Soggy Crackers

Bald tree in the Commons, Rochester, NY
Bald tree in the Commons, Rochester, NY

When my parent’s house was broken into we wound up spending a considerable amount of time over there with the police, a locksmith and theinsurance agents. We were still in bed when we got the call so we hadn’t eaten anything and at some point I found myself rumaging through their cupboards where I found some Kebler Honey Grahams. There was some pulp heavy Tropicana in the fridge so I anxoiusly tore open the wax paper package on the crackers, excited at the prospect of dunking them in a tall glass of OJ. I hadn’t had this treat since I left home as a teenager.

I would habitually try to split the crackers along the vertical center line so I would get something like a six by one inch long cracker to dip in the glass. I’d hold the cracker in there as long as possible so it would soak in the juice and then try to get the cracker out of the glass and into my mouth before it turned into mush in the glass. My parents used to buy the Nabisco Graham Crackers in the red box and then Honey Grahams came along. I think they were made by Kebler at first so we switched brands. I remember one being better than the other but I can’t remember know which one I preferred. I put a whole package down (one third of a box) and stopped there althoiugh I could have continued. That was limit back then and I stuck to it.

As I mentioned a few days ago I took Peggi to the hospital so they could stop her bloody nose. It was our most pleasent emergency room experience. The receptionist asked if I was a Dodd. I said I was Paul and she said, “Oh my god!”. She lived across the street from me and I used to babysit for her and her siblings. We each ran down the whereabouts of our respective big family members and we noticed that she was particularilly interested in my youngest brother’s status. I’ll have to pass this info on to him when I see him. Anyway I think she fast tracked us and gave us an especially nice doctor.

She was the second former babysitting victim that I have run into this year. I remember how tense it was dealing with the parents and then how easy it was to babysit once they left the house. I loved every minute of it and when I finally got the kids to bed I’d go through the food cupboards just like I did at my parent’s house.

2 Comments

2 Replies to “Soggy Crackers”

  1. My graham cracker & drink combo was the chocolate covered ones & a glass of milk.

    If you bit just the corner off, keeping the rest of the cracker sealed in chocolate, and dunked the whole thing in a lg glass of milk, it filled up & saturated the cracker. It might decompose inside but the exterior was intact.

    Then you pop it into your mouth & the whole thing floods out when you start chewing.

    Profound experience. Havent doen that in 40 yrs & I can still recollect it clearly.

  2. Did you go thru the cupboards and fridge even if the employer/parents didn’t invite you to ??? When I was invited , I didn’t care how much I ate. BUT , when NOT invited , I had to try to eat as little as possible so they wouldn’t notice. A tip to future employers / parents …. invite the kid to help him/her self so they don’t feel like they are robbing the Federal Reserve !

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