What a lovely day it is. We have light, fluffy clouds, but they don’t hide the sun. The trees have tiny bright green leaves. Spring is in full force. We will reach the very low 60’s. It is another day to be out and about.

When I was a kid, one of the best parts of spring was shedding outside clothes. Gone were the layers. I wore my spring jacket. On sunny, soft mornings, I sometimes even skipped on my way to school. The coming of spring lifted the heaviness of winter.

My clothes when I was a kid were divided into school clothes, church clothes and play clothes. The school clothes were always a uniform. The church clothes were a dress or a skirt and a blouse. The play clothes were pants, usually jeans and a blouse. My play clothes were always my favorites. I loved comfort.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but my play clothes were a uniform of sorts as we all wore about the same looking clothes. My jeans were girl jeans. They had a side zipper and a fake looking zipper spot in the front. The denim was softer than boy jeans. Sometimes my jeans had an expandable waist. I usually wore a blouse with my jeans, short sleeves in the summer and long sleeves in the winter. The only variation was the color of my blouse. My sneakers were Keds. They started out white.

When I worked, I wore a dress every day. That started in Ghana where women always wore a dress. I didn’t really mind as a dress was far cooler, temperature cooler, than pants. I wore dresses I had made from Ghanaian cloth. I wore sandals. At night, I wore a really ugly sort of dress-robe from the outside shower to the back door of my house. I wore minimal clothes to bed.

When I got back home from Ghana, I still had to wear a dress when I taught. I also wore nylons. I hated them. After work, I’d change from my school clothes to my play clothes as that’s what I still called them.

Since retirement, I almost always wear my play clothes. I love comfort.

Today is cloudy but warm, and tonight too will be warm, finally out of the 30’s. I have no plans for the day. I am choosing a day of rest, a sloth day if you will.

My father always cooked Sunday breakfast when I’d visit. He’d stand at the stove with a dish towel over his shoulder. He used the cast iron frying pan. Before cooking, he’d ask how I wanted my eggs. Fried was usually my answer. My father would also cook bacon. I was in charge of toast. In my mind’s eye, I can still see him bent over the stove with the towel over his right shoulder and a spatula in his hand as he tended to the eggs.

I had tuna every Friday for lunch when I was a kid as we couldn’t eat meat on Fridays. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were never an option as we didn’t like them for lunch. They became messy sandwiches sitting for so long in the lunch box. The jelly, almost always Welch’s Grape Jelly, used to soak into the bread, the soft Wonder bread, and leave a big jelly spot in the middle of the sandwich. I don’t eat tuna now. I had eaten a lifetime of tuna by the time I was in high school and could buy a hot lunch. I don’t eat peanut butter and jelly either. I do eat fluffernutters.

My mother used to make specials foods for her parties. I remember her Swedish meatballs. They were kept warm in her copper sort of fondue pot. The pot always emptied. She also made shrimp dip. The shrimp came in those little real glasses everyone saved. I actually have a shrimp dip story. I was making it for my mother and didn’t check the top of the blender. I hadn’t secured it. I started the blender, the top fell off and shrimp dip flew all over me and the kitchen. To call it a mess is understating what the kitchen looked like.

I don’t like Jello. I don’t even like the look of Jello. I remember Jello with fruit hanging inside it, disgusting. I don’t eat Spam though my father did and my sister does. I figure it must be really popular because in 1959 the billionth can was sold. My father first ate it in World War II. He liked it right out of the can. I am not a fan of cream corn, neither its looks nor its taste.

We all have comfort foods. Mine mostly date from my childhood. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and peas were one of my favorite dinners. My mother always put ketchup and bacon on the top of the meatloaf. The bacon got crisp, and I used to try steal a piece. I think the one comfort food we all share is tomato soup and grilled cheese. On a cold, wintry day, it is the most magnificent combination for lunch.