Every now and then I realize that there are certain aspects of my childhood that were different than other kids. Like when people look at me with their jaw dropped because I didn’t see Star Wars until I was in my 20s. Like when my family bursts into song and my husband and brother-in-law look at us like they’re not quite sure what they got into but they’re pretty sure there’s a clause in the marriage contract that can get them out of this.

I had the song North to Alaska in my head the other day and told this to the husband. Fortunately I realized before mentioning it that there was a good chance that he didn’t know it. The same was not the case for the song Goober Peas which I assumed everyone had heard of. Sidenote: I wish I could add the video of my brother-in-law trying canned goober peas down South with a funny look on his face and saying “Well, they sure don’t taste very good” while trying to be polite.

I also remember sitting around with a group of friends, watching TV and seeing an Old El Paso commercial come on with the song “Out in the West Texas town of El Paso”…and that was all that they sang. For some reason, I kept singing… “I fell in love with a Mexican girl” and mused that it was a pretty depressing song for a commercial. Stares from around the room. Then someone broke the silence by saying, “You know all the words, don’t you?” while shaking their head in shame. Then I got mocked until someone else did something mockable. Not everyone’s heard of Cream of Mushroom Soup on toast either…my father only wishes he hadn’t. But then again, he fondly remembers chipped beef on toast from his childhood.