Popcorn, Pizza and the Plastic Tablecloth

First of all I started this post 2 days ago and because of various distractions and trying to make all of the words fit together, I am just now getting this published. It may not be complete, but I don't want to disappoint my audience. So here goes:

I can't remember when it started, but a few months ago Ryleigh added to our bedtime ritual the need for me to tell her stories of my childhood. Sometimes she is pretty specific - "tell me about some time when you scraped your knee". Other times she's pretty easy " it's okay if you tell me a story you've already told me". We've talked about basketball and t-ball, aquariums and waterbeds, a dog name Casey and a horse name Dandy, little screwdrivers and the clips to mom's rollers. Tonight we watched the food channel before bedtime and they were talking about all of the wonderful things you can do with corn. They took a tour of the plant where Fiddle Faddle is made. They showed the caramel and nuts getting mixed together with the fresh popped popcorn. Then they went to another small kitchen where a woman made several varieties on flavored popcorn. She had fruity flavors like cherrry and bahama mama or some silly thing like that, but she had her own version of caramel corn that had a clear coating and wasn't too sticky.

Needless to say I had popcorn on my mind. So at bedtime I told Ryleigh about how dad would make caramel popcorn for us. He'd make a batch of popcorn and put it in one of those giant stainless steel bowls. Then he would mix together butter, brown sugar and marshmallows and melt it in the microwave. Once it was all stirred up he would pour that concoction over the popcorn and stir it all together with a wooden spoon, and set the bowl on the floor on a big plastic tablecloth. The next thing you knew everyone in the room had was licking the caramel off of their sticky fingers while we sat around an empty stainless steel bowl. It was so good when you could eat while the popcorn and caramel were still warm. I've have not had anything like it since, but I have it on good authority that they still make it the same way - I guess they just forgot to invite me over last time they made it.

Thinking about the plastic table cloth on the floor also made me think of homemade pizza. Everybody would pitch in to make the pizza. We started with a Chef Boyardee pizza kit that included dough mix, sauce, cheese powder and sometimes an imitation, dehydrated meat product. Of course that wouldn't do for a topping for us. We piled high hamburger, canadian bacon, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. When the pizza was ready we'd put paper plates in those wicker plate holders, gather around the plastic table cloth in the living room and sit down to watch Dukes of Hazzard or Little House on the Prairie or some other show that we could all sit down and watch together.

Thinking about sitting around the living room together made me think of dad with a lit candle and the lights out telling those silly stories. I don't remember much about the stories other than my dad - who worked very hard and wore suits everyday at his serious job - talking in a goofy voice and distorting his face in such a way that he couldn't blow out the candle a few inches from his mouth. I remember everyone laughing and smiling then, and it's makes me smile just thinking about it.

Thinking about those times just reminds me how important it is to spend time with family. We go out of our way sometimes to plan big vacations or throw elaborate parties, but often the biggest impact is made on kids by just including them in the everyday things that we do. Make a pizza, pop some corn, tell a story, enrich a child.