You eat what you have

While making the purchase of a rutabaga today at the supermarket; the cashier at the store asked what it was and said she’d never seen one much less tasted one. Not many folks eat rutabagas but they are served on occasion at the little house on Goose Creek.
A rutabaga is considered a food of famine and that means “what you eat when you are poor or there ‘bouts”. Probably on the same level as turnips and sugar beets if you eat such.
Shortly after me and the Mrs. eloped 38 years ago, yours truly got mad at work and gave notice. They took it and we went on a famine food diet for several months near as I can relate.
We dined on bologna sandwiches, tomato sandwiches, banana sandwiches, Vienna sausage sandwiches, Spam sandwiches and tuna sandwiches with lots of pork and beans.

You eat what you got and get on with it or at least that the way I was brought up.
We still eat most of the sandwiches mentioned, but the Mrs. will bluntly refuse a Spam and Vienna sausages because we ate so much of it.
But that’s all right; we have a new generation because our granddaughter likes Vienna sausages.
Reckon by having eaten such a variety of and enjoyed the famine foods it has caused me to have mixed taste. Back when we had the cabin @ Day Lake, me and the Four Dog would have turnip greens and ribeyes for supper and breakfast if any was leftover.
A can of tomatoes cut up with crushed saltines make a cheap, quick meal and mighty tasty. Four Dog likes mustard on his fold over Spam sandwich with onion. Guess it depends on how your taste buds work.
Back when I was a chap in Georgia, my taste buds were in order, or at least I thought they were. There were numerous items I would not eat nor drink while growing up.
My folks had a restaurant back then with their main product being fried catfish, fried potatoes, fried hush puppies, Cole slaw, and sweet tea.
Did not know what a shrimp was at that time nor would I eat it until I was in my 30’s. To this day it still reminds me of bait. I’d take a slice of fried fatback any day over the bait. Some people call fatback: streak-Olean, Tennessee Bacon, salt pork and it is what pork rinds are made from.
My grandparents milked their own cow and yours truly ventured to the stall each morning when Ma Pearl went to pull the cow’s teat. I would not drink that sweet milk, rich as it was. They went to all the trouble to pour the milk in a container from the store for me to drink it.
It simply was not good with all that yucky stuff (cream) floating in top of the glass. That’s why we buy fat free or 2% milk to this day.
Wonder where the granddaughter gets all her pickiness from when she puts her feet under our table?
You hear the one about the snake needing glasses? The snake went to the doctor telling him his vision is not what it was and he can’t see well. The doctor checked his eyes then fitted the snake with a pair of glasses and asked that he is to return in two weeks.
The snake came back in two weeks most depressed. The doctor asked if the glasses were any help.
The snake says they helped alright, said he found out he’s been living with a water hose for two years.