Sunday, July 1, 2018

while thinking ...

... of breakfast, it is time to tell a funny remembrance about my dad. I never ever fail to think of him when I slice a banana on a bowl of cereal. Due to seeing him do it one morning,. nearly thirty years ago.  My parents were at the beach, spending a few days with daughters and myself in Florida. When they were young, girls and I would go every summer to the Gulf coast for a couple of weeks, and would occasionally persuade Mema and Papa to join us. A fairly short drive from south GA. Plus not nearly as exhausting as traveling five hours, with two children securely fastened in the back seat, or fifty monkeys screeching to be released from confinement.

I think the Grandparents might have been there when we arrived enjoying the tranquility with the plan to stay on for a couple of days to enjoy the fifty monkeys/children. On the last day of their visit, when the elders likely had all the fun two senior citizens could stand, they were hoping for an early start home. They got up with plans to eat a light breakfast and load up, head out. There was only one single banana left in the house, and three people with bowls of cereal. My dad, with amazing precise skills, managed to slice that one banana to make it appear all three adults had generous, equal portions. The kind of slices you could read a newspaper through. But still - we all had banana with our cereal and milk.

Now, every time I have a bowl of dry cereal for breakfast (or dinner), and there is a banana to be had, I think of him as I slice my fruit paper-thin, pour on the milk and enjoy. Another skill I learned from the expert. Added bonus: you get a slice in every bite! Admittedly it does not take a tremendous amount of practice to slice wafer thin rounds of banana - but I will always remember him being so diligent and meticulous to be equitable in his sharing of the fruit. Almost feel like that little speckled yellow fruit turned into the loaves and fishes from the Biblical parable....

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