Thanks Mom for the Sandwiches

I like to read a lot. And have quite a few books here, most of which I have read multiple times. Sometimes I ruffle through them looking for ones I have not really read yet. I found a book that I bought about writing. "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. One way she got her students to think of ideas to write about was by having them talk about the lunch they took to school when they were kids. How pretty much everyone had store bought white bread, bologna or peanut butter with grape jelly, store bought cookies... If your lunch was different you were that odd kid out...

Well of course that was me. My mom made our bread. We had homemade cookies. Maybe an apple. Sometimes we had soup in our thermos. I ate lunch with my best friend who had homemade tortillas in her lunch. And yes we set off by the side. Wierdos? Maybe. I just remember being happy to be sitting with a friend eating lunch at a picnic table in the warm sunshine. Tasting tortillas for the first time when we shared our lunch. We were 6 and in first grade.

Now I am thinking of my mom's homemade bread. If I was really lucky, when she made it I got the heel of the loaf covered in melty butter practically as soon as it came out of the oven. Oh that warm, yeasty smell. If I close my eyes I can still smell it. Yum.

Of course this leads to another kid memory. Once, without asking us what we would like, mom got us a "special treat" when we were off for a picnic at the park. And of course we hated the pink spongey balls that she bought. I remember taking a bite. Rubbery on the outside. Dry cake on the inside. Ugh. I don't remember asking for store bought cookies for a long time after that. And I still get disappointed by how perfectly the same they look and how lacking in flavor they are. Way to go mom.

Maybe people are that way too?

Thanks for the walk down memory lane Anne Lamott. And this exercise did make me think of all kinds of ideas to write about. Too bad I didn't jot them down. ;)