I’ve been thinking a lot about food lately.
Which, is not uncommon, of course, but generally my food thoughts are borderline obsessive and today it was more of a life reflection in terms of food experience than the normal calorie counting and “I shouldn’t be eating this.”
That said, I just ate about 10 uncooked pre sliced cookie dough pieces.
That’s the one part about living on your own I sorta miss, no one’s around to tell me not to eat cookie dough for dinner. And now I feel sick.
But really, the point of this post is to talk about food that reminds me of certain people, experiences, times in my life.
This epiphany came to me while I was sitting in the office today. One of the people I work with microwaved vegetable soup. To this day the aroma of vegetable soup (the condensed kind) reminds me of sitting in the waiting room at the hospital with my mom when she was pregnant with one of my brothers. One whiff puts me back in saddle shoes and jumpers and makes me ponder, once again, what the title was of the lifetime movie playing in the waiting room.
When I recovered, I decided to make a list of the other foods that have such an effect on me…
Coffee and bananas reminds me of my grandmother, specifically sitting in her kitchen watching Regis and Kathy Lee.
My grandmother actually shows up in a lot of these food/aroma associations. I think of her whenever I have a tuna sandwich, Crispix, or a Werther’s Original.  These things also remind me of “Land of the Lost,” a hairstyle entitled the “basket braid,” and the Miss America Pageant, respectively.  Due, of course, to the situation I was in at the time.
Roses always make me think of playdoh , more specifically gross hardened, dried out playdoh.
Goulash (a homemade hamburger helper dish with ground beef and scads of mozzarella) takes me right back to kindergarten lunch time in the church basement. We had old polish women as our lunch ladies. They made everything from scratch. It was amazing. They loved to cook, we liked to eat. Win-win. It was a sad day when my elementary school switched over to the school district lunch menu.
Cinnamon toast reminds me of preschool and watching Woody Woodpecker as my mom brushed (pulled and tugged through) my hair.
Red Kool-Aide reminds me of the television show “Gummy Bears”
Middleswarth BBQ chips and pepperoni remind me of watching John Wayne movies with my dad.
Hair spray and nail polish remind me of playing at my best friend’s house in elementary school, I also think of her whenever someone mentions the show “Blossom”.
Grape flavored anything reminds me of being sick. My parents thought they’d be sneaky and put my Dimetapp in my cola so I couldn’t taste it. I could. Not only did it have a grapy taste, but now it lasted a lot longer. This is why I throw away the grape skittles.
Cheesecake makes me think of my cousin and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

And I’m sure there’s more.
How about you?