“You have to taste a culture to understand it”
Today is a fall day, partly cloudy and in the mid 50’s, sweater weather for sure. The once bright red leaves on the branch outside my window have started to turn brown, and their edges are folded inward. Some have already fallen. I can see the coming winter as I watch the changes in the leaves.
When I was a kid, I layered for walks to school on chilly mornings like today’s. Winter coats were too heavy and just a jacket wasn’t enough. I’d wear my thickest sweater with my jacket. At school, I’d take the sweater off and leave it in the cloak room. It was too hot for inside.
In school, our day was regimented by bells, hand held bells. Someone would stand by the railing on the highest floor and ring the bell into the air over the railing so all the floors could hear. Each classroom had clocks, the usual sort of school clocks, but the bells ruled the day. The only time I clock watched was to keep an eye on how close we were getting to the end of the school day.
We had recess after lunch unless it rained. During recess, the boys stayed on one side of the school yard, the girls on the other. When we were younger, the boys ran around chasing each other and screaming. The girls jump roped or played hopscotch. When we were older, the boys played basketball, and the girls stood in groups talking, a lot of times about the boys.
When I was growing up, most of the vegetables came from cans. Summer corn and home grown tomatoes were the few exceptions. We didn’t eat anything exotic. We had potatoes just about every night. We had peas, green and yellow wax beans and French green beans, the only beans I’d eat, kernel and cream corn and hidden carrots mashed with the potatoes. I never minded eating veggies except for baked beans. I always thought they were gross looking, mushy and brown.
We had apples, oranges, bananas, tangerines at Thanksgiving and strawberry shortcake in the summer. We also liked pears, but my mother didn’t buy them often. We did eat some off the tree behind a neighbor’s fence. They were always hard.
It wasn’t until Ghana that I tried strange fruits and vegetables. I recognized tomatoes and onions but that was about all. I ate okra, plantain, garden eggs, mango, pawpaw, tuber yam, cassava, fresh coconut and fresh pineapple. My taste buds came alive. I became a bit audacious. I tried everything. I liked just about all of it. I didn’t like cassava.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
October 17, 2024 at 3:27 pm
Hi Kat,
Today is bright sunny with a high temperature of only72°. Although it feels like fall, ninety degree temperatures are expected by the weekend.
Every school I attended in the Dallas Independent School district had bells for period changes that were tied to the clock somewhere, probably in the office.
My mother bought both canned as well as frozen vegetables. In those days the frozen ones always came from the Birds Eye company. I remember when we moved into our house in Northwest Dallas, we had a refrigerator with two doors. The door on the top was for the freezer. Previously, we lived in apartments which had smaller single door refrigerators with a small freezer section. I remember my mother having to defrost the entire thing.
My wife brought home a flat of yellow peaches from Costco. They are ripening on the kitchen counter. I love summer fruit and this probably the last peaches of the season. I like citrus fruit in the fall and winter.
My mother never had a problem getting me to eat vegetables and fruit. My favorite vegetable is corn in any form, followed by asparagus, Brussels Sprouts, and tomatoes. Tomatoes are really a fruit. We always had a mixed green salad with dinner. My father insisted that the salad always came before the main course. He would mix up the dressing and the vegetables in a large wooden bowel, serve us our portions in small wooden bowls, and he would eat his portion from the big bowl.
October 17, 2024 at 8:59 pm
Hi Bob,
It stayed chilly all day. I wore only a flannel shirt, and it wasn’t quite warm enough. It is time to pi Lloyd out the fleece, at least for tomorrow. We are also getting warm weather this weekend, maybe the low 70’s.
It was in what we called the old school where they sued hand bells. It was built in 1910 so it was old when I started there. Later they build the new school which had actual electronic bells. Both school are still being used.
My father used to defrost the fridge. He liked the job. It too had a small freezer. I don’t remember when, but my mother started buying frozen vegetables because they tasted so much better than canned. She also started serving fresh veggies. My father loved canned asparagus, always did.
I learned that fruit had seeds while vegetables didn’t. That means that squash too is a fruit though I suspect most people think it is a vegetable.
Peas and corn are my favorites. I only like summer tomatoes.