This past weekend I was joking around with my family about how watching my grandpa eat should really be a ticketed event, it is very entertaining. My grandpa is a big man, 6’5” maybe 250 lb. He is by no means obese, but he had a nice belly as recognition for all the food he has enjoyed over the years. Whenever we go out to eat with him, we always recap his performance in the car on the way home. Every meal he taps the salt and pepper shakers over his food long enough for you to wonder when he will stop seasoning it. Growing up, in efforts to get us to eat my parents would always say that there was a “clean plate contest,” at the end of every meal. Grandpa never let us win.

 

However, there is one particular performance that sticks out among the rest- the fourth of July buffet of 2014, it is still talked about to this day. First off, Grandpa comes back to the table with two mountainous plates full of pasta salads, shrimp, and other July 4thdelicacies. Thinking that these plates were for our whole table my dad went to take something off his plate and got the death glare. The rest of us watch in amazement- he doesn’t notice. The main event of that evening however was the lobster that he polished off. My youngest brother was hitting my arm like he was watching a close basketball game and would not stop talking about it all night, “He sucked out every single spec of meat!! Thats wild!” He did not waste one part of the lobster, he even sucked any left over butter off his fingers like a young kid would lick off the orange Cheetoh dust that gets stuck tips on your fingers tips.

My dad concerned/ irritated by his aging father had a look of disgust on his face as if he would not be doing the same thing in in twenty years. I’ve seen the hidden, empty sleeves of Oreos hidden under his bed whenever he goes on a ‘cleanse’. Grandpa got up asking completely seriously, “Do you want some ice cream Kristen?” He can always count on me for dessert. Needless to say, the fourth of July fireworks came in second place to grandpa’s show. I enjoy sharing a meal with my grandpa just as much as he enjoys eating it.

unnamed

— Kristen