lost in translation

So funny story. The other day we're working outside, J in the front and me in the backyard, and I walked up to check his progress. He tells me "our neighbor lady is bringing us lemons." What? "Our neighbor lady is bringing us a bag of lemons from her tree, after she drops some off at her house" (points to other neighbor lady's house).

Lemon-having neighbor is Italian. She and her husband moved to Pensacola after he retired as the Pope's personal pilot. Apparently he was an exchange officer in flight school here in the 1960s. I knew this, but I'd never met his wife, because they're gone for long periods of time, back in Italy.

I run inside for something, and when I come back out, I find neighbor lady (holding bananas, which I thought was strange, until I saw the bag of 15 large lemons in J's hand) telling him with a very thick accent how to make some recipe involving the lemon rinds. Then she makes him repeat it back to her:

NL: What I say?

J: Um, scrape out the rinds, and soak them for 4 days in a dark place and then strain it.

NL: Yes, good

J: And this makes jello?

NL: (confused look)

J: This is lemon jello?

NL: Yes, lemon jello

We chat for a bit longer (and she calls J, "JUSTO!", with gusto) and she also tells us we can use old ice trays to form it for easy storage. She bids us farewell, and walks back to her house.

Then, J filled me in on the first part of the recipe, which involves going to Richey's, our local liquor store chain ("because it's cheaper there"), and picking a bottle of Everclear. This is the liquid for soaking. I piece together the rest of what I heard, and try to wrap my mind around the idea of my 70-year-old neighbor lady giving us instructions for something that involves two things I haven't thought of since college: jello shots and Everclear. Excuse me?

J and I continue laughing to ourselves about this random encounter, and vow to make friends with this couple before we leave, because any senior citizens that take jello shots and not only know what Everclear is, but have also priced it out at different places in the neighborhood, are probably a lot of fun. I also wonder what recipe she gave the other neighbor lady on her first stop, because that woman is pushing 85...

I go back to painting a post on our back porch. Then, about 5 minutes later, it dawns on me: limoncello. She was telling us to make limoncello.

I'm beginning to think I'm going to miss this place a little...