ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO?

Remember the old joke, before political correctness, which inquires, how many Jewish women does it take to change a light bulb?

My husband came running down the stairs to retrieve a new lightbulb and to tell me that he was changing the one in our bedroom ceiling fan, which had just burned out. A minute later, he appeared with the old bulb in his hand, without the section that screws into the fixture.

When he questioned if I knew how to get the rest of it out, I excitedly remembered what cousin Sheldon, a schoolteacher, and electrician-on-the-side, once informed me. That was many years ago when our powder room light fixture met the same fate. Sheldon came by one morning to rescue us from that predicament and suggested in the future to use a potato to unscrew the frozen-in-place part from the receptacle.

Indubitably, times like these remind me of my mother handing me an overripe sprouting potato to play with and turn into a Mr. Potato Head. That was in the days before the popular toy came supplied with a plastic potato-shaped body along with colorful pieces for the facial features and extremities. Truthfully, it was more fun to play with an actual potato and improvising for the body parts with things such as toothpicks, buttons, and carrots, akin to dressing a snowman.

Cousin Sheldon passed away in 2008. He lives on, however, in more ways than his nuclear family may realize. Not only do we think about him, but the knowledge that he shared taught me how to use one of my favorite childhood makeshift toys to solve a household problem. A raw potato did the trick, and the stubborn lightbulb base relented. The unconventional tool, which Sheldon freely recommended, came in handy all these years later. 

Kudos Sheldon. We hope you are resting in peace. Now, we’re only out one mini-potato, rather than the cost of a hired electrician. Plus, we can use the same potato to introduce our baby grandchildren to a favorite old childhood game from the 1950s. We’ll likely buy an updated plastic Potato Head family with the money saved by utilizing that small spud.

Nowadays, the Hasbro toy not only comes with a potato made of plastic, it includes endless accessories the children will have fun with as we share stories about cousin Sheldon. While playing and reminiscing, we can teach our grandchildren about their cousin’s technique for freeing a bulb and the need to alleviate food waste by using one small potato or a sprouting vegetable for multiple purposes.

There is another fond memory to tell our grandchildren about Sheldon, who was an N.J. Pro softball player, plus Little League and softball coach. He and his wife Barbara, parents of three boys and grandparents of eight, took time out of their busy schedules to watch our son play Little League baseball.

Ever the teacher, Sheldon casually offered his young cousin enduring batting tips. Our son can pass down valuable lessons to his children with heartwarming memories of a beloved older cousin.

This is our current powder room light fixture but as we learned from cousin Sheldon, a raw potato can be used to release any stuck bulb.

The diversity of a simple potato is amazing - The original Mr. Potato Head 1952 with real potato