When I was little and
ready to eat my food, I listened to what had been said before about it. And
trust me I heard a lot. And I remembered it even if it were true or not. My
grandmother told me that tapioca was made with “fish eyes:” Think I ever wanted
to eat that as a kid? Uh no. Had problems with that stuff until adult age.
Heard that Jello was
made from scraping the insides of horse’s ears. Now really, as a young kid, my
mind went zooming into who knows where and I had never seen the inside of a
horse’s ears but the thought of it was a major sickening thought.
My mom would never
buy cling peaches for she told me “They slide down your throat like a
goldfish.” Yes, I knew what goldfish were because I must have coerced my
grandparents or my mom to buy me one at the ten cent store about once a month.
[And I don’t know whatever happened to them all, but that’s another story.] Did
I ever try to swallow a goldfish? Never. What an icky thought that turned me
off big time to cling peaches; like my mom, I ate “freestone” peaches.
I was told that if I
swallowed watermelon seeds that a watermelon would grow in my stomach. “Just
what every kid wants to happen” said no one ever. And so I well remember going
out to the curb to have to eat my slice of watermelon and spit the seeds out
into the street—that was because I lived in the city and times were safe then.
“Better eat that; it
will stick to your ribs” I heard too many times and it was really scary to
think what would happen if that food did stick to my ribs because what would
happen?
Throughout my
childhood, I heard so many horror stories about how foods were made or what
they had in them, that it’s no wonder I have qualms about certain foods to this
very day. But it’s even worse now for the contents of packaged or canned foods
have to list the contents. Try looking at those sometime if you dare.
My list could go on
and on and I’m sure you were told a bunch of horror things about food as well.
One thing’s for sure: You never forget what you heard despite the fact that they
might be true or not. Rest my case.
Sherry Hill
Copyright © 2016
Sherry Hill
All Rights Reserved
