Midnight Salad

When I was a kid, I would spend the night, quite often in fact, at my cousin's house. There were lots of weekends that I spent at their house....weird because now that I think about it, he hardly ever spent the night at my house...it was always their house that we had sleep overs at.

I could go into a whole soap opera explanation of how our families were connected, both legally and not legally but I am sure you would start to think we were from some hills in the SE of the US if I did that. All you really need to know is that our parents were very good friends as well as relatives (for a time) and that meant that my cousins and I grew up around each other (we even lived with them for a while when I was in jr high).

I always enjoyed my nights at their house...even if I hadn't planned ahead to stay the night, I could fit in my cousin's clothes and my aunt always had lots of silky cool pjs for me to choose from. Sometimes my aunt and uncle would put out the hidabed couch and sleep in the living room with us kids and we would stay up late watching horror movies (what else was on late in the late 70s/early 80s, huh?).

Without fail, everyone would fall asleep except for me and my uncle (think there were night owl genes involved here because my bio father was also a night owl). Around midnight we would get the munchies and he would get up and make a salad of iceburg lettuce, chunks of ham and blue cheese dressing. I swear that was the best salad I have ever had....and that time with him sharing that simple salad will always be a memory I cherish. I wonder if he remembers it too.