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Washed Apple
My father was a wonderful guy and I’ve shared many loving memories of him. (See My Father, the Outsider Artist, My Dad and the Word Processor, Saying Farewell to a Special Guy, and Six Pack)
But he did have some strange food-related tastes and habits. Apples were his favorite fruit, and when my mother offered to bring him a snack he’d often ask for a “washed apple”. Did he think she would bring him a dirty one?
And he had a rather uncouth way of eating an apple – he’d bite into it, chew, and then somehow spit out just the skin! I have no idea how he did that, but I wonder – if he didn’t like the skin, why didn’t he ask my mom for a “peeled apple”?
I also love apples and unlike my dad, I eat them skin and all, altho I do have my own idiosyncrasy – I must core and slice the fruit before I eat it!
But there is another of my father’s idiosyncratic tastes that I have acquired. It was his habit of cracking chicken bones with his teeth and sucking out the marrow.
I refrain from doing it in public, or when dinner guests are at the table, but alone with family, and despite their avowed disgust, I happily chomp away!
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
I’m a fan of allowing just about anything in one’s home, though knowing the rules for eating elsewhere is still a good idea. Re: apples—the handy slicer/corer tool works great if you don’t have one.
Thanx Khati, I agree!
And I do have an apple slicer/corer but it makes the slices too thick, I like to use a knife and get them just the size I like – we all have our idiosyncrasies, don’t we!
I recall many happy times getting at the marrow of the chicken bones! It’s been decades–thanks for the reminder of what I’ve been overlooking.
As to your father and the apple, I have no insight about why he didn’t request a peeled one. But it reminded me of one of my most glorious days of cycling. I rented a bike in Breckenridge, CO, and rode about 44 miles to Vail. This required climbing for a couple of hours straight. I had taken an apple from a bowl in the hotel where I was staying. I began eating the apple when I began ascending the climb to Vail Pass. I would take just one bite and keep it in my mouth as long as I could (a few min), not really chewing it but letting it deteriorate, and then eventually masticating and swallowing. Then another bite and the same approach. I managed to make that one apple last close to an hour. By the time I finished it, I was well on my way and confident I could make it to the top of the pass.
Thanks for reminding of this too!
Thanx Dale.
And I love your apple story!