When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #24

Story #24-You have to eat it – a finatisimal small bite!
Have you ever had to eat something your mom or dad made you eat and you didn’t want to eat it or you thought it would taste yuck?

My mom had a rule in our house when I was growing up. You ate ‘everything’ on the table and on your plate. If you took it, you had to eat it, all of it! Even if we didn’t like something that was for dinner, you had to take at least ‘two bites!’ She would say, “Try it, you may find out you like it. You have to take two bites and they can be infinitesimally small bites, but you have to eat it!” Infinitesimally means that it is a very, very small amount.

My mom and dad, your great grandparents, were born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They loved to eat seafood. My oldest bother Geoff also loved seafood. I did not like it so much. She loved to fix and eat oyster stew. She also loved to fix and eat split pea soup. Those two were my most hated foods! I didn’t mind the soup broth from the oyster stew. It’s just those oysters tasted slimy and awful to me. To this day I can vividly remember how they taste and how they went down my throat. I begged not to eat it. I ate the broth and asked, “Do I have to take a finatisimal bite?” I couldn’t pronounce that word correctly. And she would say, “Yes you do!” I gagged and threw up at the table one night and boy was my mother mad! She said, “How could I do such a thing?! They were perfectly good oysters and what a waste!” I had very large tonsils and I didn’t take much to make me choke or gag. I eventually had to have my tonsils removed and so did my brother Douglas. Anyway, every time that an oyster got near the back of my throat my gag reflex kicked and fought and my mind said, ‘No way that oyster is going down there! Yuck!” I told my mom how I hated those things and I would drink the broth but no way would I eat those oysters! Well, she relented and said, “Well we’re not going waste good oysters; you can drink the broth.” I would crush up saltine crackers and I loved eating the broth with crackers. My older brother Geoff quickly volunteered he would love to have my share! He and my mom would each take an equal share of my oysters. Thank goodness! I told my mom that when I grew up I would not make my kids eat oysters! I never did either!

Then there was the split pea soup. Now I like peas, sweet peas are my favorite. I even like them in salads. My mom would make a big pot of split pea soup and add bits of ham. I had to eat a small bowlful and I would drown it with crackers. I could stomach that soup but I had the strongest urge in my throat to gag! That is another soup that I never made my kids eat. Again, my oldest brother Geoff loved the soup. He could eat a whole pot full! Nasty! Yuck! One day the soup was left out too long and whoever was assigned dish duty that night forgot to put the soup away. My mom had some the next day and got sick, food poisoning. It was because of the ham in it. The pea soup was okay, but you cannot leave ham out as it will spoil. She had to throw away her delicious pea soup. Well, I sure was cheering inside myself, wahoo, I don’t have to eat that again! I felt bad my mom got sick. I was just mighty glad I didn’t have to eat that soup!

There was a third food I hated to eat. It was brussels sprouts! Bleck! They tasted and smelled like bad stinky socks! Eewww! Yuck! My twin brother Gayle hated them too. He would stuff them in his pocket or asked to be excused for a minute to go to the bathroom and spit them out! We both hated them! I remember having to sit at the table one night and not being excused. I had left those two brussels sprouts on my plate and I was stubborn and was 'NOT' going to eat them. My mother was just as stubborn and would not let me leave the table! After sitting at the table for half an hour after everyone else was gone and admitting to myself that my mom was not going to let me leave the table, I finally just held my breath, chewed them up and swallowed them! My mom didn’t fix them often but the next time she fixed them while she wasn’t looking, I pretended to cough and put them in my hand and stuffed them in my pocket! Good plan my twin brother had! He never got caught and neither did I! I told my mom about that years later when I was grown up and she said, “You two little stinkers! I never knew that!” To which I replied, “Good! We hated brussels sprouts and my kids will never eat them in my house because I will never fix them! ” We both laughed about that.

When I had my own family I did have them take ‘two bites’ and at least try all kinds of foods. I don’t think I ever made them eat something that they absolutely hated. I well remember how I felt when I was a kid and I did not want to force them to eat something and get sick.