Pearl #3 ~ Not Every Dish is a Delicacy

Currently reading:  The Jefferson Key, by Steve Berry and 2666 (book 1 of 3), by Roberto Bolaño
Today's six-word memoir:  All things happen for a reason.

As legend has it, I was about two years old that fateful day.  I was with my dad, mom, and grandma in our backyard, enjoying what must have been a beautiful summer day.  I don't know if Dad was working in the garden, or what, but wherever he was, he discovered a great big juicy night crawler.  Now, night crawlers are pretty fascinating with their ability to change genders and grow back body parts that got cut off and multiple hearts and all.  Not that I knew any of that stuff back then.


What I did know, is that my dad took great care of me and would never steer me wrong.  So, when he started to dangle the night crawler in front of me and say, "Eat it, eat it," I thought that sounded just fine!  I leaned my chubby little baby body forward, reached out my little paw, and just as my fingertips neared the writhing creature of the earth, Mom and Grandma both shouted

NO!!

Well, you can just imagine how stunned I was!  And that experience stuck with me a good many years.  Well into my preteens, I consistently had the same reaction whenever I was confronted with a night crawler.

First, curiosity.  There'd be a good thunder storm and Dad would show us how all the night crawlers came out of the earth to escape the water soaking into the ground.  I'd pick one up to study it, and after holding it for about two and a quarter seconds, a shudder would shake through my body and I'd toss the worm away with revulsion!  Eventually, I was able to get over it, but that just goes to show how those early life moments affect us later.

Thankfully, Dad was mostly trustworthy, and he saved me from a lake when I fell out of the canoe trying to touch the water at 18 months, cleaned the fire ants out of my diaper after I sat on their hill in Georgia, and introduced me to sledding and skiing and all the things that make winter my favorite season.

But let me tell you, it's good to have multiple adults watching over you when you're growing up, because when Dad was feeding me worms or taunting deadly snakes with sticks and leaving me to be eaten by the mate, it was Mom screaming bloody murder that came to the rescue.  Thanks guys, for being the great parents you are!