Selby Smith
8-9 ACE
With my pop and I, pepperoni became a bonding act. Growing up I lived with my mother, brother, grandmother and grandfather. My pop and I were the only two who like pepperoni. He would have my grandmother buy a stick or pepperoni, and would keep it on the shelf of the fridge. Some days I would be playing in the other room and from the kitchen I would hear my pops work boots shuffle over to his spot at the table. Then I would hear a “ptsh Selb, come here”. I would get up and run into the kitchen, seeing my pop sitting there with the pepperoni and a knife. Always a huge grin would spread across my face, as it was my favorite snack. But then I would remember and say “But poppy, dinners soon and gram or mom won’t want us to eat that before dinner”. And he would smile and say “Just a piece for both of us won’t hurt, just make sure you finish your dinner”. Then he would cut us both a piece and put the rest back on the counter so we weren’t tempted to have more. Of coarse that’s not the end of that story. With my mom and gram, we rarely got away with anything. More than half the time my pop and I were busted. But we usually got away with it by acting silly when my grandmother came in to check on dinner and saw us eating our snack. She would usually say “what are you to doing in here?” With a grin he would reply “What?” and I would follow with a “What what?”, then a “what what what?” from my partner in crime. This would continue until one of us lost count on the added “What’s” or my grandmother would roll her eyes and go back to cooking. We would laugh; I’d give him a high five, and then run back to whatever I was doing before. I still go over to visit today and he goes the fridge and says “what” and I of coarse reply with my classic “What what?” No one else in our family partakes in this silliness, but it is something that happened quite a bit when I was younger. It’s still a memory that I laugh at and when I eat pepperoni i still mumble to myself “What what” with a grin.