Crackers in Milk

It’s an old thing. A deep memory from early in my childhood. Crumbling up the crackers into milk, and eating them with a spoon.

Kevin has been eating crackers when he gets home from work, to tide him over until dinner. Yesterday he is changing his clothes after work, and he comments, “As much as I dislike soggy crackers, I used to eat crackers crumbled up in milk when I was a kid.” I remember. It isn’t the first time he has said this, just the first time I have connected it to a memory of my own, I was pretty young when we did that.

“Yeah. We did that when we were kids.” I tell him. He pulls his shirt out of the drawer and takes off his dirty shirt.

“But if you put too many in, it tastes too salty.” I tell him. I remember that the saltine crackers had JUST enough texture left to not be gross. But if you put more crackers in after you ate them and still had milk left, the milk got kinda salty.

“Eyooo!” he says. “You don’t use saltines! Gross! You use graham crackers!”.

“Oh yuck!” I tell him. I can’t imagine how soggy those must have been! Or maybe I can… and I can’t imagine being able to EAT them!

He laughs.

I laugh.

We have this connection, he and I. One more thing that we share. But also not.

We both remember crackers and milk. But we don’t have the same memory AT ALL.