Skip to main content

Try it!



Today on my commute to work, my favorite radio station was asking listeners the “question of the day”.  I have to admit; the question of the day is one of the reasons why I like this station.  I tuned in to hear.  Today’s question was, “what strange food item did you love growing up that others just didn’t understand.”  My reaction was immediate.  I chuckle as I type this knowing the face of disgust my husband will make when he reads this.  Growing up my parents used to make us peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches.  My Dad loved it. I loved it.  I can’t explain it. It must be the blend of the salty peanut butter and the balance of the sweet pickle combined with the satisfying pickle crunch. Together, it is just perfect.  Seriously, don’t knock it until you try it!

Oddly, however, when I remembered my favorite sandwich, I was immediately taken back to my childhood home on Brooke Drive.  I was in the extremely small kitchen of my childhood home.  I could see the yellow chairs around the metal table and the window over the sink.  Not a moment later, I was transported to my junior high school cafeteria to the ill-fated day that my friends discovered my secret favorite sandwich.  Somehow, I had made it through elementary school without anyone discovering that my peanut butter sandwich combination had nothing to do with jelly.  This particular day, the mean spirited pre-teenage mind couldn’t help but question my food choices.  I don’t remember much more about the confrontation, but I remember deciding it would be the last time I would take my peanut butter pickle sandwich to school.  Instead, I would only enjoy it at home with my family

Much older now, I wish I could tell my younger self not care so much about what others think. Food has a powerful way to evoke emotions and memories.  Taste, smell, and texture are powerful.  For me, peanut butter and sweet pickles will always take me home.  Even if others believe it to be “strange”.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Second Saturday

Ten years ago, over coffee, my dearest friend Sande and I began discussing how our monthly Bunko game with girlfriends had seemed to have run its course.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved getting together and getting away from my family routine on a Friday.  However, I felt that my life had taken a turn and I was looking for ways to go out with my husband and all our friends. Over coffee, we crafted an idea of what would become the Second Saturday Social Club.  The original idea included 9 couples, one couple has since moved away.  The idea was that once a month you and your husband planned an outing and shared the idea with the social club.  At best you would have 8 other couples join you and at worst you and your husband would have a date.  It seemed like a win/win scenario. We were careful to explain that the social event could be easy as going to a restaurant or as complicated as hosting a dinner party or cocktail hour. Over the years the Second S...
1 comment
Read more

Slice of Life #1 - Orthography Conference

The Slice of Life blog challenge starts today, March 1, 2019, and the fact that I am spending the day at an Orthography Conference with Dr. Pete Bowers, Gina Cooke, and Doug Harper, is not lost on me.  The most passionate slice of my life is word investigation, whether in English or in Spanish.  Today Michel Mira-Rameau was our guest host from Cluis, France via Zoom.  Michel reminded us why we are here today and that “language isn’t primarily for communication but instead exists to make sense of what we are thinking”.  We must remember that the written word is not a spoken language written down.  I am passionate about spending time with words because as I am reminded today, “with words, as with people, you don’t know them until you know where they have been.”  Where will my next word take me?  I can’t wait to see!
3 comments
Read more

South Side Irish

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today Bill and I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day the way one imagines celebrating a holiday.  We spent the day surrounded by good friends, terrific food and a wonderful parade.  The beautiful sunny day gave us a chance to walk to the parade route and talk.  During that walk, we talked about the terrific public relationships job that the University of North Dakota (UND) Police were doing.  Through their Twitter account, the UND police department is making every effort to meet their student body where the students are, on social media.  In other words, Bill elaborated, in order to have effective communication it is not the communicator's job to  tell  what they think but instead to create  mutual  meaning or mutual understanding in a way that is relevant to the student body and in their own  language . Here is their tweet for today, March 17 th , 2019:         ...
Post a Comment
Read more