Through the Golden Arches
5:44 p.m. - 2003-11-06


I was coming out of Safeway after work today, and a fragrant batch of fried chicken smell enveloped me. This unexpectedly brought back a memory of my teen years that I haven't thought of in a long time. On two occasions in my childhood, my parents managed to scrape up enough time, money, and fortitude to take all six kids to Disneyland. The last time we went, I was about 15 or so, and it was during the season of the year that my paternal grandparents, Mimi and Chas, were visiting. They must have begged off the 6-hour car trip with 8 other people in the station wagon (who wouldn't?) because they stayed home and we went. A fun time was had by all, and then we started the long drive home.

We got to about an hour from home and the parents gave us all one last treat - we stopped for hamburgers. We hardly ever, ever, got fast food, because money was very tight in those days, so this was a fantastic treat. I remember that we were allowed to pick out what we wanted, and being adventurous (and dumb), I chose the fish sandwich. We also got fries and a drink! We munched along home, arriving full to the gills. My mom went in first and came right out as we were gathering up our gear, and she whispered to us that Mimi and Chas had thought we would arrive hungry and had fixed us a big spread. She told us we could not hurt their feelings so would have to eat again. We came in to fried chicken and fruit cocktail salad, and mashed potatoes. We had to sit down and dig in, and it was horrible and yet nice at the same time. You can tell from this story how my parents raised their kids to be kind and thoughtful. Makes my stomach hurt to remember my grandmother proudly bringing out the dessert afterwards. Groan.

Last night Jellie brought over the remaining half of her pie and we all got to try it out. Not at all bad! I am going to have to try the recipe with another combo of fruits for Thanksgiving. I just got some Morrello cherries from Trader Joe's so that could be good with apples and a little cinnamon. He says we may drive to Sebastopol this weekend and get some apples, as we were supposed to do last weekend, but I forgot.