Mar 11, 2011

My Lunchbox and the Power of Suggestion

My lunchbox, as far back as I can remember, was a Peanuts Charlie Brown lunchbox, hard, rectangle, with the latch at the top.  Always cold and smooth, maybe a little scruffy.


The day I gave up tuna I carried that lunch box, smacked it on the lunch table like any ordinary day.  The contents spilled out and I probably traded some baggies of snacks ....
 with Cindy Weiss or Julia Comer, our schoolroom friendship much later re-acquainted via Facebook.  Those were the sweet baggies back then -- the fold top -- very hard to find now and for which I'd pay just about anything.

I can remember eating part of my sandwich with the Ramona-like gusto of a third grader until I peered inside, quite by accident, and found a few small black objects scattered among by beige and pink tuna.  I slammed the sandwich shut, looked around to see if anyone noticed and threw it back into my lunchbox.

Later, in the safety of my home, I pulled it out and asked my mom what the black dots were.  She shrugged, "The fish's eyeballs."  Like it was no big deal.  My face fell.
I just could not eat tuna eyeballs.

It would be 23 years before I would eat tuna again.
The power of suggestion is an amazing force, my friend.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your sweet mom could not be so mean.