Yuk...Brussel Sprouts!

"Just taste it, you might be surprised, you'll like it!" laments a frustrated parent. "No way!" is the immediate response from their disgusted child. I cannot remember how many times during the course of a day I hear remarks along those lines. Thinking way back I can remember still sitting at the dinner table, two hours after dinner was finished, with two peas on my plate. I had made the ultimate mistake of announcing before the dinner hour started "I ate peas at Teresa's house the other night and they were good!" For the record, Teresa was my best friend during my early childhood years. Although we didn't see much of each other after our school years, we would occasionally bump into each other at the grocery store. The friendship was once again renewed after she began frequenting Fred's News every weekend. As she entered the front door with her now grown daughter and grand kids, (she had no idea we owned the place,)we both just stared and then laughed, totally amused at how our lives had come first circle. It was a though we had seen each other everyday for all those years. Teresa continued to be a regular at Fred's News until we sold the place in November of 2007. About a year or so after we relocated to Florida, I received the news she had passed away. Looking back I see only the happy times of youth. We walk to the school bus together every morning. During the summer months we'd swim in the Yantic River swimming hole,(OMG), and during the winter, sledding at Sharp's field, now the Norwich Industrial Park and yes, we'd eat dinner at each other's homes on a regular basis. Which in a round about way bring me back to my original point. My God, I am beginning to write like I talk...get to the point!

The peas sitting on my plate bore no resemblance to the pretty little plump things I had consumed at Teresa's house the previous evening. These two olive drab shriveled things looked disgusting! However, they were peas! Point well taken but those ugly "bad boys" were not going to pass my lips. Had I kept my mouth shut, I could of been outside playing with the rest of the neighborhood kids on an awesome summer night!

At Fred's News were spent many years joking and laughing with young children not wanting to eat what the parents had ordered. Although none ever sat there for two hours, with two ugly peas on there plates, there were some tense moments at best. Kids preferred sausage patties over sausage links, crusts cut off the toast and made into little triangle shapes. Cinnamon sugar was also a big plus. Apple Jacks and Alpha Bits cereal also wiped away many a tear. One young man, who later worked for us, had been coming into the store from birth. Josh was a character at best,an outstanding young man whose taste buds were developed well beyond his years. Both his parents, professional people, were at times at wits end as to what Josh wanted to eat. As a toddler he'd spend the day at daycare being picked up by the parent who was finished with their day first. So that Mom and Dad could enjoy a late dinner, many times Josh would have a quick snack at Fred's News on the way home. His loving daycare provider served him his nightly dinner. Josh's snacks were not that of normal three year old palate. Olives and anchovies just to name a couple gives you an idea of his preferences. By the times Josh was eleven or twelve he was able to cook the family a gourmet meal, really!! Although a fantastic athlete, Josh preferred to cook, browse through restaurant magazines or catalogs which we provided, grow herbs on the edge of the sunken tub in the family bathroom, (the humidity and light from the skylight provided excellent growing conditions!)or just plain experiment with foods. To bad he hadn't been my mother's child...he loved peas...just for the record..."No, I did not consume those peas...they scarred me for life." Actually I love peas now...fresh one only, much better color. My diet is mostly and quite ironically...VEGETARIAN.....and yuk, I don't do BRUSSEL SPROUTS, ugly and slightly larger green things!!