To me, nourishing my family with healthy home cooked foods is the same as telling them How much I love them. Tonight while preparing a pot of my Moms broccoli soup, something dawned on me and no matter how hard I tried to reach back through my memories of my early childhood, I just couldn't visualize my mom in our kitchen back in our first house on first street. I can see the railroad rooms, the tv, the front sunroom/dining area. I see these few blurry things but I don't remember a great many details of our first home. I do remember that we had a broken couch leg and it wasn't until we moved away from first street when I was ten that it hit me like a bolt of lightening ....we had been poor!! I remember that my Mom had worked in Tony's pizza restaurant as a waitress until I was about 6 and then she moved down the street a bit to a restaurant called the 'red barn', which I guess was equivalent to an applebees of today. Most of my early memories of her are during this stage of her 'career'. I visualize her In this restaurant but never at home with me and my sister and brother.
My mom has had a rough life. She fell in love with and married my dad despite his serious heart condition. When Dad passed away my mom was only 33 yr.s old. She had to leave her 3 children, pretty much on their own, and take on a full-time, pitifully low paying job which barely made ends meet for us all. Stirring my soup again just now, I can't remember what healthy foods sustained us during this early period, I only have memories of Many pizzas and italian heros from Tony's (our neighbors pizza parlor) and the rare exciting outings to Wetsons.(they were long islands Mcdonalds before we got an actual Mcdonalds).
So why then as I sit down and am eating this delicious bowl of soup, am I feeling my mom's love with each warm spoonful?
Ah! The memories of my later years with mom, that's why. After re-marrying and cutting her hours down to part-time, She was finally able to reach back through her memory and stir up the favorite recipes that her Mom had loved her with.
Favorites like, Zucchini Soup, Pasta and Peas and Tonight's Broccoli soup which inspired this post and will probably inspire my kids to use as their language of love towards my future grandchildren.
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6 comments:
An excellent memoir. And it has made me feel very hungry :-)
As usual great minds think alike. This is definately my love language too! All who know me, are aware of that! Great post. Sad not having any childhood memories of mom in the kitchen. Especially when mother as a homemaker was so prevalent in that era! Our children will remember our scrumptious food for sure! Mine is cooking it now too...but shhhhh no one is suppose to know she can cook ...shhhh!!
Hugs Giggles
thats why our family is all fat. thats all i remember my mother doing and nothing else actually. i don't remember many childhood memories at all.but every celebration , reward, etc. was around food.
a lovely language and thought...
we were poor too when I was kid. I still can remember so well how my mom cook with wood in our black smokey kitchen..
This was very moving to read...I'm so glad your Mom reached a point in her life where she could re-connect with her love of cooking. She sounds like a wonderful parent (as do you!).
What a lovely post. Any of that soup going? Actually its a bit hot for soup out here in the dessert!
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