Lebanon Baloney

I have been having lots of adventures in parenting lately. Constantly saying things I never imagine I would and then all of a sudden I hear my mother come out of my mouth. It's kind of scary how that happens. I have even been using old sayings like, "hold your horses." There's just something funny about first, expecting an 18 month old to have patience, but even then using coloquilialisms like "hold your horses" to get your point across. I was reminiscing a bit about my poor mom and the crazy things I did as a kid and then a good "I told you so" story sprung to mind.

I was probably about 8 years old, if I had to guess, and we were off on a family day trip to Lancaster County, PA. I used to dread these trips of shopping and such but now I could only wish to get such a day of fun. Anyhow, we stopped off at one of the local places for lunch that had all the amish fare. After looking over the menu, I declared that I would have a Lebanon baloney sandwich for lunch. My mom tried to convince me that it wasn't regular baloney and I probably wouldn't like it. I wouldn't listen (imagine that, me being stubborn). Our family also had a strict "you order it, you eat it" policy so I should've thought this out a bit better but nevertheless, I ordered the Lebanon baloney. Of course when it came I thought it was gross, didn't want to eat it, and tried to get sympathy. There wasn't anything but "I told you so" coming from my parents' mouths and of course my brother was loving it too. Who knows what he ate for lunch but because he cleaned his plate, he was allowed to order dessert. I, of course, did not get to order dessert.

He got a beautiful ice cream sundae and proceeded to pretty much stare at me while eating it slowly licking off each bite from his spoon. It was like torture but apparently my brother was too full to finish the ice cream. As we were done our lunch and started making our way to the door, I told my mom that I forgot my coat at the table (which was true). So I ran back, got my coat and saw the unfinished portion of my brother's ice cream screaming my name. I got the spoon and started eating what was left of the delightful sundae! My mom wondered what was taking me so long and came to find me, as she approached me eating the ice cream the only thing she could do was laugh. To this day I don't remember if the coat "leave behind" was pre-meditated to get the ice cream but my family definitely doesn't let me live this story down. And really the lesson in all of it? You should definitely listen to your mother!