Three Semi-Culinary Throwbacks in a Single Meal

2005 – Tonight, while eating dinner in the living room, we watched “Freaky Friday” because it was on. (That could be the first throwback in its own right – watching something because it is on TV.) I was transported to a bus ride back from New York City with Sophia, where I had accompanied her on a school field trip to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Broadway. Because she had spent the previous day with me for Take Your Daughter to Work Day, someone questioned whether it would be too much Mom time. On the bus, while watching the movie, Sophia, who was Sophie then, snuggled up against me and said, “How could there be too much Mom?”

1991 – When Phil and I were first married, we lived in an apartment above a country grocery store, Lakeside IGA. Our front yard was a parking lot (with an amazingly active phone booth) and the Indiana summers were hot. Of course, we didn’t have air-conditioning.  (Do we look like the Rockefellers?)  We got a window unit for the bedroom so we could, at least, sleep at night. That summer, the kitchen was too hot to face, so we ate most dinners in the bedroom. Tonight, we ate our dinner in the living room because our kitchen, where we normally eat, is just too cold.

1976-1984 – What did we eat tonight, in the living room, in front of the tv, breaking all the rules of normal civilized people? R-2 Chili Chip. This was a dish served Thursdays in our school cafeteria, and it was delicious. Phil, who is doing all the cooking this year, and who has never tasted authentic R-2 Chili Chip, made it for our dinner tonight. He is a good husband. When I sent mine back with the waiter (Ben), asking for soupier beans and a spoon, Phil obliged. It didn’t quite match my memory of the dish, but it was close. Anyway, it didn’t need to match up. In about 2045 I will be posting (or sending you telepathic messages) about the memory of a memory of eating nostalgia in a room that is neither too hot nor too cold. It’s just right.