Thursday, April 10, 2008

I was a Bad Child


When I was 11 I had a friend we'll call Amy. Amy's mom was even worse with her notions of acceptable lunch food than mine was. Hers rejected everything shy of the school's hot lunch. Mine at least would permit me a sandwich and an apple as long as I packed it myself. The problem was neither Amy nor I were satisfied with their choices.

Being the enterprising girl I was, I came up with a solution. Amy would make her mom happy by skipping off to school every morning, lunch money in hand whereas I dutifully toted a brown paper sack containing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple. When lunch rolled around, I would sell Amy my sandwich for a quarter, half her lunch money, and eat my apple. She was happy, I was happy, our clueless moms were happy. Yes, I admit it. I'm older than dirt and a quarter a day added up to quite a tidy sum back then.

Everything was perfect until Amy's family up and moved away towards the end of the school year. Then I was stuck trying to explain why, after taking the same thing for lunch every day for months, I suddenly developed an aversion to peanut butter and jelly. The truth is I never liked peanut butter, still don't, and rarely eat jelly, as in once every other year or so. I also lost my source of added income which to an independent sixth grader was tragic.

In case you're wondering, I did tell my mom. I think I was 30 by the time I got around to it. You can guess her reaction. My question has always been why my mom didn't know I didn't like peanut butter and jelly and wonder why, all of the sudden, I started taking it for lunch every day.

Oh, anybody have any good home remedies for coughing? I have no throat left and am open to suggestions. Booze, tea and honey don't work. Neither does cough medicine and I never want to taste a cough drop of any flavor ever in my life.

2 comments:

Molly Daniels said...

My mom never caught on to the fact that I HATED plain Pringles. I never ate them; I simply threw them away. I loved the mornings when she would put Spaghetti-O's in my thermos!

But when I made my own lunch, it was mainly lunchmeat and cookies. I too HATE jelly! And my fav Peanut Butter is Peter Pan. Am I ever glad it's back on the market!

Have you tried steaming yourself? Extremely hot shower, or leaning over a pot of boiling water with a towel draped over your head? Was going to suggest the honey-lemon drops or Delsym...and then I saw your comment at the end. Hugs, sweetie; I'm coughing year round due to asthma. Come on over; you can use my inhaler!

Phoenix said...

For sore throat: Gargle with warm salt water as needed. It takes down the swelling and reduces the pain.

I had ham sandwiches and raisins everyday for lunch. I hate both now and cannot eat either. I can eat ham and I can eat bread but not together. I gag. So you could have just told her you did it to death and can't stand them now. It was certainly true for me and still is.