20 October 2016

The Most Important Meal of the Day


Carole and Kat have devised a new weekly project for us - Think ... Write ... Thursday!  They will provide prompts every week, and those who participate give it some thought and write something based on said prompts.  Well, I like to think and I like to write, and I thought it would be fun to give it a try, using someone else's ideas for a topic.

This week, they want us to write about The Best Breakfast I Ever Had.

Hm.  I didn't used to be a big breakfast eater.  As a kid, the only day we ever had what most people would call a proper breakfast was on Sunday, after church.  My dad would make eggs, sausage or bacon, and toast.  Some weeks it would be fried eggs (or as I called them until adulthood, "church eggs") and other weeks it would be scrambled eggs.  It was a big deal, and the only time we ate breakfast as a family.

My mother worked, my father worked, and my sisters and I went to school, all on slightly different schedules.  Once I was old enough to make it for myself (probably third grade), my favorite breakfast was a bowl of this:


I would put soy sauce on it, and along with my cup of tea, I was one happy camper.  This was the only rice we ever had growing up, and I LOVED it!  (Now it makes me gag ...)

I still love a big, yummy weekend breakfast, but am usually not that interested in fixing it just for myself.  And during the week, I generally eat cereal in the summer, and oatmeal in the winter.  Both are quick, filling, and I like them.

The Tim and I have lovely holiday breakfasts, and they are pretty amazing, especially when he makes hash browns!

But I think the best breakfast I ever had was the summer that I was 9 years old, and we were at the Jersey shore for a week of vacation.  My dad did not believe in making reservations, so we stayed at a somewhat sketchy place - but it did have a decent pool, and a reasonable diner attached.  My mother used vacation to sleep late, but my father was an early riser, and would get my sisters and I up every morning bright and early to walk along the beach.  This made my sisters miserable; me, not so much, since I was always sleeping on a terrible cot that was brought to the room, and was usually uncomfortable.

So we had taken our walk on the beach, and we were at the diner, and my father said we could get whatever we wanted for breakfast - we were, after all, on vacation.  I have no memory at all of what my sisters got, but I ordered a Pixie Cup.*

(For the uninitiated, Pixie Cups were small, individual cardboard cups of ice cream with cardboard tops, and little wooden spoon.  When you took off the top, there was a picture of someone famous on the other side (as shown above).  We *never* had Pixie Cups at home, because I'm sure they were not cheap to buy.)

The waitress said, "Oh honey, I don't think you should have ice cream for breakfast," and I was ready to have my soul crushed by this strange woman who wanted to ruin my vacation, when my father said, "I told them they could have whatever they wanted for breakfast.  If she wants and goddamn Pixie Cup, bring it to her."  He didn't say it in a mean way, just very factually.  The waitress was clearly shocked, but took the order, and brought all of our food shortly after.

And I sat there as pleased as I could be, enjoying a Pixie Cup for breakfast.  As I continued to do the entire week we were there.  Because we were on vacation, and my dad said so.  ;-)

15 comments:

Nance said...

Bless your father's heart. He really knew how to make a kid's vacation. What an absolutely terrific and loving memory.

Patty said...

Sounds like he had a little John Wayne in him! Great story!

sprite said...

Awww! What a great memory of breakfast -- and your dad.

MIchelle B. said...

:)

AsKatKnits said...

LOVE!! Every last bit of this! Bravo for your Dad!

Kym said...

What a wonderful story -- and your dad is AWESOME! I remember pixie cups! I loved them. They were such a treat -- and those little wooden spoons were just so very cool. Thanks for sharing your memories!

Bonny said...

I so wish I had had your father's courage of his convictions to do this at least once for my sons when they were growing up. What a wonderful memory he gave you; thanks for sharing!

Judy S. said...

What a fun memory!

kathy b said...

Great dixie cup story! I LOVE minute rice. it is my comfort food when my tummy is off. It is so high in carbs though I rarely enjoy it. Breakfast: hardly ever eat it. Love my coffee though

Anonymous said...

And if DAD says so, it IS so!

We called them DIXIE cups and they came with a little wooden spoon. The feel of that spoon on my lips absolute GAGS me today. But, with a real spoon I would STILL enjoy a DIXIE/PIXIE cup (always eating the chocolate part first, because VANILLA is my favorite.)

Araignee said...

Instant rice! What a blast from the past. I loved that stuff too as a kid. I'd use a chicken bouillon cube and a squirt of lemon juice from the little plastic lemon in the fridge. Yummo! It was one of the few things I was allowed to make on my own. No ramen in those days.
Pixie cups! We called them Dixie cups down here and I loved them too. The wooden spoon was the best thing ever. I used to chew on it for hours after I ate the ice cream.

Vera said...

What a great story and memory. YAY for your Dad! We, too, called them Dixie Cups -- I could get them in the school cafeteria. Boy were they good!

Wanderingcatstudio said...

Great story!

Lydia said...

What a wonderful story. I loved those cups of ice cream with the spoon. I don't have a special memory like this, but the 2 times I've been to New Orleans getting fresh baked beignets and eating them by the river was pretty amazing.

steph said...

your dad really knew how to make memories!!! lesson learned!!!