Some things never change

Growing up, we ate lots and lots of fruits.  We had a little rolling cart with 4 baskets that was always full of fruits, and we would go to the grocery store almost daily to get more fruit.  I generally didn’t mind all of the fruit, that is, until I turned about 6 or 7.  At that point, certain fruits – citrus, apples and grapes – would make me upchuck.  My parents, dad especially, would be so annoyed with me and thought that I was puking just to be a recalcitrant child.  (As a side note, I can handle most bodily fluids, puke is not one of them.  I cannot even fathom doing that just to be obnoxious!!)

Anyway, I remember a time when I was maybe 9ish.  Oranges were served and I, of course, complained, knowing what the outcome would be.  I ended up losing it in the bathroom sink and my dad was all kinds of mad at me.  I’m not sure that I ever convinced my parents that I wasn’t making this up!  I eventually learned to just eat the fruit slowly and not think about it too much, and then I would be okay.  I still felt mega nauseated, but was able to keep it to myself, so to speak.

When I was about 12, we went to a fall festival and they had a game where apples were dangling from the ceiling from strings.  The point was to run up, take a bite out of the apple without touching it with your hands, and then run back and tag a team member.  I thought about playing, but then smacked myself in the head and said, “heck, NO!”

It wasn’t until college that I was able to comfortably eat apples.  I think I managed to figure out that the mealy ones were the ones that would do me in, so I just made sure to only eat the crispest apples around.  Grapes were still out and citrus was a total maybe.

By the time I hit grad school, I was able to eat most fruits about 85% of the time.  One time, we were at a friends’ house and oranges were served.  This happened to be a time that fell into the 15%, so I steered clear.  When asked why, I gave a brief explanation and moved on.  A friend was intrigued by this ailment and kept asking questions.  He clearly had no idea how cloyed I was feeling about the oranges!  After several calm attempts to get him to stop, I lost it and said, “Dude!  Unless you want me to puke all over you . . SHUT UP!”  He looked a little shocked, and stopped, but I could tell deep down inside he REALLY wanted to get to the bottom of it all!

So, I wasn’t being a recalcitrant child all those years ago.   I’m 36 and some fruits can still send me running to the porcelain throne!  You might be wondering what brought this to mind?  Let’s just say that I won’t be eating any more of those chocolate dipped clementines we had for dessert today!  😀