14 Observations.....

My Dad used to call any cereal Post Toasties. It’s my understanding that Post Toasties were the first cold cereal corn flakes made.

Almost all native white southerners call a soft drink generically, a coke. Native black southerners call soft drinks sodas. I still laugh inside when I hear a soft drink called a pop.

In the South, we call a pizza, a pizza, not a pie. I remember in college a friend from New Jersey asked me if I wanted a pie. It was midnight. I thought it was a strange time to want dessert.

My aunt Martha started smoking cigarettes at age 10, and smoked until she died at 76. Cigarettes didn’t kill her either. She instructed me to bury her with a pack of cigarettes and a good lighter. She was a good soul and very funny.

When I was about 3 or 4, my sister Judy showed me some fist size quartz rocks that she had found. I asked her if I could have one. She gave me the ugliest one. I picked it up and hit her on the forehead with the ugly rock in protest. I regret that.

When we were kids we used to keep a bottle of Witch Hazel in the refrigerator. It sure did smell funny. My mother put some Witch Hazel on Judy’s head after I hit her with the rock.

When I was a kid we used to keep a big bottle of tap water in the refrigerator. My father loved drinking that cold water and would make a face when he did take a glass full. He would do most anything for a good laugh or smile.

I am so glad that butter is acceptable to eat now rather than all the fake stuff we ate for years. I love butter. Some butter is better than others. I like to taste local butter and try to discern the flavors. In St Croix they have sealed butter patties from Holland or some far off place at their fancy restaurants.

I am a terrible speller…so bad that even spellchecker doesn’t know what the hell I’m doing sometimes. I can never spell some words on the first run. Restaurant is one of those words. Sauce is another.

I wanted to be a geologist. I love rocks, dirt and water. When at was at Carambola in St. Croix, I would spend hours looking at the outcropping of the mountain plunging into the ocean. They had igneous rock, sedimentary rock, and metamorphic rock with quarts intrusions, all in the same place. I could watch a volcano go all day. I still remember the different types of lava, and far too many details about rocks and formations. My Dad said, “Son, you and I both know that you aren’t smart enough to go to college another 4 years to get your PhD. Why don’t you major in business?” And so I did.


Most of the time, I listen to a song only for a part of it, or just to hear the chorus. I just listened to “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard and could care less about anything but the chorus.

I once went to Cape Canaveral, and watched a Saturn V rocket launch the space station, Skylab. The launch was an absolute awesome display of power. It shook the ground and made sound concussions three miles away. It was the very last Saturn V launched. The Saturn V was the rocket that launched all the moon missions.

You ever had one ear just shop working for a minute or two? Then gradually the sound comes back to normal. It’s like one of your ears booted and did a restart.

I have to take medication twice daily for epilepsy since I was 21. My epilepsy is completely controlled. I had a bunch of tests a few years to see if I could come off the medication. The doctor said, “No way Reggie. Your brain is like a hurricane of electrical activity.”

7 comments:

Ali said...

This is a fantastic post!
Some thoughts for you...

For the most part, Canadians call soft drinks "pop". Or at least my entire family and friend base does.

Butter...mmm. I love butter - my mom has countless pictures of me eating handfuls of it when I was a kid. She said I could always find it, and that she would find me with my face glistening.

I spell words wrong too - not all the time (that would seriously affect my job - he he), but the word weird gets me every time.

Anonymous said...

When we were kids, on Thanksgiving, my aunt would let us all eat a pat of butter. We considered it a treat!

Soda, coke, whatever is pop to me.

I've never heard pizza called by any other name.

I'm a spelling freak. I rarely use spell check. (I'm sure I am cronically misspelling several words!)

TerryC said...

Wow! What a post! All sodas are "cokes"? Strange! We always call them sodas. There are so many different varieties. Pizza is only a pie after it has been called a pizza, not just out of the blue.
So, what did Aunt Martha die of? You should have collected your own little rocks. "Lurpak" is a Danish butter, we also have New Zealand butter and "Kerry Gold" Irish butter (my favorite).
The ear thing...I've noticed that at certain times, but never thought enough about it to even mention it, never mind blog about it. "Wait, my ear just rebooted, now, what was that you said...?" You men could use that as your universal excuse for not listening.
I'm glad your epilepsy is under control, now what about the rest of us that read your blog?

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

I'm glad to see that everyone is coming out of the butter closet with their own stories. We used to mix butter and molasses as a kid and just eat it like that.

I do have a small collection of St Croix dirt and rocks. They are very similar from one end of the island to the other. I keep them in my desk and truck. I have attempted to get more geologic details about the island but have come up short....hah...I'm short, get it?

Martha died of renal failure. I didn't know what a renal was at the time and realized it was her kidneys later.

Michael said...

Holy cow! That Evelyn Wilson weekend thing must have worked. You're all rested and on a roll today.

Growing up, I'm pretty sure we used to call most soda "coke". Royal Crown Cola (RC Cola) was my favorite coke. I know folks who call it pop. We also used to call photo copies "Xeroxes" and I still call tissue "Kleenex". I know people that call a public water fountain a "bubbler". That still cracks me up.

I've always called pizza pizza, but Terry is right, if its preceded by pizza, pie is fine, a pizza pie. "The Pie" is the best pizza place in Salt Lake City, Utah. It's a little basement pizza joint across the street from the University of Utah, about two blocks from my parents house. They used to have a great lunch special, a slice and salad for a couple bucks. The slice was about a quarter of a very large pizza and over an inch thick with goodies. It was a meal, even for a college student.

I always have to double check restaurant too. Tomorrow is another one I almost never spell right the first time.

I've never seen a big rocket launch live, but I've seen the space shuttle land in the desert in California.

I'm looking at your post and thinking, even on the meds, your brain must be somewhere on the Severe Tropical Storm scale.

Liv said...

mmm.......danish butter. and whatever butter was on those flakey croissants in Italy is what I like, too.

I'm glad they're keeping you under control, Reg. I knew your brain was dangerous from the moment I met you.

Amos said...

Ok, I need to go to bed, but I'm not sure how I can since I am wiping tears from my eyes for laughing so hard about Judy and the rock. Holy cow, I can just see my kids doing that anytime. I guess it just really struck the funny bone there. That and the spell checker one was hilarious. And now I am trying to post this and I can't even get the dang word verification correct! Somebody please help me!