Chocolate covered ants, a spider and half a water bug!

I am sure most of us have heard those little poems snips and snails and puppy dog tails that’s what little boys are made of. There is also the one that says sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of. Well, sometimes those are obviously not the case.

When I was very young, too young to understand what you should eat and what you shouldn’t, I got into one of the kitchen cabinets. I found the Hershey’s cocoa powder and was able to get the lid off. I decided that I was going to start eating it by the handfuls. Likewise, I don’t remember how I thought it tasted, because that was too many years ago, but I am sure it was not what I thought it would be.

I am, however, pretty sure cocoa powder had to taste better than the ant, the spider and the half of a water bug that my mother told me she saw me put in my mouth. No doubt that sight made a huge impression in my mother’s memory banks. Not only that, but I have heard my mother tell the story so many times how she was so grossed out by the fact that her baby girl was attempting to eat an ant, a spider and a water bug. She said she was not at all thrilled with the task of fishing those things out of my mouth, but she didn’t want me swallowing those things either. She was half way successful because I only managed to swallow half of the water bug. So, in my case, the poems stating what little girls are made of had a few extra ingredients. I have to say that I also do not remember how they tasted, but it couldn’t have been too bad for me because I have lived to see fifty without any adverse side effects from my temporary diet of chocolate covered bugs!

Photo by Dhaya Eddine Bentaleb