RDP Tuesday: SWEET POTATO 

When I was a kid I had this thing

about vegetables.

I would not eat carrots or potatoes

I wouldn’t  eat them if you candied them or baked them in a pie

and I was notorious in my family for my sweet tooth.

I was known to toss back chocolates and I hated chocolate as much as I hated carrots

and potatoes, but chocolates are sweet- even if it tastes a little bitter.

So why did I hate these two and only these two vegetables?

I hated them because you dug them up out of the ground

and you put them in bags and took them to the kitchen covered in dirt and bugs.

It was creepy.

So. You may be wondering, how did I arrive at this odd point of view?

With a leap and bound propelled by an overactive imagination, that is how.

 

 Boris Karloff’s ” The Body Snatcher ” was one of my favorite movies.

I saw it  for the first time when I was 6 years old.

After seeing that movie, there was no way heckin’ way I was going to eat

something  that you  dug up out of the ground and then, diced, mashed, baked or

stewed with the aid of big knives

and  pots of boiling water.

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

 

This is true. Every word. And to this day when I eat potatoes or carrots I don’t get

weirded out anymore- though it took awhile.

I’ve grown up, my sensibilities have changed. I’ve embraced the things that scared me

when I was little.

Now when I eat something that has been dug up from underground.

I smile a creepy  little smile.