Nana, Proust And Chocolate Milk

If you have read Swan's Way, Marcel Proust's 1913 volume one of Remembrance Of Things Past, you know as Jonah Leher suggests in his wonderful book, Proust Was A Neuroscientist,(Houghton Mifflin, 2007) that the French author's words; "And suddenly the memory revealed itself: The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane." offers us a unique, accurate and artistic insight into the mind's memory as precise and thoughtful as those found in the today's scientific community.
I was a college student when I first read Proust. I did not know much about neuroscience or Proust. But this line brought back a memory so vivid I see myself sitting in my grandmother's kitchen today as I write.
My uncle, who happens to be only five years older than me, and I enjoyed a sibling rivalry. As with most childhood pranks, it did not take much to vie for first place. In this case, it was a teaspoon of cocoa. If you remember Howdy Doody, you can recall the patient wait for the milk to warm, but not curdle. There was no chance for my grandmother to check out the giggling behind her back as my uncle a I used our magnetized tongues to eat the cocoa. Of course, the real surprise was a one-time event, but my Nana always played along as we repeated the game ad nausea throughout the years. Today, it takes less than a minute to microwave the water and mix a prepackaged cocoa anyway you choose; even the marshmallows come to life instantaneously. But I always travel back to that moment when the boiling water bubbles the sugar-free cocoa. The cocoa may be different and the milk is now water, but the memory still warms my soul like the milk and cocoa did so many years ago.

Remember when?????? How often have you said those words? What spark ignited this memory?