Identity – Childhood Memories Alphabet – V & W

 V is for Vegetables

Photo by Iñigo De la Maza on Unsplash

    Vegetables were always a part of our day's meals since I can remember. We did have a garden so usually there were peas, green beans, corn, cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes. Depending on the size of the crop, some of these might be canned or frozen to eat later. However my memories of vegetables often go back to the ones that my parents bought at the store for us to eat. They would buy fresh carrots and celery and cabbage as they did not grow well in our garden. One year they bought a case of canned green beans. I think it was the Santiam brand, and I liked them. The canned food cupboard also usually included corn and tomatoes, occasionally peas and beets. My brother used to complain about beets, because they would make the potatoes on his plate turn red . The vegetables that I had a problem with were of the frozen variety. My Mom seemed to always buy a supply of frozen spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts. Now I really liked spinach. However, I did not like the other three. But as an obedient child I ate them anyway. When we were old enough, my brother and I would divide our broccoli so he ate the heads and I ate the stalks, since those were the parts we liked better. It is interesting that today, of those vegetables I didn't like, only brussel sprouts is still in that category.

W is for War

    There were two major wars involving the United States during my childhood, World War II and the Korean War. I was young enough during World War II (age 2-6) that I didn't realize all that was going on. Some of the Sunday funnies in the newspaper did have stories involving the war. None of my immediate family were in the military. There were some neighbors who served. I can remember hearing about buying war bonds to help our country. I do have a memory of the end of the War, although I am not sure if it was VJ or VE day, when everyone was so happy on hearing the news on the radio. I was in grade school during the Korean War, so there were items in the newspaper that I could read as well as hear on the news on the radio. We didn't have a television yet. I don't remember that I knew anyone who was in the service at the time and fought in Korea. Maybe it was because of that, war did not seem very real to me.