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sinGleD; out
formed in the shape of Mickey Mouse or a bunny rabbit; hot dogs in Central Park; hot dogs at, of all places, Nathans in Coney Island (a twenty-mile trip, completely on a whim, when the kids requested Cen- tral Park fare at a Sabrett’s cart—that was actually nothing for me: when I was camp counselor, I had driven from Kee-Wah to Coney Island one evening, just to experience Nathan’s with some friends); pizza at Frank’s Italian Village; pizza at Ray Bari’s; pizza at Ray Barry’s; pizza at the Original Ray Bari’s; or pizza at the First Original Ray Bari’s; and, of course, Fishamajigs at Friendly’s.
Obviously, food was an important part of the being-single-and- having-your-kids-over experience. That is not terribly surprising, as Farragut Road food was a very important part of the way in which we related to one another. Farragut Road, you might recall, embraced an environment where food intake, or the lack of it, was steeped in symbolism and imbued with elements of control. Phyllis ran a tight food ship. Not only was it important to choose the correct utensil and plate (meat or dairy), it was vital to eat correctly and in correct portions. My job had been to follow all of those rules and to set the right example. It was a job that my mother had failed to prepare me for but one that I tried hard to execute. Now, however, I was in New York City, living alone and a pursuing a life of wild abandon, at least when it came to food. I was no longer charged with the grave responsibility of being Phyllis’s enforcer, and, although initially unsure of what role I should play, I ulti- mately made the first of many decisions to actually be myself. And I found out very quickly that that decision worked well for me. Not only that, I found that the kids preferred that I be me, and—guess what—as you would have noted from the previous paragraph, they did not rebel and insist that I maintain a kosher environment or even a healthful one. Yay!! As was the case, however, with many things, Peter and Rachel found food a bone of contention (you should pardon the expression). When one said A, the other said B, and that’s the way it was with takeout food until I gave them their first lesson in contract law, thereby introduc- ing a technique which, as we shall see, became very important to employ. An example follows on the next page. Guess who wrote it.
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