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| I didn't have a photo of potato salad. |
This is a conversation we had while out enjoying
some Independence Day post-dinner ice cream. Today was a blazing hot July 4th,
so some cold ice cream seemed like a good way to end the day.
Earlier in the day, my husband jokingly took me to
task for not providing potato salad as part of our Independence Day meal. (He was only half joking.) He told Younger Daughter that potato salad is
traditional for 4th of July.
We now open our scene at the ice cream place,
where we were seated outside, in the hot shade, enjoying permutations of cold
chocolate.
Husband: I wonder why it isn’t more
crowded here.
Me: It’s because it’s too blazing
hot, there’s no potato salad, and everyone is going downtown to see fireworks.
Younger Daughter: But why
is potato salad traditional on the 4th
of July?
Husband: The Pilgrims ate potato salad on
the 4th of July, to celebrate their independence from Britain.
YD:
Dad. The Pilgrims. That was before independence. And we never
have potato salad on 4th of July!
Me (apologetically): I’m sorry
you had to grow up in a household where your mother hated mayonnaise and so you
never had potato salad…. That’s why Thanksgiving is my favorite American
holiday. It’s not blazing hot, potato salad isn’t a
traditional food, and we don’t have to go downtown to see fireworks.
Husband: The Pilgrims also ate potato salad to
celebrate Colonel Sanders’ victory over the British 12th Infantry.
YD (raising her voice with dismay): What significance does
potato salad have?! It has no
significance whatsoever! It’s the most
insignificant piece of calorie that was ever invented!
Me: It’s very significant. Because it celebrates immigrants. When the Irish potato famine happened, people
from Ireland came to this country in droves, and made potato salad. Because they had potatoes here.
YD:
But, but, that was after independence.
Husband: When the Jews left Ireland, they were told to
take only their Torah and their potato salad.
There was no time to make potato latkes…. They crossed the Begorrah
River…
(There is the sound of an explosion in the
distance.)
Me:
There you go. There’s somebody
either backfiring their car, or they ate a
lot of beans, or they are exploding fireworks.
YD: Or they are shooting a gun.
Me: Baked beans are also traditional
on 4th of July.
YD: That makes some semblance of
sense. Baked beans are brown. Like, they are from the earth.
Me (banging the picnic table for emphasis): No! They’re from Boston! The cradle of democracy! That’s why baked beans are for 4th
of July.
YD: I thought that on 4th
of July you just eat a whole bunch of brown things. Like hamburgers are brown, baked beans are
brown, hot dogs are brown.
Husband: It’s a brown food holiday?
YD: Yeah…. There’s no other
connection, is there? I mean, hot dogs
are from Germany, so they’re not American.
Hamburgers are from Hamburg, so they’re not American.
Me: Hotdogs and hamburgers are
quintessentially American.
YD:
But - frankfurters -
At this point the Common Household Husband
discovered that his chocolate ice cream cone had dripped all over his pants, and
we had to go home.
End of history lesson.
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| Yours truly, earlier today |
3 comments:
This whole post made me giggle.
Now that you mention it, Thanksgiving food is all brown, too, except for the cranberries...you people might be on to something here...
Months later, this is cracking me up!
(And seriously, I am more behind in my blog reading than I realized. Yikes! In my defense, I was snuggling grandbabies on July 4th and 5th, which caused me to realize I need to stop working before they grow up.)
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