Oyster

As with most of the nation, last week we saw extremely cold temperatures. The high temp the last few days has remained in the single digits and Wednesday evening going into Thursday afternoon we got about 3-4 inches of snow (basically just a heavy dusting, but still snow!).

So of course with the frigid weather, I made chili!

When I make chili, you'd think I'm expecting my entire extended family over for dinner - haven't figured out how to make a 'little' chili. I've eaten it now since Wed night and took a big bowl to share with co-workers. After decorating this weekend I wasn't in the mood to 'fix' dinner so I warmed up the last bowl of chili.

While dumping Oyster crackers into my bowl I had a flashback to the first time I ate Oyster crackers. About 30 years ago standing in almost the exact same location, we'd gone over to MaMa & PaPa's house on a Friday evening before going to a home football game. MaMa had fixed a huge pot of chili and had these cute little crackers set out along with shredded cheese. Up until this point I'd lead a sheltered life and had never added anything to my bowl of chili. But I decided to try it MaMa's way and 30 years later I'm still eating Oyster crackers and cheese with my chili.......

It's funny how the mind works - I can't tell you what I wore two days ago but suddenly remember details from an evening that happened thirty years ago.

PaPa & MaMa (my dad's parents - Gilbert & Nancy Galloway)

My father purchased his parents house upon their death and while we had to tear down the old and build a new house due to termites, the basic layout of the house remained the same. When I was pouring the Oyster's into my chili I was literally standing about 4 feet from where I stood when first introduced to the cute little crackers.