Reverting to Childhood

I’ve been at my grandparents’ house since last night. Grandpa gave me directions from the airport in Phoenix; having no idea the car rental place is miles from the airport, not giving me any sense of direction from his starting point. I managed to arrive anyway.

 

One of the great things about visiting them is that Grandma always makes the best (best tasting, not best for you) food. Since I was a mere shorter, younger smartass, I have loved her beef and noodles. Only people from the Midwest would understand what I mean. They bravely waited for my arrival, which was much later than their normal supper hour. After a brief hello, we all sat down to noodles, steaming hot veggies, salad, and dessert. I love that she goes to all the trouble to make my favorite thing this side of Uni.

 

A couple of things about Midwesterners of a certain age--first, lunch is called dinner and dinner is called supper. You only have a real supper on Sundays, and that’s when the family and/or friends gather around to join in, otherwise the evening meal is leftovers. Supper is an occasion. I would guess that heavier mid-day meals dates back to the farmers who needed to get the energy up to complete all of the day’s tasks.

 

No matter how old they get or how difficult it is to prepare, they manage to prepare three square meals every day. Very few cans or frozen packages are involved. Back in the day, I remember them canning and freezing fresh fruits and vegetables for the months ahead. It reminded me of how far removed we are from those days of true self-reliance when a homemade meal was prepared at my house and Ben said, “Geez, Mom, haven’t you ever heard of a store?” Grocery stores back home never saw an avocado or a zucchini ever, much less fresh tomatoes in winter. Almost everyone had a garden and boxes of Mason jars for canning that were treasured like the finest china. I remember being out in the garden, “helping” grandma pick strawberries. I’d pop two into my mouth for every one I put in the basket. She still remembers that, and had strawberry pie for lunch today.

 

I’ve spent much of the morning helping Grandpa with his computer. He is pretty tech savvy for a guy in his 80s. However, some of the finer points elude him. I ran some diagnostics, found the problem with his IE, downloaded a couple of tools, and am setting him up with Instant Messenger he can chat with my mom, who is currently not doing phone calls, and I’ve set him up a little web page. It’s good to be needed by people who took such good care of me all those years ago.

 

Grandpa kept asking me what I wanted to “do” today. I told him I spend all of my time “doing,” so just “being” was going to work very well for just this day.

Published on: Feb 20, 2006