Short Story - Bread and Butter

Short Story Tuesdays

To this day I can’t walk down the street with someone I love and be separated by something without saying “Bread and Butter.” Whether it be a pole, a person, anything really. It’s second nature, having been instilled in me as a little boy, back when Grandma used to take me out to the mall. It was a saying that had been in our family since before she could even remember, nobody knowing where it actually came from.

That’s what I liked most about Grandma. She was a link to the past.  A glimpse into an era that had had its time and had since long past, the few remaining souls who had lived it now like walking museums, most of those who came after not seeing the value of the stories they possessed.

When I look back on my childhood, and beyond for that matter, I feel so grateful for not having been among the ignorant, children my age usually preferring to hang out with peers rather than a grandparent. Not me. I always looked forward to our day at the mall, taking in a movie while eating peanut brittle or banana chips, window shopping, book browsing. We must have circled that mall hundreds of times throughout the years, but Grandma somehow made each go-round feel unique and special.

And then there were the life lessons that came along with such fun, her old sayings becoming stories to learn from. Sayings I still find myself murmuring whenever life presents a fitting circumstance.

Someone mentions something random: What’s that got to do with the price of beans?

Some hard head who refuses to budge: Can’t get blood out of a turnip.

Some Captain A-Hole (a title she loved to give those who fit it) who’s faced with embarrassing humility: Eat humble pie.

And then there were the times when such wisdom extended to moments so profound, their impact so deep, that it would forever change you right on the spot.

One of these life-changing moments came about when we were enjoying a couple of Orange Julius’. I was sixteen at the time, and a few Captain A-Holes around my age had come over from the nearby arcade to have a drink. Right away they started in with their snide remarks.