Every March

It seems like every March I get sick with some sort of fever and head cold. This year it's a sinus infection. I tried a new walk-in clinic this weekend for treatment. It was located inside a well known pharmacy. As I was waiting, I noticed almost everyone behind the pharmacy counter was in scrubs. A couple of workers behind the consultation counter were in lab coats. I can't really explain why, but I was comforted by this. It made me feel like they really took their job seriously and with a sense of pride.

These days everyone is so much more casual. Your doctor is as apt to come in wearing jeans and tennis shoes under the lab coat. It is probably more of an attempt at a better beside manner. A few years ago, I would never have noticed. But, as I get older, those things stand out to me. In stores, it's hard to tell the clerks from the customers sometimes. I have even had customers ask me questions thinking I worked there! Maybe it's time we went back to wearing more than a name tag. I'm not saying everyone should wear a uniform, but something that says 'yes, I work here and I would be glad to assist you.' Aren't those workers and clerks the first line of their company's representation?
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In case you're nursing a cold this Spring, here are some vintage recipes from a late 1800's cookbook:
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Chicken Broth for the Invalid

Procure a dry-picked roasting chicken; cut it in halves; put one half in the ice box; chop the other half into neat pieces; put it into a small saucepan; add one quart of cold water, a little salt and a leaf of celery; simmer gently for two hours; remove the oily particles thoroughly; strain the broth into a bowl; when cooled a little, serve to the convalescent. Serve the meat with the broth.

Chicken Soup

Take three young male chickens; cut them up; put them in a saucepan with three quarts of veal stock. (A sliced carrot, one turnip, and one head of celery may be put with them and removed before the soup is thickened.) Let them simmer for an hour. Remove all the white flesh; return the rest of the birds to the soup, and boil gently for two hours. Pour a little of the liquid over a quarter of a pound of bread crumbs, and when they are well soaked put it in a mortar with the white flesh of the birds, and pound the whole to a smooth paste: add a pinch of ground mace, salt, and a little cayenne pepper; press the mixture through a sieve, and boil once more, adding a pint of boiling cream; thicken with a little flour mixed in cold milk; remove the bones, and serve.

Chicken Soup

Cut up one chicken, put into a stewpan two quarts of cold water, a teaspoonful of salt, and one pod of red pepper; when half done add two desert spoonfuls of well washed rice: when thoroughly cooked, remove the bird from the soup, tear a part of the breast into shreds (saving the remainder of the fowl for a salad), and add it to the soup with a wine-glass full of cream.