What’s for Breakfast

As I was trying to decide what I would make for breakfast this morning, I began to think of the ones that I’ve eaten in the past. One that immediately came to mind was the ones that I had in basic training for the Navy. I know the cooks knew how to prepare the food. I sampled it when I had in service week and spent the time on night shift in the “spud locker” where we helped to ready the food for the next day. For a country boy who was used to having fresh sausage, the links they served were spiced so heavily that I couldn’t taste the meat and it took several years after my discharge to eat sausage again.

Another round of breakfast memories came from my home and my mom Sybil. When my dad, Carl was home, breakfast was usually hot cakes, fried eggs, and some kind of meat. Often Dad went out hunting early in the morning. The meat we ate was fried squirrel and gravy made from the drippings. Other times it could be liver pudding or sausage. Dad would fuss if Mom didn’t pour the sausage grease onto the meat platter. When all of the meat was gone, Dad would sop his pancakes in the grease and eat them. He lived to be ninety, so the theory of high cholesterol didn’t apply to him.

In high school, I didn’t want a full breakfast and would fix a cup of tea and toast. Sometimes the toast would have cinnamon sugar, or some kind of jam. If I really felt ambitious, I would eat hot, cooked oatmeal.

Now that I am living alone, I eat whatever I want. Many times it’s not “breakfast food.” It may be a slice of pizza, leftover spaghetti, or some other food that catches my eye. I think some of my writing shows my eclectic tastes.