Dad's snack

Dad enjoyed having  late night snack every night around 10:30 p.m.  He always had tea or Postum (probably something decaf) and a sweet something.  To signal it was his snack time, he'd smack his lips together very fast making a kissing sound and say "What's for snack?"   I remember when I was home from college I looked forward to these snack times as a moment to touch base with Dad and Mom. We'd sit around the round table and discuss our day.  I wonder if this was a Calkins family tradition with Grandma and Grandpa C. when he was a teen.

Food Memories

I remember Mom's meatless meal ( a concept way ahead of its time)--- French fried eggplant. I could only eat it with ketchup and avoided the pieces that had a lot of seeds. Yuk! I secretly thought it was pretty cool that our family had this unusual meal. None of my friends ever had eggplant for dinner.
I learned to eat fish by eating those "wonderful" fish sticks. I thought they were great. Now I love fish--but not fish sticks.
I remember Grandma Calkins standing at the kitchen table, stirring up a double batch of cookies for us in one of those crock type bowls. She was astounded a few days later that they were gone! She couldn't believe that we could eat so many cookies. Mom often wrapped up some in packages for Dad's lunches and hid them so he'd have some for himself. Otherwise he didn't get any.
I wonder if Mom had any experience cooking with her mom. I thought maybe she didn't have to cook because she was the "baby" and her mom cooked for her, especially because her siblings were older and out on their own earlier. She liked to try new recipes but stuck to the ones we loved--like Corned Beef Casserole.  On Saturdays when we'd empty out the fridge of the week's leftovers and have them for lunch. We would fight over the Corned Beef Casserole leftover, as well as the Corn Flake-covered mashed potato balls with cheese in the center!  Yum!!