Where in the World Isn't Bob Saget?

[donaldtoo]

Yep, too darn cold…!!!!!

 

[Songbird76]

Wow. That is a lot, and I’m sorry your mother treated you that way.
It was never a malicious thing with my folks, it was just what was on the menu for that night, and if you chose not to eat it, you went hungry. I chose to never go hungry, and was grateful for whatever was put on the table…!!!
We also tried many new things when growing up, especially when living in No Cal from ‘68-‘76…steamed artichokes with mayo for dipping, lasagna, eggplant parmesan, pepper steaks, stuffed bell peppers, etc….!!!!!
Just call me Remy…!!!!!

Yeah, it might have been fine if going hungry had been an option, but it wasn't. You ate whatever she put on your plate, and you ate it ALL. And you'd better not make faces or gag or she'd GIVE you something to cry about. It was absolutely abusive, looking back. But, having that insight makes me, I hope, a better mom. I know what it feels like. I understand the anxiety that comes with a new food, and I can do more to make it feel safe to try things. And my kids will never have to worry about being punished because they didn't like something.

It wasn't until after I was no longer in my mom's house that I could start to try new things without feeling panicked. My husband has been really good for me in that regard because he always encouraged me to order what sounded good on a menu, make moderations if necessary, and if I didn't like it, no biggie....order something else. I always had a hard time because the rule in my house was that you don't cause problems. You order it as is, and you eat it how it comes. If you don't like it, order something else next time, but this time, you WILL clean your plate, and we'll sit here until you do, and we're going to shame you for taking a long time, or for making a face, etc. You ordered it, you eat it, and you do so without complaining! So my husband has been really instrumental in kind of breaking those barriers, making it ok not to like everything. And I think in the last 20 years or so, things have kind of shifted in restaurants, too....it's more common to make modifications now, to ask about ingredients, because there are so many allergies, dietary restrictions, religious restrictions....there's no such thing as one size fits all in the food industry anymore. So that helps a lot.

 

[Figgy1]

It feels like -21. Send help.

 

[Figgy1]

it even looks cold outside

 

[Songbird76]

My mom was raised in England after the war, while shortages and rations were still in effect. English food back then was pretty bland to start with - now factor in a dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables, with meat being the last food item to be de-rationed well into the 1950’s, and that would explain my mom’s extremely bland palette. I never had broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, or zucchini until I was an adult.

She never forced us to eat anything we didn’t want to, but she also didn’t cater to our whims either. Here’s supper. Eat it, or make yourself a peanut butter sandwich.

Thankfully, my dad’s parents lived with us until I was 9, and then within blocks of us for the majority of their remaining lives. Baba was Polish. Dida was Ukrainian. The garden was about 50’ x 80’. And the eatin’ was good!

There’s not much I won’t eat in terms of vegetables - raw tomatoes and eggplant (no matter how it’s prepared) being the main exceptions.

Oh wow! I didn't realize your mother wasn't born and raised in Canada. Did you ever go to England to visit family, or did the whole family come to Canada? My mom's family pretty much all moved from Germany to the US a few generations before she was born, and my dad's family emmigrated from England, Scotland, and Ireland hundreds of years ago, so we didn't really have much foreign influence in my family anymore by the time we were kids.

My mom was raised in the US during WWII. She was an oops, and her 2 older brothers were 10 and 13 years older than her, and her oldest brother was sent to the front lines in Europe. Her dad died when she was two, so her brothers kind of filled the role of father for her, and that oldest brother sent her little presents from Europe. He sent her some little wooden shoes from Belgium, and some lace gloves, a charm bracelet. She talked about air raid drills at home, and she had the ration stamp booklets from war rationing. I have an album with some of the stuff, because she came in and talked to my class about her memories when we were studying WWII in school. She was the age of most other kids' grandparents, which I think somewhat accounts for some of her very antiquated ideas about raising children.

I remember watching an episode of Home Improvement once, and Tim and Jill were babysitting their nieces or something? I remember there was a little girl, and she didn't want to eat whatever they were having and she was screaming and my mom seemed to be really mad, and she kept making comments at the TV like "I'd give that little girl something to scream about!" and in the show, I think they sent the little girl to her room while they ate, and she just screamed away. Dinner was long over with, and she emmerged from her room and said she was hungry, and Jill said she would make her a sandwich, and I remember my mother just fuming, and saying she could just starve if it had been HER child/niece/whatever. She had the chance to eat at dinner, and she didn't, and she certainly wouldn't be given a sandwich afterwards to reward her for her tantrum. She'd have gone hungry if SHE had been in charge and the girl would have had a sore bottom alongside it, because she'd have spanked that girl so hard she'd not have been able to sit for a week. I would never have been allowed to make myself a peanut butter sandwich if I didn't like what was served.

 

[Songbird76]

I thought I'd post some pictures from my walk yesterday.

I had never heard of this, but apparently Hair Ice is an uncommon phenomenon in which ice grows in hair-like structures. It only grows in very specific conditions, on dead wood, I think they said. Anyway, the news has been talking about it and how the conditions this weekend were right for it, and if you wanted to see it, you should go out walking in the woods. My favorite place to walk is on the outskirts of town on a street where there are only a few houses on one side, and a nature park on the other side, with lots of trees, and a little pond, etc. I found a couple of patches of Hair ice, but this one was the only one I could actually get near enough to take a picture where you can see it.



There were a lot of trees with these strings of ice hanging from them, and a lot of bushes and things with frozen spider webs on them, and little shrubs or trees with frozen tips, etc.



Anyway, it was a nice refreshing walk, and so beautiful.

 

[donaldtoo]

My mom was raised in England after the war, while shortages and rations were still in effect. English food back then was pretty bland to start with - now factor in a dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables, with meat being the last food item to be de-rationed well into the 1950’s, and that would explain my mom’s extremely bland palette. I never had broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, or zucchini until I was an adult.

She never forced us to eat anything we didn’t want to, but she also didn’t cater to our whims either. Here’s supper. Eat it, or make yourself a peanut butter sandwich.

Thankfully, my dad’s parents lived with us until I was 9, and then within blocks of us for the majority of their remaining lives. Baba was Polish. Dida was Ukrainian. The garden was about 50’ x 80’. And the eatin’ was good!

There’s not much I won’t eat in terms of vegetables - raw tomatoes and eggplant (no matter how it’s prepared) being the main exceptions.

I always love to hear some history like that…!!!
Both sets of my grandparents spoke fluent Czech, as well as fluent English. They both lived on farms of about 200 acres down in south central Texas.
Both of my parents grew up and worked on those farms, ‘til they graduated from high school, and set out on their own.
My grandparents grew acres of crops like cotton, corn, sorghum, etc., The stories I’ve heard from my parents over the years are many, such as picking cotton and trying to get to that water jug in the shade of a tree, at the end of the next row, as fast as they could…!!!!!
One year, when I was about 11, my grandparents on my Moms side grew a bunch of sugar cane. When we came from No Cal on summer vacation that year, we stripped all the leaves, cut the stalks down and the loaded them on a flatbed trailer. We took them to the farm of a neighbor to make molasses. We fed the stalks into a gas-powered press (back in the day, a mule attached to a long arm walked around the press in a circle to power it). The juice then ran into a large, shallow vat that had a fire/coals under it, and the juice cooked down into molasses…!!!!!
They also had huge gardens, right next to their farmhouses. They grew everything from cucumbers, green beans, okra and tomatoes, to cantaloupe, watermelon, etc.
They also had a lot of cattle, chickens, hogs, etc.
My grandmothers loved their “lady-like” things, such as Sunday dresses, doilies, flowers, etc., but they both could also just as easily don their boots, apron, bonnet and holstered hatchet, and head out to the hen house…a little later we’d all have fresh chicken noodle (homemade noodles) soup…!!!!!
Back in earlier days, they even did things like churn their own butter.
I remember having fresh milk from the cows.
Also, my grandmothers would scrape the cream off the top of the fresh milk, and then put it on a saucer with a little sugar and cinnamon…sooo good…!!!!!
Sorry, I, obviously, took a bit of another trip down memory lane there, and I could go on, but I won’t…you know your gettin’ older when these “trips” happen more often…!!!!!