SOS, and Other Delights of my Childhood

My mommy was a cham-peen at making a buck stretch when it came to snacks and dinner time. She would buy organ meats and try to pass it off. "That's beef. You eat it." I was often suspicious. Liver and onions was a favorite. I could tell that, of course...but sometimes there would be beef tongue or kidney (the latter of which was obvious by the smell of urine being boiled out of the meat), etc. I wasn't required to eat the nastiest ones, but sometimes, my mother's creations were delectable.

In order to make things stretch, she would feed us SOS--"'stuff" on a shingle"--which was hamburger gravy on toast. (The equivalent of biscuits and gravy...only better.) My personal favorite was creamed eggs on toast. Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over toast. (My daugter and grandchildren love that, too. Do other families eat it??)

Mom also fixed cinnamon toast in the broiler--bread encrusted with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Yum!

But here's one I'll bet you never heard of: crackers and milk. Need a little something? Just break up some saltine crackers in a bowl and add milk. I don't have it often, but sometimes--when there's nothing else to eat--it works!

There was nothing my mother wouldn't eat. Nothing! Even my father, who was meat-deprived as a child, couldn't match her willingness to ingest things that the rest of society thought was awful. I just grew up as her child...and happy to be so!

God bless you, Mom! I just had two bowls of crackers and milk. Made me think of you!