My unnatural childhood

Read a wonderful poem about a friend's childhood days. One aspect that stood out is the wholesome food description...it involved fruit (and not "Froot Loops") When I think about being a kid, I remember being the envy of all in the food department. (Many a kid said, "I wish your mom was my mom!") Why? well, yes, my mom was cool- in that she didn't really inquire too much as to what we were doing, basically, "Mom we're going outside!" was descriptive enough for her. Going outside could mean "We're going outside to force my little sister to eat grass!" or "We're going outside to use a magnifying glass to catch stuff on fire!"

My mom did feed us nutritious meals, but much to our delight and the envy of our friends, my mother was not plagued with a fear of too much sugar, and she was very trusting of processed foods. My mom basically was not worried about such things- "a little sugar isn't going to kill you!" or "You're a kid, have a little fun!"

The "little sugar" we had in summer meant "Kool Aid" where you add the two heaping cups of sugar, and we had all manner of hostess cupcakes, twinkies, and instead of orange juice, we had Tang ("It should be healthy, you have to be healthy to be an astronaut") and white bread sandwiches- ahhh....wonderbread.

Mom stood in stark contrast to her own mother- Grandma. Grandma could not abide white bread, so with her it was whole wheat all the way. Not only would Grandma not serve Tang, she wouldn't serve store bought orange juice- any orange juice we got at her house was fresh squeezed. When I was about 10, she went on kind of a wheat germ "craze" if you will- when I stayed at her house she mixed a tablespoon of wheat germ into just about everything we ate and drank. She sent me home with a jar of wheat germ, with instructions to tell mom to add a tablespoon of wheat germ into our food at home. I thought about not telling mom about the wheat germ and getting rid of the jar, but I knew that Grandma would definitely be asking about the wheat germ. I was left to contemplate the Tang/wheat germ combo...

Dutifully, I handed mom the jar of wheat germ. She looked at the jar as if I handed her a dead rat. She took another drag of her cigarette. "God. I'm not going to put this saw-dust crap in our food. For pete's sake, we're not hippies." (its only a guess, but I think in mom's mind natural foods= hippies)

So, for all of grade school, I was proud in opening up my lunchbox with it's white bread sandwich, bright yellow Doritos and the the holy of holies, the foil wrapped hostess ding-dong cupcake. Maybe my memory is just embellishing the scene, but I'm sure I remember some kids audibly gasping at my lunch. Let's just say I always had a lot of leverage when it came time for lunchtime trades.

I try to strike a balance these days. We only have wheat bread at our house, and I do buy (store bought not fresh squeezed) orange juice. But NO- I do not put a tablespoon of wheat germ in our food. And, my daughter has cookies, chocolate peanutbutter ice cream, etc. and I buy capri sun juice packs, which she gives to her friends, because she has "the cool mom"- I feel duty bound to continue the tradition. It is true- a little sugar will not kill you, and if you're a kid you should have a little fun.