It's March, and March is for slicing. Anyone is welcome to join us through Two Writing Teachers, slicing, sharing, and commenting on other slices!
Certain activities have a way of bringing me back to spaces and places. Cutting melons is one of those activities, and I had a couple to prepare this morning.
Jobs were tricky to come by when I was in college, so when my roommate and I got hired by one of the campus dining halls, we accepted those positions! Every Sunday morning, regardless of how much we drank on Saturday nights (which was sometimes a lot) and regardless of how little we slept (which was sometimes not much), we were in the kitchen of the West Side Dining Hall by 7:30 am, and our special weekly task... the Sunday brunch fruit salad.
Armed with white-handled, extra sharp kitchen knives, we became experts on navigating the various bugs that traveled in melon boxes, determining cantaloupe and honeydew ripeness levels, mastering the most efficient ways to slice and dice all types of fruit, and many more fruit-related trivia. We also looked really great with our hairnets and dining hall whites. If any of our friends teased us about the hairnets or paper hats, we pointed out the possible consequences of not wearing them.
The Sunday morning fruit salad was legendary, and we cashed in on many instant friendships when we told people we were the force behind those semi-healthy concoctions. (We probably didn't know at the time how much sugar went into those big jars of pre-peeled oranges and grapefruits.)
To this day, cut and cutting cantaloupe connect me to my collegiate Sunday mornings.
That is a great and unexpected memory! My dining hall did NOT have anything close to that amazing fruit salad!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know this story!!! Yay for slicing for bringing me new Mom Lore!
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