Memory Lane Friday - No Theme

Yes, I know I'm later than usual this week. See, Liv came down with strep throat yesterday, so I've been at home with a sick kid. Normally, I'd just post while she was asleep. But this week? It couldn't be done. We've been having internet issues at home, so I haven't been able to log on. And because she's still contagious, it's not like I could've taken her to the library with me and my laptop.

So I'm at a bookstore, in their cafe with free wi-fi, stealing about 30 minutes before I have to go home and give her a bath and antibiotics. Daddy, meanwhile, got home to a hot meal, and my practically waiting by the door with my laptop, just waiting for him to relieve me.

Anyway, this week's topic is another "No Theme."

So I'm going to talk about something Livie and I were talking about earlier today. Dogs. 

A long time ago, when I was very young, my family had a Doberman. She was a beautiful, glossy black dog named Tory.

I don't remember how Liv and I got on the topic of the family's dogs of the past, but somehow we were talking about them. Oh, I think it was because we'd watched the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and there's a naughty Doberman in the role of "antagonist" - the breed, not the naughtiness made me think of Tory, and that's the beginning of our conversation.

Now, as we all know, chocolate isn't good for dogs, right? But they can eat carob, which is chocolate-like.

So . . . back in the days of Tory (early-mid-'70s), we had these carob "chips" - that were round, kinda flattened, sorta checker-sized pieces of carob, that served as dog treats. I can't remember the packaging, but I think that the box may have had a dog on it.

I explained to Liv, that these were Tory's treats, and although they tasted kinda like chocolate, they weren't, thereby being safe for dogs to eat.

But then I told her that humans could also eat carob; I recalled a boy in my 2nd grade class that was allergic to chocolate, and he'd eat carob instead.

And then I told her the most "amazing" thing. Sometimes my dad (a.k.a. Nonno) would get the box of carob down from the top of the fridge, and eat one! And to prove to me that they weren't all that bad, he'd let me eat one, too!

Liv was flabbergasted! We were eating dog treats?! (They were pure carob, by the way, without dog-food stuff in them.)

She couldn't believe it! She asked what Abuelita (my mom) thought of that and did Nonno get in trouble for feeding me these doggy carob chips?!

I actually couldn't remember if she actually knew. I don't think so, because I don't remember her ever spazzing out about it! Hahaha!

And then, of course, she asked me the most important question: how did the carob dog treats taste?

Well. . . if I remember correctly, they tasted like kinda bland, dry, boring wanna-be chocolate.

After asking me one more time, if Nonno got in trouble with Abuelita, she changed the subject, just like that.

And I was left sitting there wondering about those carob chips.


So there you go. There's my short and sweet memory for this week.

Please come back next week when the topic is "A Store."

Oh, and please don't forget to check out "Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs," (just click the button below) because Lisa is the host for Memory Lane Friday every week. She's got a good story to tell.