While Husband and I were on our Christmas cruise to Mexico, our twenty-something-year-old kids from my first marriage were back in the US of A doing whatever it is they do whether we’re in the same country as them or not. That answer would be “Who knows because he never tells” where Son is concerned and “Say everything all at once without taking a breath” in the case of Daughter. And where words fail there are always pictures, as in the ones I found posted on Daughter’s Fotosite capturing her holiday visit to friends in Ohio.
This trio of pastrami, corned beef and brisket is followed immediately by a photo of Daughter, a vegetarian undercover in Cleveland.
Madonna couldn’t disguise herself better from the paparazzi. Even for a family with a history of childhood dining dyslexia such as ours (see Nothing Says Lovin’ Like Something from the Oven) there are Pavlovian responses to certain foods and that trio picture above rings all the bells for us.
Back in the 1970’s, my late father, who was a maverick entrepreneur, began a business that revolutionized the photo novelty industry. One of the very first people he hired was Ms. M. One of the very first things Ms. M did was thumbtack a picture of a deli sandwich to the wall above her desk. I met her in my twenties when I moved back to New York from Colorado, and I asked her what the deal was with the pastrami photo. She looked at me over her glasses and said, “We all need a reason to live. And it’s corned beef.” With that she became one of my favorite people.
The company thrived and moved several times over the next 25 years to larger quarters and each time it moved the corned beef sandwich went along. Over time, the photo acquired a frame and then a larger frame with a mat but it was always the same image hung over the desk of Ms. M. My kids visited their grandfather’s offices as they grew up and always gave Ms. M a hug hello and pointed to the picture smiling at each other. It’s hard to look at a deli sandwich framed on the wall and not want to smile.
My father died, the company changed hands, and Ms. M departed after 30 years of dedicated service. Over the years, I got to know many of my dad’s terrific staff both as co-workers and friends and some of them even read this blog. I hope Ms. M is one of them. And with any luck, I’ll hear from Son after he sees this entry. Nothing brings ’em home like pastrami. Sorry, corned beef.
Here are more of Daughter’s Featured Fotos telling ‘How I Spent My Christmas Vacation’
metal man at a cleveland scrapyard. scrapyart?
surprisingly light on his feet for a big guy
new year’s eve. party like it’s 1999