I have a "yen"

Another family saying -- sort of.

I recall my mother just blurting out any old time of the day or night -- I have a "yen" for .... fill in the blank.

It could have been cheese and crackers -- a family favorite. Now you have to have the right cheese and the correct cracker; that would be white American cheese (one slice, cut into 1/4s) and Saltines -- one cracker. You see, one-quarter of a slice of white American cheese just fits on a Saltine.

It could have been the longing for a chocolate and orange sherbet ice cream cone.

It could have been the desire to watch an old movie.

It could have been the yearning to walk in her garden -- "Come on, Judi, walk with me while I pinch some blooms. I just have a 'yen' to do that right now."

She (mom) often had a "yen" for a cuppa tea. Lipton's. Always Lipton's tea. Plain old Lipton's tea.

Mom also had a "yen" on occasion for a cookie -- the name of which I don't know, but it was like an oreo only it wasn't chocolate, it was a white cookie.

Mom loved the Girl Scouts' chocolate mint cookies. And she would hoard them. We'd find her satisfying her "yen" in the middle of the summer on a mint cookie she had hidden away. Of course, she shared with us when she had this kind of a "yen." We were given one mint cookie to enjoy while she satisfied her "yen."

"Yens". Not the Japanese money, but a sudden want to do something, a wish, a longing, a craving.

Remember that word. Use it. Especially now that spring is in full swing -- say to someone -- I have a yen to see a robin, will you come search with me? See what kind of a reaction you get.