two eggs over easy
November 2013
A few weekends ago, the one who holds my heart and I made a bacon and egg breakfast.
We were having coolish weather, and the heat of the stove, smell of the bacon, and click of the toaster started me remembering….
Two eggs over easy, bacon, and toast with butter was the breakfast Dad would usually have. On that Saturday, the one who holds my heart and I cooked, made buttered toast (imprinted with the eiffel tower!) and I went about opening the yolk, sprinkling in a little salt, and dipping the buttered toast. The wonderful taste accented by the lightly smoked bacon opened a place in my memory. I was instantly sitting at the counter at Mary’s Diner with Dad. He was looking at the Sun Times on the counter, sipping coffee as he dipped his toast, ate, and then cut up the remaining egg and ate it with a bit of bacon on each forkful.
My guess is that Dad and I were on our way to the warehouse on a Saturday morning. I would wash the trucks and unload them while Dad would make the work plan for his crews, and we’d pull the right tools, fittings, pipe and wire from the racks and reload the trucks so they would be ready to go first thing Monday. We’d work until almost noon, and when finished, I’d sweep the warehouse out, Dad would close up and we’d go to Reddings or Learners Deli and pick up cold cuts for lunch at home. Most times Dad would let me have a bottle of coke, one I wouldn’t have to pass around with my brother and sisters….
Sitting in the dining room with the one who holds my heart, I also flashed on another bacon and eggs scene, sitting with Dad in a booth in the Lakewoods Cafe and Laundromat in Marcel, Minnesota. We had been setting up the workday for the cabin addition construction, made our list of nails, screws, glues, and lumber and were having breakfast while waiting for the lumberyard to open. Like most early summer days, it was cold up there. We had three or four layers on that we’d take off hanging on nearby nails or tools and collect them all at the end of the workday to bring inside for the next day. But this morning in the booth, we both eyed the banana cream pie just coming out to the display case and were already thinking of a late supper at the cafe…I remember the pie was gone when we got back.
It took me a lot of days watching Dad cook bacon and eggs at home before I was handed the spatula to try it for myself. I remember breaking a lot of eggs on the “over” part of over easy and never enjoyed eating eggs broken that way, but the bacon was always good.
Breaking eggs is necessary to learn from a mistake I think: you try to figure out just the right amount of splashing hot bacon grease over the yolk to cook it just a little and then the right amount of lift/slide/flip to give the yolk a soft landing. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, it is pretty rewarding, let me tell you.
One of the hardest things in life is making mistakes, and one of the most rewarding things in life is learning from them. Dad was teaching me by letting me learn, and it was a good day when he just said “you cook” and sat down with his coffee at the table.
The loved ones who are gone from our lives are usually close by. It’s hard sometimes to feel them through our own feelings, but sometimes they just sneak in there in a moment’s memory. It always takes me awhile to unwrap what the memory was about: maybe that’s aging, maybe it’s the distractions of life. But I was happy for it.
The one who holds my heart and I made some pretty good eggs that Saturday, didn’t break one, and with the sun streaming in through the door, it was another perfect Saturday with her; I could almost hear Dad telling me I had made the right choice and was prepared for what came next.
I was lying quietly this morning trying to figure all this out as the one who holds my heart got ready for work. I believe now it was Dad’s agreement with a decision I’d come to that we’ll all enjoy tomorrow…maybe something we need to toast the ones who got us to where we are at 8:09:10 on 11.12.13!
Remember to thank a Vet for their service today!
Be good to each other; enjoy the memories in each moment!
enough