A Bunch of Stuff Cut Up On a Plate

Sorry for not posting - I'm going to try to post more!

Every day this week I have come home from work and eaten a giant bowl of vinegar and lettuce - one of my favorite snacks from childhood. Late at night, long after my mom went to bed, me, my brother and my dad would eat. This was almost a nightly ritual I think. Sometimes my dad would make a giant pot of potato soup, other times we had sardines in mustard sauce on crackers, sometimes pickled pigs feet, or chicken gizzards. These were the usual suspects. My other favorites include cocktail onions and green olives on little plastic cocktail mixer sticks - the alcoholic neighbor taught us to eat this - or carrots dipped in mayo and ketchup mixed, or hor doeuvres - which were made of bread, mustard, relish and american cheese - toasted. EEEWWW.

Anyway, did everyone eat this weird stuff? We had no rules about food in my house as a kid. We ate whatever we wanted whenever we wanted it. We also used to drink pop and coffee instead of water basically. In 7th grade I ate ramen noodles every day for breakfast. In fact, I never ate breakfast food until I was an adult. I think my favorite breakfast as a kid was last night's dinner, ramen noodles, or Spaghetti O's - and a cup of coffee with a few chocolate chip cookies dipped in it. Still a favorite. I was a serious coffee drinker at the age of 8 - I drank it black, no cream, no sugar. Every morning from the time I was 8 until I was in law school. I was a much more serious coffee drinker then - now I drink only lattes, if at all.

Eating vinegar and lettuce brings back memories from childhood. My other favorites were my mom's tomato soup, my mom's canned tomatoes nuked in a mug with a lot of salt, anything pickled and green popsicles. For lunch we frequently used to eat what we called "a bunch of stuff cut up on a plate." This is exactly what you think it is - a bunch of stuff - it could be anything - cut up on a plate. Usually lunch meat, cheese, maybe some of those little canned hot dogs that come in water (eeeewww) (are those actually hot dogs?), a couple of cookies, some pickles, some olives, maybe some fruit etc. I also used to drink vinegar and pickle juice - Heather and I called the pickle juice "dill wine." Ha ha ha.

Anyway, my mom used to like to tell people that my brother and I invented the food fight - only we didn't throw the food. Every week when my mom brought the groceries home, my brother and I would divide everything up and then use it to barter with one another for what we wanted. For example, I would "sell" my brother the chance to watch Leave it to Beaver on my day to pick the t.v. shows in exchange for the last green popsicle. We had this weird rule about the t.v. and the front seat of the car. If it was his day to ride in the front seat, it was my day to pick the t.v. shows that got watched on the living room t.v. This seems absurd to me now - partly because we had 5 televisions in the house - and riding in the front seat, at the age of 8? Nowadays, kids are supposed to ride in booster seats until they are like 15 - we used to ride in the front, no seat belt! Actually, one time, I rode all the way to Cedar Point on the floor of the back seat of the car! What were my parents thinking?