Bag o'Tricks

My last post notwithstanding, I am solely responsible for two carefully assembled bags that must always be accessible: my Bag of Entertainments and my Snack Bag. In our drive thus far (5 hours), I have consumed:

• Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father (skimmed in preparation for a composition class in which I’m teaching it alongside John McCain’s Faith of My Fathers)
• Chicken sandwich from home
• ½ pt. blueberries
• Part of large bag of bing cherries
• ¼ canister of Pringles
• 1/2 slice of leftover birthday cake
• venti decaf nonfat raspberry mocha

It is a longstanding family tradition to have chicken sandwiches on the way to vacation. My mom used to cook a chicken and pack delicious sandwiches, lightly salted, with fresh Italian bread, crisp lettuce, and a touch of mayonnaise. We would eat them at scenically placed picnic tables along our route to Vermont, and then take a short walk where my parents would urge my sister and me to “get [our] stink blown off,” which I now understand to mean “run around and tire yourselves out” for the rest of the drive up to the cabin my parents rented.

As I think about it, several of our vacation traditions revolved around food, unsurprisingly. In particular, in our vacation grocery shopping trip, I got to pick out any cereal I wanted, no matter how sugary. I still remember standing in the cereal aisle, boggled by my sudden liberation into the world of choices beyond our usual Cheerios and Rice Krispies.

Our one non-food-related tradition was ABBA driving music, but sad to say, there’s none on Sam’s iPod . . . yet.