This story is in response @mariannewest 's prompt for day 102 of her 5-minute freewrite challenge. Today's prompt was cracker.
Oh gosh, my mouth is dry. Is that even true? Do crackers really dry out your mouth? Can you really not whistle after eating a cracker?
To be honest, I have no grounds upon which to denigrate these common pieces of cracker wisom. I've never taken the time to test them out as I'm not the biggest fan of crackers in general. Especially (but not limited to) the generic square salty kind.
We were never cracker people, in my family. We never had dips out in little bowls as some kind of pre-supper snack with a second fancy bowl of assorted crackers to dip into the dip. Never had that kind of nonsense at my house growing up. The meal was the meal and it consisted of a piece of meat, some steamed vegetables, a big-ass salad, and usually some potatoes. No place for fancy crackers on that table.
After meeting my wife's family, I was exposed to the true cultured cracker scene for the first time. The cracker and dip is an event. They're all about having this special little pre-supper dipping-crackers-into-special-sauces time before the actual main meal. I don't understand it. It's not that I despise it, I don't even dislike the dips. Some of them taste fine. I just... don't understand the point of it. And the hardest part, I don't totally understand why I don't understand what it's all about.
It make sense when I talk it through to myself. You have this time when people can gather before the meal and keep their hunger at bay with little cracker snacks while also providing some time for catching up with one another, for real talk between people who care about each other. It's making the meal into a non-rushed thing that is less about eating and more about coming together and communing as an actual community of people.
So I get it when I speak it out to myself. But when I arrive at my in-laws' house for supper and I see all those dips layed out on the living room table with all these fancy crackers, it still causes a little twitch of ugh inside of me, a purely emotion-based objection silently screaming why?