...While you were sleeping...
I wuz listening to Count Basie and thinking about food. Actually, I had just finished eating food. Two bologna and cheese sandwiches with lettuce, some raw carrots and a handful of lemon coolers (those are cookies, for those of you not in the know about such things). Bologna sandwiches bring back some memories...
I grew up pretty poor. OK, dirt poor. Bologna and cheese were staples in my diet, as was peanut butter and jelly. On white bread. And hamburger cassoroles of an infinite variety. All pretty cheap stuff in the late fifties and early sixties.
I have mentioned before that generally speaking, I regard food as simply fuel. Well, that is true... but a lot of those food memories are very good ones.
Bologna and cheese: when I was in high school, every day I would go home for lunch; I would make two B&C sandwiches and a large glass of Nestles' Quick. Many people abhor the food that they were forced to eat as children, but I still love bologna and cheese sandwiches. I could eat them every day and not tire of them. And I can say the same about peanut butter and jelly; they are timeless. They remain good, solid food. PB&J sandwiches do get kinda dull, though. I always liked to eat some Fritos with my PB&J.
Cheese... was always Velveeta. The "real" cheese cost three times as much. You could get two pounds of cheese food for $0.79; American was $1.00 a pound. White bread was four loaves for a dollar. I don't remember how much peanut butter was, but I insisted on Welch's grape jelly. Nothing but the best for me!
We would also frequently have bologna gravy on bread. This was a meal that I always enjoyed... the smell of the bologna browning or something. Or maybe I was so hungry that it didn't matter what I ate...
My mother would probably get hysterical hearing me describe our (my) eating habits. We did have a wider variety than I've mentioned so far, but this is what I remember the best.
Occasionally, when the A & P had a special on cod, mom would fix a cassorole of cod and corn and bread crumbs that I remember as being especially delicious. And then there was the goulash that she would make regularly. Macaroni, hamburger, onions and green peppers. It was always wonderful. And she would also bake hot rolls to go along with everything.
Thinking back on those high school days...automobiles were always a big problem. Or rather, the lack of them. Mom never learned how to drive until I taught her after I graduated (which is another story altogether) and that meant that I had to get insurance through the assigned risk program. Essentially, the way that it worked (and probably still works) is that if your parents didn't have insurance with a company, you couldn't buy insurance from anybody if you were under 25 years old and unmarried. So the state would assign an insurance company to cover you, and they could damn well charge whatever they wanted to. What they wanted to charge me was one hundred bucks every three months for liability only (this was in 1962). And, up until I was twenty-four, the most expensive car I owned cost me four hundred bucks.
It took me a long time to figger out that if you had a parent buying insurance from a company, that the company wouldn't jeopordize that contract (with your parent) by not selling you insurance. Anybody else? Well, they didn't really give a shit. And if you got a couple of tickets, well, they just charged you more... but that was kinda justifiable.
Work....
Anyways... what brought up the food subject... not that it needs any justification... is that I am boycotting the cafeteria. Up until about six-eight weeks ago, they served (mostly) nutricious food at reasonable prices. Then they decided that we needed better, more expensive food. Well, they did the more expensive, all right. The "better" part just didn't seem to work out...
And I do enjoy eating sandwiches, and it is much less expensive. Karen fixes them for me (not because I expect her to, but she wants to. Go figger!) and that's worked out well except for one hitch... she bought some low-fat turkey Saturday. It was a foo-foo sandwich. Give me bologna or ham or ham-loaf (whatever that may be) but none of this low-fat crap. Of course, my adamancy on this point is punctuated by my arterial diseases...
Damn near everything that I have eaten all of my life has been high-fat stuff. Ever read the label on bologna? Or hot dogs? Don't do it, especially if you are a cardiac patient. There are some things that are better left unknown...
Tonight has been much better. My lunch was interrupted twice, but I haven't been running my ass off so far. (Crossed fingers on that one... the night is still young!)