WORST MEAL I EVER HAD

This happened as a result, not of the food being bad but, of the circumstances of the day and time in my life. I had done something bad, wrong, or least wise punishable. Then while being berated by my mother, we all sat down to eat supper. Her boyfriend was a hunter, so we ate whatever meat he provided from the field. This meal was rabbit, mashed potatoes, corn and the ever-present butter bread. Now I had had a pet rabbit that had been killed in the house fire at my Dad's house. So, this was a food I was loathe to eat anyway. On this particular day my appetite wasn't good because of anger toward mom. I ate everything on my plate, as usual, except that rabbit's hind leg. I could not even look directly at it. Mom asked what was wrong. I said I can't eat it. (Now remember she is already very angry with me.) She said you will eat it or you will sit here and look at it all night. Dinner was at 6:00pm in our house. When everyone was finished eating they got up from the table and cleared it off. My brothers washed the dishes. There I sat looking at Snow White's leg on my plate, and tears started to stream down my face. I wanted to be obedient. But, I couldn't eat my pet, my friend, Snow White. Around 9:30 or 10:00 mom's heart had finally softened enough for her to ask "why" I couldn't finish eating. When I explained, through wrenching sobs, what the problem was, she excused me from the table, and the chore at hand. I thought my mom was very mean. The funny thing is she never put rabbit, or squirrel, or any other small game on my plate again. The rule in our family was "waste not, want not." If you put food on your plate you were expected to eat it, all of it. Since she knew it was an exercise in futility, as well as making me physically ill, she didn't try it again. She may have been mean, but she wasn't dumb.