In general, we were good eaters. Living on next-to-nothing led us to be happy when our stomachs were full. There were, however, exceptions. The notable "onion soup episode" may be recounted later, but today is about the cheese. This cheese was not from some hip, retro restaurant; it was on the clearance rack at our Kroger deli. It must have been almost free for our family to pick up any ready- made item at the store. Little did our mother know what she was getting herself in to.
Lunch time. We all filtered in to the kitchen at our mother's call and sat down, expecting something normal. On our plates were sandwiches, filled with something alien. It was orange, chunky, and dotted with red jewels of mystery. The smell was not helping.
We all came to the decision that this was not our lunch. Mom must have something else for us to eat. When we explained this to her, she was not amused and said that despite our perceptions this was, indeed, what we were to have for lunch. We were not wise at this point, and decided that a sit-in was in order. Our portions were reduced, but a quarter of a sandwich remained on each of our plates, and we would sit in our seats until it was gone.
Breklyn and Jesse force-fed themselves their tiny lunches and gleefully ran off to play with everyone else's toys while we suffered. Zach tasted the sandwich and immediately made himself throw up, as was his practice in those days. Mom decided he was not her battle ground for the day and sent him off to run around naked in the back yard, as was another of his practices in those days.
Two hours later, Truly, Dusty, and Anna remained. At this point the stakes had been raised. The options were spanking or the sandwich. Truly took her spanking, as she was more used to this than any of us. Dusty and I chose to eat the sandwiches in the end. I don't remember what it tasted like or if it was even that bad, but I still remember the taste of that wasted afternoon.
Lunch time. We all filtered in to the kitchen at our mother's call and sat down, expecting something normal. On our plates were sandwiches, filled with something alien. It was orange, chunky, and dotted with red jewels of mystery. The smell was not helping.
We all came to the decision that this was not our lunch. Mom must have something else for us to eat. When we explained this to her, she was not amused and said that despite our perceptions this was, indeed, what we were to have for lunch. We were not wise at this point, and decided that a sit-in was in order. Our portions were reduced, but a quarter of a sandwich remained on each of our plates, and we would sit in our seats until it was gone.
Breklyn and Jesse force-fed themselves their tiny lunches and gleefully ran off to play with everyone else's toys while we suffered. Zach tasted the sandwich and immediately made himself throw up, as was his practice in those days. Mom decided he was not her battle ground for the day and sent him off to run around naked in the back yard, as was another of his practices in those days.
Two hours later, Truly, Dusty, and Anna remained. At this point the stakes had been raised. The options were spanking or the sandwich. Truly took her spanking, as she was more used to this than any of us. Dusty and I chose to eat the sandwiches in the end. I don't remember what it tasted like or if it was even that bad, but I still remember the taste of that wasted afternoon.
The spanking was no where near as bad as the smell from that sandwich.
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