Thursday, July 17, 2008

he won't do that again

Right after we came home from our road trip late Saturday afternoon, Charlie took off for the grocery store to pick up a few items. When he returned home, and I was unpacking the bags, I thought for sure it was a mistake that there was a jar of GOOBER in the bag. Perhaps someone unloaded their groceries before Charlie had a chance to put up the plastic belt divider, or maybe it was left behind from an earlier customer.

Because seriously.

GOOBER?


It wasn't like Charlie went to the store with small children underfoot that begged, "Daddy, PUHLEASE can we have THIS?!" My husband went shopping all by himself and although he might purchase a nice jar of Smucker's jelly, I could not imagine that my semi-health conscious spouse would intentionally purchase GOOBER.

So, I asked, "Charlie, dude. What's this? Did you realize this was in your bag?" And he replied, "Oh yeah! Isn't that cool?? I used to eat GOOBER all the time when I was a kid. I didn't know they still made it!!"

When I tried to tell my husband that peanut butter and jelly swirled together and loaded with so many preservatives that it doesn't even require refrigeration is the epitome of processed food and is not something that I want to be feeding our children. My husband was a little offended and responded "Jen, not only does this stuff taste AWESOME, it is a huge time saver. Just wait until tomorrow at lunch. Woman, you will be thanking me."

I think it is important to note that it doesn't matter how busy I am, I will carve out the additional 10 seconds required to make my children a REAL peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I also think it is important to note that as one grows older, their palate matures. Because once Charlie had a bite of a GOOBER sandwich, he almost puked.

Apparently, it doesn't taste as AWESOME as it did 25 years ago.

15 comments:

  1. OMG now I"m glad we live in Australia...that is the most horrendous thing I've ever seen...

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  2. This post is hilarious! I admit that I did have my share of Goober sandwiches growing up. I love that Charlie thought it would be such a huge timesaver for you:)

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  3. Well, we have to give props to Charlie for at least trying to save time, anyway :)

    I adored fluff, jelly and peanut butter growing up, but I doubt I could handle it now!

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  4. I agree it was sweet of Charlie to try and save you some time (of course that could have just been an added bonus in his book, but hey, it's the thought).

    I could just picture his face with that first bite... ewww.

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  5. I'm not an organic eater, but you JUST DON'T USE GOOBER to make a good pb&j. There are so many things wrong with it.

    And thank goodness our palates mature. I took a bite of chef boyardee ravioli recently, and although I loved it as a child, it was the nastiest stuff I've had in a long time.

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  6. LOL. Since I do my best to feed my children as little processed/preservative laden food as possible... I had to read this post to my husband... who, I might add responded at the beginning," Wow, Goober - I used to love that stuff!"
    I have a feeling had you not also written about Charlie's maturing palate, that this is a situation I too might have faced someday.

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  7. Ha! I too used to eat Goober (grape) as a kid. I tried the stuff in college and the consistency of the "peanut butter" (I use the term loosely) is well, evil. That stuff just ain't right!

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  8. actually i had the same experience with gerber baby vanilla pudding. i remember trying to steal it away from my younger brothers as a child.

    as a teen, i craved it one day.

    ew. just ... ew.

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  9. Yeah PBJ is good....But not that way! You've got to make the ral thing and add banana.
    You do realize that most husbands would have picked that up so cut him some slack.

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  10. That's so funny--I didn't even know the stuff existed!

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  11. Charlie. Charlie. Charlie. No. No. No.

    I actually shuddered and got a little faint. Even GREG doesn't buy GOOBER!!!! :)

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  12. lovely meeting you this morning! See you Monday?

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  13. Do you know the 1 and ONLY PB&J sandwich I ever ate was at a birthday party at your house for either you or Eileen - I can't remember which! I despise the stuff and always have - I also to this day cannot tolerate baked beans which your Mom insisted that I eat one Saturday night while having franks and beans at your house! When serving 7 kids you must insist one clear their plate!

    I do know that the BEST toll house cookies and O'Henry bars came out of your house! Always the best baked goods in the neighborhood!

    Tell Charlie we used Skippy and only Skippy! I am sure you are using a natural PB now which is even better!

    FYI - The Columbo's used Peter Pan - YUK!

    :) Your Old Neighbor

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  14. I about spit out my Coke with this post!

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