I wanted to share a little story about my son Colin and myself that happened last October. Besides cooking, our interests also include advocating for dyslexia which both Colin and I have. We tend to be similarly challenged in certain situations, specifically, situations that require decision making among a sea of choices. The story below is one of those fun times so I hope you enjoy it!

It was a Saturday afternoon in mid October. My wife Lynda was busy with work and thought it would be a good idea to get Colin off of the video games he’d been playing the last couple hours on a beautiful fall day. She suggested that we go out and buy some pumpkins and gourds for the fall season. At the grocery store there was an outside stand that sold stuff like bales of hay, Indian corn, you know, all the fall stuff. So we grabbed a large Radio Flyer-like wagon and set off to the pumpkin section to pick out a couple of pumpkins. It took us about 15 minutes to pick out two pumpkins (I should have taken this as a sign that picking out gourds was going to be a challenge!)

So Colin and I wandered over to the gourd section which was no more than a five by five wooden pen – but it was chock full of gourds. This was a cornucopia of color, shapes and sizes; bright yellows, greens, oranges – all mixed together. Colin and I stood there and just stared for what felt like a half hour but probably was more like ten minutes, before one us attempted to actually pick one out. For the next 20 minutes we would pick one up to buy, only to discover that the one under that one was better.  Or, was the one with the goose neck the one? Or was it the one with the big warts on it? No, maybe it was the one that was exactly half green and half bright orange like someone had painted it that way? This went on for another 20 minutes and we still had not put one gourd in the wagon.

Finally Colin looked at me and said “I don’t know Dad.” I said “Yeah I don’t know either, let’s just step away for a minute and gather ourselves.” Colin then suggested that maybe we should call Mom. I don’t know why I thought this was a good thing to do but the next thing I remember I was on the phone speed dialing my wife! The conversation that followed might have sounded crazy to the average person when trying to explain to someone that we were having such a hard time picking out gourds, but my wife is not your average person, she understood what was happening but it was no excuse. “You don’t really think I’m going to jump in the car, drive to the store and pick out some gourds? That sounds crazier than what you guys are doing. You guys have got to get it together and do this. I know you can do it” I said “Ok we’ll give it another shot.” She said “No you are not going to give it another shot, you are going to do this and I’ll see you guys in little bit. Now go just put 4 or 5 gourds in your little wagon and get your butts home.” After hanging up, Colin looked at me and said “She’s not coming is she?” “Ha” I said “Nope we’re on our own. Come on let’s do this.”

So we marched back. Over the gourd pit with our game faces on, I told Colin that if we go home and we don’t have any gourds we’ll be in deep doo doo, and he agreed. The gourd pit was a square box so Colin said “I have a plan. Let’s not think about it and just go to each corner of the box and pick the ones that are in the very corner. That will give us 4 and then we can get out of here.” I said “Awesome, I’ll pick 2 and you pick 2.” So we went for it. It happened so fast, before I knew it there were 4 gourds sitting in our Radio Flyer and I was at the register. As I stood there I could see that the gourd pit that was only like 10 feet away from the register. I caught myself looking at the pit and then our gourds, the pit then our gourds, the pit then our gourds. I started to sweat a little when I heard someone say “$23.50 please.” It snapped me out my trance “ok” I said. Reaching for my wallet I realized I had left it home and that I had no cash. No…that didn’t happen, I’m just messing with you! We paid, got in the car and drove home. It was a long quiet ride home but once we got there, gourds in hand it was a relief that Lynda acted as if nothing had happened and that the phone call also never happened.

So here is some advice if you’re dyslexic and your spouse asks you to go buy some gourds unsupervised. Say “you know what honey, I think this activity should be something the whole family should experience” and go together!