Memories are who we become and food is a piece of memory that is a very intense part of childhood memory. Food means love, care and nurturing and we give it back as a symbol of those feelings.
This Walt Whitman verse explains how we become........
There was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he looked upon, that object he became;
And that obect became a part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years.
The early lilacs became a part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning glories, and white and red clover, and the
song of the phoebe-bird,
And the third month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint littler, and the mare's foal, and
the cow's calf,
And the noisy brood of the barn yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,
And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there-and the beautiful
curious liquid,
And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads-all became a part of him.
The field sprouts of the fourth month and the fifth month became a part of him;
Winter grain sprouts, and those of light yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden,
And the apple trees covered over with blossoms and the fuit afterward, and woodberries and the commomest weeds by the road;
And the old drunkard staggering home from the outhouse of the tavern, whence he had lately risen,
And the school mistress that passed on her way to school,
And the friendly boys that passed-and the quarrelsome boys,
And the tidy and fresh cheeked girls-and the barefoot boy and girl.
And all the changes of city and country wherever he went.
His own parents,
He that had fathered him and she that had conceived him in her womb and birthed him,
They gave this child more of themselves than that;
They gave him afterward every day-
They became a part of him.
The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper table;
The mother with mild words-Clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, angered, unjust;
The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,
The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture-the yearning and swelling heart,...........
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day.
.....Walt Whitman
