Our friend Dick came up this weekend to take a look at our infamous washing machine, implicated in the poison oak outbreak and in the rugged mountain woman story.
While he was removing the offending do-hickey from the washer, I said,
"Dick, you're a strange guy. You need to enter the contest on my website."
I explained to him that we are searching for nutrient dense foods, packed with depression fighting nutrients such as vitamin B-12, zinc, and iron. In the case of the contest, however, the food also must be considered a pest.
Dick is an Okie from Delano, just north of Bakersfield, California. It seems impossible to outsiders that an Okie could be from the Bakersfield area and not from Oklahoma, but it actually makes perfect sense. During the Dustbowl, many people migrated from southern states to California looking for work.
Migrants from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and just about everywhere else hit by the drought, found themselves in labor camps and working in California agriculture. They were all considered "Okies" and Bakersfield became Okie headquarters. Any country music fan knows as much from the work of locals Buck Owens and Merle Haggard of what is known in country music as "Bakersfield Sound." Half of my gene pool is this kind of Okie.
And back to the story.
Dick, as a good ole Okie boy, would surely nominate a squirrel, possum, or raccoon. He might even sabotage Postmaster Dean's possible skunk entry.
Not Dick.
"I've got one for you. Fried Grasshopper. Them things taste like chips."
"Potato chips?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Back in 1958 my cousin found a can of fried grasshoppers and offered me two bits for every one I ate. I ate about ten. That was a lot of money."
(Dick actually said "25 cents" but I thought I'd take editorial license and write "two bits" since his Okie seems to be wearing off.)
"Did he pay up?"
"You bet he did. My parents were there. He had no choice."
"Did it help your depression?"
"Come on, Mandy, it's ice cream that helps your depression. I keep trying to tell you." My dad interrupted. They laughed and kept working.
So with a grasshopper nutrient profile illusive, I'll throw on the blog Dick's nomination for "Pest or Dinner." Let's make this one dedicated to good old Buck Owens who passed away one year ago this month.
