Memories

Yea, from the table of my memory

- Shakespeare

Today I started the dreaded Atkins diet. It's a cruel diet that conjures up memories that haunt me as I ponder my daily list of diet NO-NO'S.

I remember the smell of Grandmother's baking bread, of climbing the date palm eating my fill of dates, over and over again, then sitting under the fig tree and finding the ripest fallen fruit. Or of scooping out honey from the 5-gallon container on the back of the wood stove, then having as much custard as often as I wanted, all in a day's time.

Then I think of eating grapes from the vines surrounding the back porch. Or of picking oranges, grapefruit and tangerines from the orchard, and eating them on the spot, sometimes with the skin, and then filling up on mulberries as they stained our clothes and bodies.

The best part of childhood was never getting FAT! Dieting should not be a part of aging! Maybe I should eat the last two bananas and orange in the house before starting the DIET!