Margret Sloan

In our house, when presented at the dinner table with a new or unfamiliar food, the household rule is that you are expected to (at the very least) try one bite. If you don’t like it, you force yourself to swallow it without a lot of drama or facial contortions and politely say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t care for that.” You are to always respect the fact that Mother made a huge effort to shop for, prepare, cook and serve a variety of wholesome and tasty foods, day after day after day just for our benefit and enjoyment. And Mother respected that fact that trying to please the tastebuds of seven people every night was a daunting task, especially when little sister announced out of the blue that from here forward she would be a vegetarian and refused to eat meat, poultry or fish. But I do appreciate the fact that my parents exposed us to a variety of foods at the family dinner table and it not only enriched our lives but taught us to appreciate and respect each other, as well.

I love the holiday every June that we have for Fathers. I think it’s great to honor the men who take their family responsibilities very seriously and make the effort to be good fathers.

I know I was very lucky to have two such men in my life as a child. Although my parents divorced when I was young, they both remarried very quickly and I had the benefit of two sets of loving and caring parents as I grew up. My father was a good man and a great father - I miss him very much. And my stepfather was a good man and was devoted to my mother and their children during his life.

If you have a good man in your life that deserves the recognition and thanks for being a good father to your children, don’t forget to celebrate this special day and coach your children on buying a nice gift, being together all day if you can and shower him with affection. A great gift that everyone will enjoy could be a chocolate Father’s Day gift from Fannie May Candies. That was a tradition in our home and it could be the start of great new tradition in yours. Our father would open the box of chocolates and then pass it around for everyone to share and enjoy with him. Oh, what great memories a box of chocolates from Fannie May Candies can bring!

Don’t you have something you used to LOVE and it’s not made anymore? I used to love the 5-flavor pound cake made in the grocery store bakery of the small chain of family run stores in the Nashville area, back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. When they sold their stores to a larger regional chain, they stopped baking in the stores and had the bakery items shipped in from a central commissary every day. That was the end of the 5-flavor pound cake that we used to love with fresh spring strawberries and vanilla ice cream for our Sunday afternoon treats.

I’m a little nervous about my nephew’s plans to go to South Africa this summer as part of his college studies. The news there has not been good this week, with a lot of violence and even riots over a wave of African immigrants.

My nephew is a real sweetheart - a humanitarian and he has always had a strong interest in helping people. The college program takes a lot of precautions to protect the students, but such an unstable culture as the African countries exhibit makes me very concerned. He’s leaving the U. S. at the end of the month, so it occurred to me that something he might appreciate taking with him would be a calling card. You know, the prepaid phone cards that let you make international calls at very cheap rates?

I found an internet site that sells the phone cards in different denominations and has different types of cards, from single use to ones you can reload. From reading about the rates between the United States and Johannesburg, it is much much cheaper to call FROM the U. S. to South Africa than to call the U.S. FROM South Africa. So I will get him a card with at least 20 minutes of calling time that he can keep in his wallet and in case of emergency he can at least call home and let us know he needs help. Otherwise, because of the expense, his mother should call him at a pre-arranged time to save money, so I’ve buying a calling card for her, too.

So many people drive to work as a mindless exercise every day. They back out of their driveway and take the same route to work, sitting in rush hour traffic and stressing until they get to their office. The drive to work is a dull, boring routine.

I can’t do that. I’ll drive to work a different way at least 2 or 3 times each week. I really don’t like to do the same thing over and over. I like variety and I like to enjoy my drive to work - not just endure it. Every morning I see new flowers blooming, new pets in the yards, and new cars sharing the road with me. I love starting each day as a new adventure!