I’ve mentioned it in passing a couple of times in different blog entries that my memory is atrocious. I really don’t remember much of anything from my childhood, school years, high school and college years. Heck, I just don’t remember that much about anything. Tim thinks it’s the Diet Coke I drink that is zapping my brain cells! I don’t know what to think – I used to have a pretty good memory and I still do about certain things (trivia, history, all-things-Tim) 🙂 But a lot of things just don’t stick in my brain. One of the worst for me is people – people’s faces, where I know them from, and mostly, their names.
One thing I am fairly decent about remembering, though, is food. I remember different foods I have eaten at certain places. I remember a few things from my childhood that relate to food, although probably not nearly enough.
I have thought of this often and have meant to blog about it. I read two articles last week in the local papers, plus this blog entry that Amanda wrote. The first article was in the Clarion Ledger, by one of the food writers (Robert St. John), and he wrote about “Pixie Sticks and Marathon Bars: A Sweet Childhood” (the article is here on the Clarion Ledger website, but I have serious doubts that it will be there long. They don’t seem to keep content for more than a week or two.) The other article was in the Madison County Herald, by a guy named Rusty Reeves. It was entitled “Old Food Joints fed more than just your stomach”. Again, I found the article online here but I doubt it will be there for long. Both of these jogged up memories for me (BEWARE – extremely long and rambling post ahead):
I remember going down to Presh’s house and wanting one thing – her chicken and rice. I remember it being wonderful. I don’t think anyone else does, and I can’t quite put my finger on why it was so special to me. Maybe it’s because she made it just for me! 🙂 I remember it being warm and comforting. I remember it tasted good to me, maybe just not to anyone else!
Anyway, back to the articles I have read lately that spurred on all this waxing nostalgic about food! 🙂
Robert St John wrote about Pixie Sticks. I actually remember those, and I liked them! Nothing like a straw full of pure flavored sugar to pour down your throat! I have a few vague memories of walking to the “Tote-Sum”, which was the convenience store right near the house where I grew up, across from Callaway High School. I would save my allowance (just some change) and buy Pixie Sticks and these little football-shaped chocolates. I would come home and get a plastic knife and cut the footballs in half, to make the chocolate last longer! 
I don’t remember what else I might have gotten at the store. I have always loved candy and sweets, so I’m sure it was anything and everything I had money for.
And, as I would expect, I really have no memories of getting candy on Easter or Halloween. I’m sure I did, but I don’t remember it. I really don’t remember ever going trick or treating, although I’m sure I must have. I don’t remember any costumes, or going with either of my parents or sisters. I do, however, remember taking Kirk when he was little, and I loved that. 🙂
Rusty Reeves wrote in the Herald about eating at small food joints in local towns. He mentioned a couple in Newton that I asked Tim if he had ever heard of, but he had not. That made me think about eating out around north Jackson, where I grew up. Again, it’s probably just my terrible memory, but I have hardly any memories of going out to eat growing up. I don’t think we ever went out much, probably because of lack of money. I remember my mom cooking a lot. I don’t really remember what she cooked, nothing really stands out in my mind. I remember more of the things I didn’t like to eat than the things I did like to eat! I remember smells of things cooking that I didn’t like, like mustard greens and cabbage. I remember beets, which I loathe and despise and is a whole other story in itself! I don’t remember a special meal on my birthday, or a cake, although I imagine I had one. Unless there are pictures of me with a cake, I probably wouldn’t ever remember it! 🙂
I don’t really remember going out to restaurants… except – I do have a vague memory about going through a cafeteria line, like at Morrisons, and wanting macaroni and cheese. I have a little blip of a memory of going to the Bonanza restaurant, but I don’t remember with whom or when. I’m not sure if that’s when I was older, like a teenager and driving. And I do have one memory of going to Red Lobster with my parents and “Uncle Pierre”, who wasn’t my uncle at all, but was a friend of my dad’s from the Navy, and I called him Uncle Pierre. I remember my Uncle Frank coming once or twice, but I don’t remember going out to eat.
Oh, one thing I do remember, and I guess I was a little older, was going to pick up food at Pasquale’s on North State Street. I would go with Suzie and I remember there was a certain food that either Suzie or Stan ate, I think it was a muffaletta. Not sure, I’d have to check with Suzie on that one. But I do remember going there, and that was a big deal. Sometimes we would eat in there and sometimes we would pick it up and take it home. I don’t ever remember going to other food places to pick up food to take home and eat.
We didn’t have pizza delivery in those days (I actually remember when pizza delivery started up in Jackson, I was in college and a Dominoes opened on North State St. so that they could deliver to Millsaps and Belhaven. Smart move! We loved to order pizza in the dorm and did it often. Somtimes really late at night. Gone are the days that I could eat all the pizza I wanted at 11 PM and not gain an ounce. I wish that was still true!). Anyway, I digress. No pizza delivery when I was growing up, but I do remember making pizza with Gail and Suzanne sometimes on the weekend. I don’t remember the actual cooking process, just that one of them would put me up on the counter and let me help.
I also have an intense love of what I call “pigs in a blanket”. I’m sure these stem from my childhood, and possibly like the pizza, was something that Gail and Suzanne made on the weekends that I was allowed to help with. I still make them to this day, and I love them! Basically, a weinie stuffed inside a crescent roll (although I think we used a tube of biscuits back then). You cut a slit in the weinie and stuff some bar cheese in there, and then wrap it up. You end up with a weinie inside a bun with a nice blob of melted cheese in it. Ah, the memories! 🙂
Some of my other food memories come from later in life. I worked at Primos in high school and college, and I learned to try new things there. I actually learned to eat salad there. I don’t think I ate salad growing up. My mom would fix “a salad” with our meal, but it was hardly ever a lettuce concoction. Her idea of salad was English pea salad or three bean salad, or a piece of fruit (she was partial to pear and peach halves) put on a single piece of lettuce with a huge dollop of mayonnaise on top. Or “congealed” salads, she loved those, especially in the summer. Jello with fruit or something added. Ick. 🙂 I learned to eat “green salad” at Primos, because we were allowed to have a salad and a certain level of meal to eat free after our shift was over (we couldn’t have the expensive stuff, but things on the menu that went up to a certain dollar amount). I loved the Primos house salad, which was doused in their homemade Italian dressing. It was good. I have found that one of my favorite Italian places, Fratesi’s, has a salad that really takes me back to those days, it tastes almost identical! 🙂
I learned to eat mushrooms in college. I used to go with some friends to Keifers, near the Baptist hospital, and sit out on the patio on Friday afternoons, enjoying some food and drink and just winding down from a week’s worth of classes. Someone ordered fried mushrooms one day and I wouldn’t touch them with a ten foot pole. Someone dared me, I think, and I tried it, and instantly fell in love with mushrooms. Now, I can eat them any way, any how, any time. Love love love them, all kinds. 😀
I remember a place that Suzanne took me to when I started working downtown after college. It was called Constantines and it was in the basement of Capital Towers. It was a Greek place and it was the first time I had ever heard of moussaka. Suzie would eat it, but I wasn’t brave enough to try (and actually, to this day, I have never had moussaka). But, what I did love in there, was their steak sandwiches. Oh. My. Goodness. They were so good. I would order them for lunch, and they would be hot and greasy and have a bunch of hot, greasy fries on the side. It was insanely good!
I learned to eat cabbage in my 30’s! Tim and I went to Big Cedar a few years ago and ate a couple of really nice meals at one of the restaurants there. One of the entrees I ordered had a kind of braised cabbage with bacon on the side, and I was like, what is this? Tim said, it looks like cabbage, and tasted it and declared it delicious. Tim is really good about getting me to try things, and so I did, and fell in love with it too. Now, I love cabbage and fix it a lot at home. I either steam it or stir fry it. And, one of my most favorite dishes to get out, is at Golden Dragon here in Madison, it’s their shrimp with cabbage. It is Di-Vine.
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