July 7, 2021
Grinding Sharpening
For years, the knife sharpening van has existed on the margins of my experience, an uncanny ringing in the distance, slowly moving up and down the streets of our neighbourhood, slightly sinister. The idea of waving him down with a handful of knives always seemed awkward to me, and so I never have, and so all of our knives are dull dull dull.
The knife sharpening van makes a cameo appearance in my first novel, Mitzi Bytes, underlining the danger inherent in ordinary lives.
We were having a conversation about the knife sharpening van, its elusiveness, and our dull kitchen knives as recently as yesterday.
And then tonight we heard the tell tale clang clang clang, and ran out the door, knife wielding maniacs. “Stop, stop!” And he did!!
WE CAUGHT THE KNIFE SHARPENING VAN.
And it did not even open up a portal to another dimension.
It did, however, generate considerable sparks.
And someone is likely to slice open their hand in our kitchen within the next few days.
It was really and truly magic.
I love sharp knives! But a confession: your photo is reminding me of ice cream vans in the UK. Our local played Greensleeves (no idea why, but every time I hear that tune I look for ice cream . . .). The ice cream wasn’t especially good (in fact, mediocre at best – though pass me a 99 Flake and I’ll devour it every time) but there was something delightful about standing in a queue to buy a cone or an ice lolly on a summer evening. So – thank you for those happy memories. (And please don’t slice open your hand!!)
We have ice cream vans too but they’re much easier to patronize than the knife sharpener!
I wish the van would come to my house. There’s nothing like a sharp knife!