I have to share the goiter story. My Mama's goiter story. You see. Mom and I sit on my porch and she relives her youth and so do I. It's also interesting to hear "her truth vs my truth".
I've told you for years now that I am not a good cook. Plain and simple. I don't add salt. But, wait! Tonight I dumped a good amount of salt in my hand to sprinkle on the salmon I was cooking. I gingerly added salt to the salmon and tossed the remaining heaping amount of salt into the sink. But I had good intentions. Really. I did. But, then again, it all goes back to my mother's goiter.
It all started when my Mom was about 31 years old and Sherry and I were around ten or eleven. Mom and Dad rode a bus from Trenton, Tennessee to Memphis so a doctor could look at my mom's swollen neck...a goiter. A huge growth strangling her windpipe. (Well, that's the story we took with us anyway).
That day Mom and Dad left three children alone in a spooky three-story house. Mom says that when she and my dad got home, all of the lights were on...lit up just like a Christmas tree. But, folks...that scary night is a whole other blog. Now, back to the goiter.
What? The same photograph? Yes, indeedy. On mom's next appointment to have her goiter removed, she took me and Sherry. I remember the bus trip well because of our lovely pink homemade seersucker dresses.
Anyway, as the story continues, I used to picture the doctors slitting Mom's throat. After all, we grew up in the days of Blackbeard the Pirate. I heard mention that salt had something to do with Mom's goiter growing and ultimate surgery; and from that day on, I refused to add salt on any of my food. Believe me, attempting to cook around my house has caused me much distress because of the lack of salting when I prepared a meal. But, that's not a bad thing. Truett took over that responsibility and I was happy!
However, whatever is instilled in a kid's brain . . . remains in that brain, whether it is the truth or not. As an adult, I learned that iodized salt prevented the growth of goiters. So I had it all wrong all of my life.
Tonight Mom and I were discussing her goiter operation and then she said, "Well, the reason you got it all wrong was because you had a hearing problem!"
"A hearing problem?" I asked.
"Yes, don't you remember riding the bus to Jackson, Tennessee and having steel rods inserted in your nose for radium treatments?"
Radium treatments in the 50's That sounds like something off of The Twilight Zone. And I did remember. But, what I remembered most was wearing the same pink dress that I wore when Mom got her throat slit!
And I still don't use salt.
They will never convince me on that one!
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