THE CASE OF GIGGLES!

Recalling some of my childhood memories centered around the family at the table.

It seemed that I had a full blown case of the "giggles" at the table on this occasion. Every time I looked at my sister, we would burst out laughing. What we were laughing about, is totally unknown. It got so bad, that our father told us we had to leave the table. They separated us so we could get over what was so funny. They put my sister in the "wash room" (actually today, it would be the bathroom, absent of a tub). They put me in the family room. There was only one problem with this plan, we still was able to see each other. I don't remember whether we ate supper that night or not, since we kept on laughing.

Another memory was when my mother served round steak. Now round steak needs to be chewed up quite well, since the pieces seem to cling together. This particular day, I jumped up from the table, I couldn't say a word. I ran into the family room. I was totally choking on this beef steak in my throat. My father apparently knew what was the matter, and followed me into the family room. He reached in my throat with his long finger and pulled out the steak. If you have had an experience of choking, you will never forget it. I have had a few times that I couldn't get my breath for some reason or another. It totally freaks you out! My dad saved my life that day!

My mother loved to cook and we lacked nothing in the way of food. She was a very good cook and prided herself in her ability. However, when you are young, you sometimes don't appreciate everything that seems to be on your plate. One of the rules at our house, if you take it, you must eat it. There was a shelf under our kitchen table, that was there to add support for the table.
This little shelf was the ideal place to store anything that one didn't want to eat. You had to eat everything, since there were starving children in the world. We were discovered when the table was moved and the contents of the shelf shifted a bit. Out came the uneaten roll, etc. onto the floor.

During the month of August, I didn't care what we had to eat as long as there were roasting ears of corn and sliced tomatoes to eat. This food memory lingers on and I still love corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes.

Since my dad's family came over from Germany/Switzerland, we had hot German Potato salad a lot. To this day, I do love potatoes fixed this way.

Thought--Our granddaughter (actually our grandson's wife) told me one day that she noticed that I like all kinds of food. I guess it all stemmed from eating up all that was on my plate.
We ate what was served, and there were no exceptions to the rule. Of course, my mother would try to cook the dishes that all of us liked. But once these dishes were on the table, we couldn't order special favors to be served to us. Hence, I learned to like what was set before me.