People like plain old soda crackers, especially when they are sick. Recently I became intrigued with this fact because I had a barrage of cracker requests and an encounter with a man who wasn’t grasping my explanation of NPO when he said, “I understand all of that, but can I have a cracker?” People always want crackers when they can’t have anything else. They seem to get focused on crackers and don’t consider them food. “Why would it hurt to have just a couple of crackers?” People want crackers when they aren’t really hungry but would like “a bit of something.” We need crackers with soup; likewise with a salad. We need crackers and 7-Up for an upset stomach. Pregnant woman want crackers and water. People that are nauseated for any reason want a soda cracker. The lowly cracker consists of flour, shortening, salt and baking soda. In and of itself, that combination doesn’t sound very inviting. Bicarbonate of soda is the key ingredient. It will heal you inside and out! There must be a book out there on all its uses - nothing better to clean a kitchen sink than bicarb and vinegar. Maybe it helps our inner pipes also. Sorry, I digress.
As you can tell, I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about soda crackers. My plan is to purge my mind in this space and transfer the topic to you so you can get it stuck in your head - like an old song that you can only remember the first line.
In the midst of my cracker intrigue, I went to Southern Indiana to visit a nursing friend of mine who has just moved to the “burbs of Evansville.” We spent some time in Newburgh at the
Newburgh Country Store - a fascinating place worthy of a day trip. In the middle of the store was an old cracker barrel filled with soda crackers - naturally! As we munched, I asked Nathan, a third generation proprietor of the store, what was up with the soda crackers. He proceeded to point out the fact he had a rare original balsam cracker barrel in the store - it was a dandy. He explained how crackers were transported in these barrels and arrived here with the British. He considered the soda cracker a comfort food and stated that people enjoyed the combination of browsing, snacking and reminiscing. He reminded us that crackers have a unique bond with our childhood. Of course, they are the right size for a little hand, they have fun little holes, they crunch when you eat them and they make a mess and leave a trail. What more could a kid want. It seemed a fitting treat in the midst of an old general store; clever and a source of conversation.
That encounter led me to learn a bit more about crackers. After all, we are a generation of people who have embellished the cracker to the point of selection that includes an entire aisle in the grocery store and so much variety we are "paralyzed with choice!” And there is absolutely no end to what we can use as toppers! Here are a couple of fast facts courtesy of the Internet and Time/Life books:
Cookies and Crackers, 1982. Premium saltines first hit the market in 1876 in St. Joseph, Missouri. However, “10,000 years ago, Neolithic farmers were making a grain-water-paste baked on hot stones.” ( Soda crackers are 32% water.) “A flour paste, cooked once, then cooked again to dry it thoroughly, becomes a hard, portable victual with an extraordinarily long storage life—perfect for traveling. For centuries, no ship left port without enough bone-hard, twice-cooked ship’s biscuit. The word biscuit comes from the Old French 'biscoit,' meaning twice cooked…to last for months, or even years. While sailors and other travelers chewed their way through unyielding biscuits, cooks of the ancient civilizations of the Middle East explored the culinary possibilities of sweetness and richness.” Of course, now we move into the area of cookies. I will certainly not go there today! Nor will I entertain discussion about whether crackers are a French or British original!
The morale of this entire rambling is the fact that the little square soda cracker seems to bind us with all of humanity. Bicarb may not be the key ingredient after all. Soda crackers provide a little comfort and seem to have healing powers that soothe the body, mind and soul.
Sherry
To be a registered nurse at Clarian, visit
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Sherry has worked for Clarian for over 15 years, and currently works as a bedside nurse on the 4-Medicine unit at IU - a 48-bed unit with several medical specialities: renal, including hemodialysis, CAPD & next stage patients, pulmonary, hepatology, GI, including a very specific ERCP service, general medicine, endocrinology, and neurology. She has served in managerial roles, but her first love has always been bedside patient care. 
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