A Few (Odd) Recollections

This weekend we went out to eat at a restaurant in a neighboring town.  It was a classic Louisiana fried seafood restaurant.  The food was good.  Russ and Benjamin were with us.  We started with seafood stuffed fried mushrooms.  For the main course, I had a fried shrimp platter and so did Tricia.  Russ got the Fried Shrimp & Catfish Platter and Benjamin got the 1/2 and 1/2 platter (Half fried Shrimp/Half Shrimp Etouffe).  The meals all came with a salad and a side.  I opted for onion rings.  We all split a Triple chocolate cheesecake for dessert.  We wobbled back to the car, stuffed and satisfied.

It was a nice family time.  As we waited for our meal, we talked and planned, laughed and teased one another playfully as families are apt to do.  As I sat there, it reminded me of meals like this eaten as a kid.  The fried shrimp platter was my favorite even back then.  It always came on an oval white plate with a heaping side of fries, maybe a couple of hushpuppies too.  We always poured way too much ketchup on the plate.  Sometimes, if lucky, there were small dishes of cocktail sauce.  The platters had a couple of lemon wedges to squeeze over the shrimp and a clump of parsley to add some color to the plate, I guess.  We were not allowed to have straws with our drinks as we often spilled our root beer all over the table, trying to pull the straw to our mouths.  A coordinated bunch, we were not.

I can remember having very little patience waiting for the food to arrive.  But all was not lost.  There was always an oblong basket of individually wrapped Captain's Wafers on the table.  They were buttery and delicious.  A plate with little containers of whipped butter or little foil squares of butter accompanied them.  We destroyed the basket, smoothing creamy butter on the crackers with the butter knife until all that was left were the cellophane cracker wrappers which stuck to our wrists from either static electricity or butter.  When the Captain's Wafers were gone, then the Melba toasts in the basket were then wiped out.  The Wheat Captain's Wafers were the last thing left. Ha Ha.

Image Credit

When the waitress brought out the food, she set the platter down on a fold-out stand and distributed our much-anticipated food.  First, she had to clear out all of our butter knives, cracker wrappers and plates.  We always enjoyed our meals.  On the way out the door, though, we always partook of the chocolate peppermint patties.  They were either free or cost a nickel.  They were creamy and cool - a perfect topper after a great meal.  We balled up the aluminum foil peppermint candy wrapper and deposited them between the seats.  Somewhere in a junk yard, there is an Oldsmobile Station Wagon with simulated wood grain siding with dozens of balled up aluminum foil wrappers behind the seat.

Image Credit

Odd recollections, I know.  Isn't it strange how the littlest things can make an impression on a child's mind.  I guess I'm still a child at heart.  Do you remember the oddest little things, too?