Prayer Meetings

The Corn Chips

by Madelyn Shields

 

 

     The year was 1949. I must have been about six years old, so Karen would have been eight. Daddy was an adventurer and always was ready for a new conquest. He made so many ordinary things pure fun and that is where my story begins.



     It was a cold night in Jackson, Michigan, and we were on our way home from church. Mother was on a diet; Mother was always on a diet of some kind. At this particular time it was the amazing Special K diet...understand that Special K was a brand new cereal just out on the market. But Mother kept up with all the new diet plans and this was THE ONE! Kellogg's was also offering beautiful initialed silverware in a fabulous wooden chest for so many boxtops and a small remittance (the cost was probably more than if she would have just bought the silverware).  Anyway, this cereal was good for you to lose weight and get elegant silverware with our family initial "A" engraved on each piece.
     We ate cereal morning noon and night, literally, so we could get all the benefit it had to offer. Karen and I would stand and watch Mother cut the cereal boxtops off and stack them very precisely,  counting carefully, so we could get that fabulous wooden box with silverware, engraved with the family initial "A" on each piece.
     Daddy drove a 1949 Plymouth with a ship on the hood of that beautiful car.  As we drove through Jackson going home we had to stop and buy Mother some cereal to eat before she went to bed.  We were going to enjoy another healthy meal of Special K with its double benefits...weight loss and boxtops for the silverware with the letter "A" engraved in each piece.
     Daddy turned into the grocery store...one opened late, turned the lights of the car off, turned the key off and ask Mother if she wanted anything beside Special K. Mother assured him that Special K was all we needed and Daddy disappeared into the store.
     We all sat in the car with anticipation, waiting for that miraculous box of Special K. I looked out the window from the back seat counting the lights and otherwise entertaining myself until we saw Daddy come out the door of the grocery store. Waiting, waiting, waiting...suddenly here he came with a big smile on his handsome face.
      Getting into the car, Daddy reached into the sack and pulled out, not Special K, but corn chips and said, " Lookie here, Helen, what I found! Corn Chips...the kind they have in St. Louis!" St. Louis was the magical word... Mother's face lit up like a Christmas Tree and she came alive! "Oh, Gus, that is wonderful." He handed Mother the bag of Corn Chips and it seemed like it took forever for her to open the bag. The smell of those corn chips wafted throughout the car. Mother chose a corn chip out of the bag and placed it in her mouth, reveling in the moment. Ahhhh! the taste, the crunch, perfect...these were the same kind they sold in St. Louis... "Here girls try some of these..."
     Well, the diet and the elegant silverware, with the letter "A" engraved in each piece, in its own wooden chest, was forgotten for the night as we enjoyed a brand new taste and treat. Daddy had brought us on an adventure we had never experienced before. To this day there is something magical about Frito's. They have that special taste and crunch and they are the same kind they sell in St. Louis!