No Coffee Please

One of my mother's favorite punishments was withholding food or forcing me to eat unsuitable food.


Due to this, there are many foods I still cannot eat to this day.

Coffee:  My step-father drank coffee on the weekends and in the latter part of the next week she got such satisfaction from making me drink the leftover moldy coffee she left in the coffee pot all week.  It took a good 15 years before the smell of coffee didn't evoke a sensation of queasiness in me.  I finally like the smell of coffee but am pretty sure I will never enjoy the taste.  I also get tired of people telling me that I will eventually develop a taste for coffee...doubt it.

Pinto Beans:  I know there is nothing evil about feeding a person pinto beans but it is another one of those things that I doubt I will ever eat again.  I ate many a meal of pinto beans, usually cold, over the years.  I am not sure if it was what I was eating as much as it was the fact that I was not allowed to eat with the family, nor at the same time as the family, or that getting to eat was a reward instead of a right.  Regardless me and pinto beans are not big fans of each other.

Move On Bullies

A true story...

A woman who was bullied mercilessly in high school 25 years ago has gotten some closure from a class reunion page on Facebook.

Lynda Frederick, a graduate of Orange Glen High in Escondido, Calif., in 1987, posted a heartbreaking poem about her experience on her school's 25th class reunion page.

Excerpts:

that little girl who came to school with the clothes she wore the day before
instead of asking why.. you picked on her...
the little girl who had bruises and was dirty
instead of asking why.. you picked on her
that little girl was me...
that little girl had love in her heart to share with all but no one wanted it...
this WOMEN has grown up now
however the little girl inside still crys
because her childhood was shattered

This poem resonated with me in a big way, thankfully I escaped my tormenter the first semester of my freshmen year.  I can imagine high school teasing would have been 1000 times worse than what my junior high bullies dished out.


It reminds me of that saying, that in effect says be nice to every one that you meet is fighting some kind of battle, which I have found to be absolutely 100% true!