When Between the Moon and the San Fernando Valley (WC)

 

When Between the Moon and the San Fernando Valley: A Culinary Reminisce

(Wendy Cabell, March 10, 2024, Rosh Chodesh (new moon) of Adar, feast day of Our Lady of the Vine/Oak, Saint Anastasia the Patrician of Alexandria and Saint Marie-Eugénie de Jésus. Image from here.)

My Mom makes the ~best~ mint chip shakes. She doesn't use a blender, that ruins it. You have to mix it by hand to get that contrast of liquid and thick, one chasing the other as you sip—till the tummy is comforted, cool. A steaming angel mug of sleepytime tea is my accompaniment, it’s on the end table as our family settles round the TV. God willing, it’ll be Little House On the Prairie, or Remington Steele or Different Strokes tonight. But I’d even suffer through an episode of The Incredible Hulk or The Dukes of Hazzard for one of Mom’s shakes.

Ice Cream

Being dished out at birthday parties, rare toddlerhood sweet.

Tickling palms, soothing tummy, as nestle with the family by the TV–-

day done, storytime begun.

Flown to when migraine looms, it works better than any pill.

“I want you to eat this”, says Mom, so simply, small smile. 

No judgment. Her love stirred right in. Me at age 11 and 

anorexic, that mint chip shake–-it was the only thing 

could break through. 

As digestion now wanes, I replace it with goat milk–-

piping hot no less. But it suffices. Mother’s 

milk by any other name

being the same. 

*From combined prompts: Think of a food memory you loved or hated as a child, who or what is associated with it, its sensory experience, and how you feel about that food now.  A meal that takes you right back. Then free write as inspired by Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir (from Tresha’s Memoir Made Easy class, March 10, 2024) and Ted Kooser’s “Applesauce” (from Robin Nester (of The Poetry Salon)’s Generative Writing Class, November 25, 2023).