snack time

I have had a few moments to contemplate snack time over the past few weeks now that we're back in school and also have daycare kids. Usually our snack time consisted of things like apples, carrots, rice cakes or string cheese. Healthy and easy. But when my daycare boy, Ben came on the scene I was informed about the importance of a well chosen snack. As I was doling out snacks one day he asked me "Pam, do you have any real snacks?" To which I asked him to clarify what "real snacks" were. He proceeded to explain real snacks like fruit shapes (fake, I'll add) in a bag and granola bars; the type which are really glorified candy bars in disguise. All of which come in boxes for $3.95 and have a serving size of four. I'm not jaded, just realistic. And I prefer food that comes from the ground verses the stuff manufactured by forty-eight robots. Funny though, how three days later his dad dropped off three large bags of snacks for the kids. You can guess what they were. They have no freshness date marked on their boxes. I think I'll give them as Christmas gifts in five years and see how they go. Surely they'll taste just fine then.

It brought me to thinking about my snacks way back in the day. I often visited friends homes after school and they always did snacks. Then, in about 8th grade when I got myself a job cleaning a house after school, the homeowner would always give me a snack. And what did I get? Grapefruit! Not even the Ruby Red kind. I remember being too nice and choking the junk down. Once in I while I got honey to make it more palatable. How time has changed.