THE BOY WHO LIKED SPINACH

Listen to Jim: http://www.jimreedbooks.com/mp3/popeye.mp3 or read on…

THE BOY WHO LIKED SPINACH

Spinach was the un-coolest thing I could imagine placing in my mouth,

way back when I was a whippersnapper.

 

Adults would tell me all sorts of things that made spinach even less attractive:

 

“Eat your spinach—it’s good for you!”

I don’t want to be good because I eat spinach. Aren’t there lots of other ways to be good?

 

“Why, spinach will give you loads of iron to make you big and strong.”

I don’t want to eat anything filled with chunks of iron. What if they

rust? Besides, I’ll pass on being big and strong. Small and wiry and

elusive sound more survivable to me.

 

“You just love Popeye the Sailorman—and he eats his spinach!”

What’s Popeye’s mailing address? I can send him my serving.

Besides, Popeye is kind of creepy—it’s Olive Oyl I lust after.

 

“Here, let me cook the spinach with slices of boiled egg—that’ll make it real good.”

Great, now even boiled eggs taste like spinach.

 

And so on. My silent protests and unspoken wisecracks rose up whenever

anybody tried to force an idea on me. Actually, I’m like that to this day.

 

Then, one day, when no-one was looking, I decided to actually try some

spinach—just to prove to myself that I really hated it. The empty can of Popeye

brand spinach lay hidden in the garbage pail. One serving was left on the platter

at the family dining table, the table that I was in charge of clearing off (back then,

kids actually had chores to perform). I grabbed a forkful of the mushy, over-cooked

substance and stuffed my mouth.

 

It tasted good!

 

Holy Smokes, I thought. What have I been missing!

 

From that day forth, I ate my spinach, but, in order to save face, and in order

to smugly lord it over my younger siblings, I never explained how I had discovered

that spinach was edible. I relished it while they sat staring at me as if I were a brown

shoe floating in a punch bowl.

 

Being a natural-born contrarian allows me to learn new stuff every day. Right now

I’m eyeing that serving of sushi that’s on the menu. Gulp.

 

Well, maybe, at least for today, I’ll skip the contrarian thing

 

© 2011 A.D. by Jim Reed

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