She Was Wheat Bread, When Wheat Bread Wasn’t Cool!

I was in the grocery store the other day and saw a woman with a cart full of white bread – 5 or 6 loaves at least. All I could think was, “Damn, they still sell that!” I can’t remember the last time I had (much less bought) a slice of white bread.  Honestly, I really never developed a taste for it – thanks to Mama.

You see, my mother was ALL ABOUT wheat bread, when wheat bread wasn’t cool – she was about that life!

She was into vitamins, herbs, whole grains, lean proteins, and carrot juice way before it was trendy.  She used to send us on school field trips with sandwiches on bread that was sure to be ridiculed – she used that hearty bread, not the cute wheat bread they sell now.  On a Friday night she just might bust out the juicer and we would all get carrot or apple juice “wasted”.  And naturally, Abdul’s children didn’t eat no pork, so we always had the cheese pizza at parties, a turkey sandwich instead of ham, chicken salad instead of tuna, or BEEF bologna for lunch. And, the brown rice we ate with dinner seemed so different than the white rice we had at school, at restaurants, or with relatives.  I used to dream of white rice!!!

Of course as kids we couldn’t appreciate what she was trying to do back then.  She had to endure all our protests and pleas. It wasn’t really that we didn’t like it – well, we did really hate the Buckwheat Pancakes - we protested mostly because it made us feel different.  As kids, all we wanted was to be like everyone else.  We couldn’t wait to start our own lives and buy our own groceries.

But lo and behold --- wouldn’t you know it --- now you can’t escape it! You can’t watch television without seeing commercials for products that boast about Whole Grains. School lunches offer turkey sausage for breakfast instead of pork now.  Odwalla, Naked, and others are killing the game with their fruit smoothies and vegetable blends that you can buy right in the grocery store.  A few friends and I were just talking at a kid’s birthday party about which brand of juicer is best. And brown rice . . . . it’s so popular now, Uncle Ben’s even has an instant (not sure if that’s an oxymoron, though) .

Really Mom, you were ahead of your time.

So Mom, this Mother’s Day I raise my glass of carrot juice to you! For all the wheat bread, brown rice, carrot juice, Tiger’s Milk candy bars, Carob cakes, and herbal teas, thank you!!!

So now tell me, what did your Mom do when you were growing up that you didn’t appreciate until you were an adult (or a parent)? What are you doing now that your kids can’t appreciate yet? Moms Rock!!! Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Dedicated to my mom, Delores Daniel a.k.a. Lois, Memphis Dawn, LoLo, Dee, Mama D, Grandma Lores! Happy Mother's Day!!