Butch Has “Childhood Food Regression”

  My wife says that I have strange eating habits. For once she may be correct. The first thing I do in the morning is take four vitamins with a large glass of water. After taking care of the dogs, I drink a cup of coffee and then go on a two-mile walk. Upon returning, I eat one-half cup of instant oatmeal and a grapefruit, followed by a swig of olive oil straight from the bottle. I don’t eat lunch, but during work I drink two more cups of coffee and a cup of hot tea. I eat a normal supper and then snack on cashews or pecans and drink a Diet Pepsi the remainder of the evening while reading or working on the computer. If there is any candy around, I’ll grab a few pieces, too.

   I have been in this same routine for several years. Old habits stick with those of us “over-the-hill.” But hold on! In the past few months, I have reverted to consuming favorite foodstuffs that I often ate as a child. It started out with milk and cookies. Now immediately after supper, I drink a glass of lactose free milk and down eight Lorna Doone shortbread cookies . . . every evening. Not long after this started, I bought a box of Wheaties cereal . . . “the breakfast of champions.” I ate these as a youngster for breakfast, after school, before bedtime, and sometimes even took it for my lunch at school. I also bought Cream of Wheat because my mother fixed that for my breakfast many times during the winter months.

   What is another food that little kids have always eaten? You guessed it . . . peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And now I eat three or four of those through the week! I also now have a hankering for cornbread, topped with lots of honey and real butter. Mom fixed that quite often when I was young, and we always had honey, as our neighbor Forrest Flaningam had several beehives. My folks usually had bacon and eggs each morning. The smell of bacon reminds me of those days, so now I have a BLT sandwich at least once a week for supper. They also made homemade ice cream all summer long. Not to worry, I started buying Blue Bell “Homemade Vanilla” and now eat a half gallon almost every week. And good news . . . one of my sons bought me an ice cream maker for Christmas . . . can’t wait to use it!

   I have evidently reached the point in my life where I have regressed to eating my childhood favorite foods every day. Psychologists claim that older people often revert to their childhood habits. I have been a kid at heart all of my life, so this fits right in. The taste and smell of food can bring back nostalgic memories of happy times, make people feel good and often evoke a sentimental yearning for the past. I imagine many of you have favorite childhood foods that bring back wonderful memories when you have those foods today. The good thing for me is that I never seem to gain weight. I don’t know if that is just my naturally high metabolism taking effect, or all of the caffeine in the coffee.

   I may try some more of my childhood favorite foods in the years to come. They may not be healthy, but hey, I’m 76 . . . might as well enjoy it. And if my wife considers me strange, too bad. She should have known that when she married me!

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 36 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.