Brain Food

Photo from flickr.com

I realized recently that many of the times in my life which I recall with much fondness I also associate with food. Without a doubt, the food I first fell in love with was my mom's pan-popped popcorn.

That heavenly, buttery smell of pan-popped corn brings a wealth of wonderful memories washing over me. Popcorn brings back fond recollections of rainy days. Back in Iowa a good rainstorm could outlast our ability to sit still in the house long enough for it to subside. Mom remedied this with popcorn. She would send us out to our front porch with the largest bowl she could find, filled to the brim with warm, salty popcorn. We would sit there on the porch for hours playing games of make-believe and loving every aspect of the rain, letting it fill our senses as we rationed the popcorn for as long as possible. Often we would take the bowl into our old, rundown garage, filled with forgotten boxes and a musty old couch. There we'd sit and munch and formulate plans of how to get Miss Mary Ann to see us through her Magic Mirror on Romper Room as well as choreographing our own song and dance numbers so that eventually we could become real Mouseketeers.

Popcorn was the only thing I enjoyed about the annual showing of Deafula at the local Deaf Club each October, a horror movie done completely in American Sign Language. My parents brought all of us kids along each year, regardless of the fact that Deafula spooked me to the core. I would sit completely beneath a blanket to escape the scenes on the large screen set up for this event, eating my fill of popcorn while occasionally peeking out as the drama unfolded.

After we moved to California, popcorn was a staple in every apartment we called home. It reminds me of evenings spent in front of the television, the whole family enjoying episodes of everything from The A-Team & MacGyver to The Wonder Years & Highway to Heaven while enjoying bowls full of popcorn. If we were lucky, they were accompanied by plastic Tupperware cups filled with red Kool-aid. As we kids grew older, popcorn was a treat we shared with our friends as we would all gather around the television, watching music videos on MTV with my parents' Closed Captioning box turned on so we could learn the words to all of our favorite songs.

When I left home to be on my own I was not well educated in culinary matters - but I knew how to make popcorn. While my roommates taught me about lipstick and Levis and lunch from La Dolce Vita, I taught them to appreciate the flavorful pan-popped corn rather than the air-popped variety they were accustomed to. And whenever I had a twinge of homesickness I would remedy it by calling my brother, Chip. We would laugh and cry together through the phone as I munched on a bowl of popcorn, speaking of the directions our lives were taking us and the time we would see each other again.

Now that I have a family of my own the popcorn tradition continues. The air-poppers we received as wedding gifts (and I seem to recall a few) slowly made their way to other, more useful places as I refined my family's taste buds with the buttery, pan-popped goodness I have grown up with and perfected. Popcorn still finds itself in the heart of family time as we gather around the table to play games and talk about things we have learned.

So, although I often declare other foods as favorites, I think that popcorn will always be my own personal Pensieve.

Some Call Us Peculiar...

Back in the old days at West High, my English teacher gave us the assignment to watch the news and write a summary of a current event.

Oh, bother. The news. I hate the news. Only old people (a.k.a. adults) watch the news.

As these thoughts ran through my brain, The Shy Girl in class raised her hand. "Um, we don't watch T.V. at my house. Can I get a current event from the paper instead?"

A collective gasp sounded throughout the classroom. No T.V.?! What did they do at home? The rumor mill started at lunch... They must be one of those families who only eat organic food, and no meat... I bet they don't have electricity... I heard her mom makes all of her clothes... Someone said they have goats and chickens in their yard... The Shy Girl's family from then on was known as The Weird Family (With No T.V.)

Which brings me to my point. I just realized that my family is our local Weird Family. We stopped watching T.V. a few years back. We do own a T.V., but we only use it for watching videos and our church's General Conference twice a year. (we don't even own any video games! *gasp*) Why would we do this? How can we deprive our children of television? Easy. You just turn it off, unplug the antenna, and watch the magic happen.

CD started standing up on furniture and climbing the stairs this last week, right in the middle of the day. I could have been watching Oprah or whatever else is on during the day, but look what I would have missed! And there's another bonus: I have much more time to keep my house tidy. (People always ask how I keep my house so clean...turn off your T.V. for a week and see if it makes a difference!)
HH has developed a fascination for all trains. He can sit and play with his trains for quite a long time. He points out trains in books that we never knew were there before. We live close enough to trains that HH points out the whistle as it sounds throughout the day. He wouldn't hear that if we had the Disney Channel on all the time.
GA and EG are masters of make-believe. They play with their dress-up clothes, doll house and Furryvilles. They draw and color and paint. They look at books, invent stories and create new bedroom decor with stuffed animals and blankets almost daily. They love playing outside in the yard and picking the neighbor's flowers (sorry, Shawn and Haley). Do they complain about no T.V.? Nope. Not that I've heard.
KC is Mister Imagination. He spends his days and nights reading new series of books, inventing superheroes (ask him about All-a-Boy) and making his rounds in the neighborhood. KC makes amazing Lego and K'Nex creations, builds intricate army forts with wooden blocks, and loves throwing around a baseball in the side yard with anyone who will join him. He asks deep questions after long, thoughtful consideration. Do we wish he played more video games? Not on your life.

JC busies herself creating homemade cards, fashioning new clothes for her stuffed bear from her fabric stash and putting together gifts with her sewing kit. She still enjoys using her tea set. JC writes letters to anyone she can think of on stationery she designs herself. She loves reading, especially anything Harry Potter, and is anxiously awaiting the last book in the series, which J.K. Rowling was nice enough to release on JC's birthday. She loves to read and play with little kids. Her favorite T.V. show? Little House on the Prairie, which we have on DVD. And it doesn't bother her in the least when someone mentions their favorite show and she has no idea what they are talking about.

EM keeps herself busy by reading books, writing her pen pal, practicing (and composing) songs on the piano, and doing things with her friends. EM is an avid reader. She loves sports, especially Ultimate Frisbee, and is glad to be old enough to join the neighborhood kids for night games. EM is everyone's favorite babysitter, and tending kids has become a great source of income for her. Why is she in demand? She doesn't sit at your house and watch T.V. while the kids smear toothpaste all over your bedroom carpet. She plays with the kids, reads to them, helps them color and do puzzles. As for T.V., she is happy to watch one of the Liken series of movies or a Disney musical she can sing along to.

I won't lie to you, AM would love to have an X-Box or whatever the new, cool game system is. But he can play to his heart's content at his friends' houses. While at home he enjoys listening to music on his CD player (he used to be attached to his ipod until he jumped into the pool at Veteran's with it in his pocket...), reading thick books, and being outside. He also enjoys all sports and playing night games with the neighborhood kids. He has a big heart, which is evident in all of the yard work he does as a service for the single women in the neighborhood. (By the way, service = no pay. And he doesn't complain. Seriously.) I'm going to go find him and take a picture of whatever he is doing, too, so you can see...










...um, he's a great big brother. He even plays with the little girls.

OK, so maybe some of us have TOO much time on our hands. How much is cable?