Just Another Normal Day In Cambridge

One day several years ago I was parking my car in the garage at the Cambridgeside Galleria. An unassuming dark colored sedan pulled in right next to me. I think it might have been a Volvo. A young woman got out on the driver's side, and she then proceeded to help her passenger get out. It was Julia Child.

Of course I knew that she lived in Cambridge, so I wasn't really surprised. But could I greet her? No. I was totally in awe and at a loss for anything to say. I also couldn't just stare. I've seen celebrities trying to mix into the crowd before. It doesn't work for most of them. Julia Child was just so dignified and yet unassuming in her bearing, just being helped out of her car by her assistant. Something about her just said to me "this is just another normal day in Cambridge."

That's really what was so special about her. She demystified fine cooking. She made it not just acceptable to strive for a touch of class in an egalitarian society. She made it normal.