It’s interesting what stirs the nostalgia beast within one, don’t you think?
Since it started snowing here recently (I feel like I’m living inside a snow globe!) its gotten substantially colder. Which has resulted in me pulling out the oats and making porridge for breakfast. Nothing unusual in that you might say, but for me it opened the floodgates to so many childhood memories.
This morning I added leftover rice and sultanas which reminded me of my grandfather: Grumpy. When our grandparents lived with us Grumpy cooked porridge most mornings. It was sort of a gourmet version though because we had it with pouring cream and Lyle’s golden syrup and sometimes added extras like rice. He was a wonderful grandfather and a man of enormous integrity, I kind of let myself dwell on my memories of him even though it made me feel sad and miss him as well.
I usually make my porridge with soymilk, oats and honey though, and that is the recipe I grew up on. When I’m eating it I can almost hear my Dad caterwauling “Can someone please stir the porridge, I can’t do three things at once” and I’m transported back to those mornings of rushing around getting ready for school. Everyone timing how long you took in the bathroom or on the piano because there were so many of us.
Now lets be honest, most people probably don’t experience this sort of trip down memory lane over a bowl of grey gruel. Much less someone who complained about having to eat it every day of her childhood and sometimes tipped it in the compost when she got the chance. So I don’t think it's so much the taste that gets me but the fact that it reminds me of sitting round a table with my family, laughing a lot of the time, probably screaming and fighting quite a bit as well but overall loving the hell out of one another.
