grocery store and was I ever glad to get home and unpack groceries with the radio on loud as it can go. The kids were on an egg hunt over at the neighbor's and Mr. Sundberg was at a mall down in St. Paul, where he and a few motivational-speaker colleagues were dressed as Easter bunnies, handing out candy. It was his idea. "Something good for no real reason," he said.

That's Mr. Sundberg for you. Always something of a mystery, off and doing things without really knowing why. Like the time he paid $500. for that old red tractor and ended up pulling the Senior Citizens' Center float in the 4th of July parade. And then there was the time I had the flu and he told me he'd entered the Pillsbury Bakeoff. I thought he was trying to cheer me up, but then he won Honorable Mention with my "Fly Me To the Moon Cheesecake" recipe, and accepted the award on my behalf. And there was the New Year's Day he invited all the neighbors over for breakfast and set up a waffle bar in the dining room. And the September day he got out his new leaf blower and spent a good two days blowing leaves off most of the sidewalks in town, not knowing it would snow that evening.

Other people do it. Lots of other people. Eleanor Hudson makes pillows and mails 'em away anonymously to people she thinks need to relax. (I know it's her because I dropped in for a visit one Saturday and it was Pillow Mecca. Pillows everywhere.) My own mother embroiders yearly horoscopes on flour sack towels for her closest friends. Even if you're not a zodiac person, there's something about words on a towel. And Harv Ellingson painted flowers on his garage door after his girlfriend Lila was in a car accident last summer. When she saw a photo of the garage door, she called Harv and told him she'd be out by the weekend and she was.

It seems to me if you have a good heart and follow your impulses, something good is bound to come of it. Worth a try, anyway, wouldn't you say?

Cheddar Hash Browns

1 pkg (20 oz) hash browns

1 can cream of chicken soup (cream of celery will work, too)

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup sour cream

1 T melted butter

Mix above ingredients well.

Add 1/4 cup or so of chopped onion (optional).

Spread in a greased 2 qt glass baking dish.

Mix 1 1/2 cups crushed cornflakes and 2 T melted butter