I remember suffering from fecal impaction/constipation alot when I was a child. The food I ate was mostly processed, easy to heat up like fast food.

I remember suffering from fecal impaction/constipation alot when I was a child.
The food I ate was mostly processed, easy to heat up like fast food.

When I ran I got terrible side "stitches", very painful in my side. It was so
bad I had to lay down for a long time. I remember one time my grandma told me to lay on
my stomach it would help relieve the pain faster that I couldn't get rid of
when laying on my back.

I remember going poop, number 2 when I was 6 years old and very hard
stool finally came out with bright red blood in it.

Mom had to give me Fletcher's Castoria to relieve the constipation.

She also gave us kids cod liver oil, a nasty tasting thing. That's what
mom's did back then. It was good for us.

I remember what us 4 kids ate: mostly "kid food", stuff that was processed,
premade, small bits, sweet and tasted good.

We ate lots of the cheapest white bread we could get.
I would tear off the crust and flatten my piece of bread
roll it into a ball
and eat it like that.

I hated onions so I wouldn' eat meatloaf.
Wouldn't eat steak.

We did not eat fresh salads. She didn't get carrots and celery
and cut them up for snacks like grandma did.
She never ate beets like grandma did.

We did have some fruit but not much: apples,
oranges, bananas, watermelon in the summer.

Mom fixed us more processed, easy to make food she didn't have to cook.

Pot pies, fish sticks, cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
lipton's noodle soup in the box, canned soup,
boxed macaroni and cheese.

We ate lots of tv dinners
while sitting in front of the television.

We always had milk especially for the cereal.

She bought the velveeta blocks of cheese.  It was cheap.

We had tons of that
fake cheese. We loved mac'n'cheese.
We were kids and didn't know any better.

Cold hot dogs, the cheapest ones you could get, along with
the cheapest bologna available. Cheap lunchmeat like salami
or whatever was on sale.

Hamburger, the greasiest and cheapest.
The cheapest bacon you could get.

Pickles, dill and sweet.

Mom was cheap, tight with the money so she wouldn't buy
barbecue sauce. She told me if you mix ketchup and mustard
that made bbq sauce. I was a child. I believed her.

Canned spaghetti o's and canned macaroni and "beef" aka "beefaroni".
Potato chips, cheese curls and pops, pretzels, corn chips.

Mom made tuna salad from a premade kit and used the cheapest
salad dressing you could get -spin blend- to put it together.

She just didn't like or didn't know how
to make things from scratch.

She never made pie crust, homemade
pies, cakes or cookies. She never made a pot roast with potatoes,
carrots and onions.

She never made ham and beans in a crock pot,
slow cooking all day after soaking them first like grandma did.

She never baked a turkey
and did not know how to make home made stuffing.

I had my mom over for a visit on Thanksgiving Day
about 2 years before she died.

I had cooked all of the traditional food.
She was very quiet, as she usually was.

Then she said, "That was very good stuffing. It tasted great."
I said, "Mom, it was stove top stuffing mix. I just added some
celery, onions, turkey broth and spices. I really didn't make it
from scratch. It's so easy to make."

Candy apples. Caramel apples. Doughnuts. Donuts. Mom bought cake mixes
and would make a cake now and then. We had lots of ice cream
and store bought cookies. I remember getting into the refrigerator
and eating the leftover bits of "cinnamon" flavored sugary stuff
used to make the candy apples.  So sweet and tasty.

My teeth were rotten by the time I made it to grandma's
at age 6.

Grandma took me to the dentist to fix my rotten teeth due
to the sugar consumption and my not knowing how to
wash off the ick off my teeth.

I was infected with pinworms so bad. Grandma was angry
about the whole situation.

We ate lots of candy. Lots of candy bars. Drank kool-aid
and soda pop instead
of lots of water or fruit juice.

Later on I began sneaking soda pop when I lived with grandma.
She had a limit: one can a day.
Grandma said sugar is bad for your teeth,
kool-aid is belly wash with no nutrients.
I didn't listen to her, defiant as a child will be.
I hoarded Jolly Rancher's candy in my clothes dresser drawers.
I hoarded all kinds of candy during my life.

I stashed chocolate bars in there, too in case I needed
a sweet sugar fix because if I left them out laying around
someone else might eat them.

Mom drank instant Lipton Tea and Pepsi cola daily. She added quite a
bit of sugar to the tea. I guess she didn't want to go to effort to
heat up water and make tea using a bag or tea leaves.
Whatever was easiest, she did it.
Premade store bought stuff is the way to go, Joe.

Mom never made cole slaw. My little brother, Darryl showed me
how to make it when I was 21. He probably learned how to make
it from our dad.

Mom never made potato salad.

I don't know for sure but I wonder if mom thought because
she was so strikingly beautiful when she was young
that she didn't have to do
anything like cooking from scratch.

Grandma did not show me how to cook. She just took
me to to grocery store and made food every day at home.

She made a lot of home cooked meals and we had lots
of canned goods available like soup, which I love
and as I have progressed I learned on my own how
to make soup.

I couldn't cook anything but a grilled cheese sandwich
and heat up a can of soup when I was 15.
A crying shame.

I have learned how to cook many things since then
because I had the desire to do so
and now it's probably too late