I'M A VEGETARIAN TODAY!

If you put a huge emphasis on “today” that statement would be correct. No, I’m not even thinking about never needing a steak knife again or bbq sauce for my pulled pork, but I do enjoy garden fresh home grown vegetables in the summer. In fact I will go one step further and say I enjoy them every bit as much as that seared just right over a charcoal fire Ribeye, or pulled pork with a nice sauce over it. What I’m saying is kinda like my good friend Gary aka “Rawtalent” said recently “good food done right, that’s what it’s all about”. Gary has a wonderful blog Club Eclectia http://clubeclectia.blogspot.com/ that you would enjoy following as I do. The fact that I love garden fresh vegetable however is not what this post is about. I happened to think about my Dad while enjoy the meal last night because he was as close to a vegetarian as you could get and not actually be a full fledged, dyed in the wool veggie nut. He did enjoy fish and seafood including (raw oysters) and bacon, ham, or sausage for breakfast but I don’t think I ever knew of him eating a steak. I kinda think a couple of things along the way explained why he was that way. He grew up during the great depression (not the one we are in now) and I don’t think folks around these parts had a lot of beef of any kind at that time, depression or not. The other thing I think might have brought about his lack of interest in meats was his time spent in the Army during WWII. He arrived in Okinawa one or two days after the fighting had ended and after a few days spent making sure there were no Japanese snipers left doing their dirty deeds, he was assigned to operate a bulldozer. If you guessed the bulldozer work that needed to be done was burying the enemy in mass graves you would be right. I have seen pictures that he brought home with him of the many dead enemy soldiers but I think we can visualize this and I don’t have the pictures now anyway. I really loved my Dad and he taught me some lessons that I have never forgotten. I kinda think boys grow up in all kinds of ways and circumstances and become men of their own choosing. Yes, I know how important parental guidance is especially in the younger years but I have also seen parents that put forth more effort into it than anything else in their life and doing an excellent job of it and yet have those children turn out rotten as all get out. I guess what I’m saying is “Thanks Dad, for teaching me how to enjoy home grown vegetables in the summer and all those other lessons too.”