Humble Ingredients And The Grapes of Wrath

Years ago,

when my English 3 AP students were studying

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck,

I suggested that my father read it.


His response?


”Don’t have to. Lived it.”


And so as I assembled a very simple

Sunday evening supper yesterday,


I saw humble ingredients

everywhere I looked.

Canned tomatoes for vegetable soup.

Cornbread prepared in an aluminum pan

so my father could take home what was left

for a later glass of crumbled cornbread and milk.


And cilantro to

garnish the soup.


At the grocery store earlier in the day,

I noticed the grocery carts of other shoppers full of all sorts of humble ingredients.


Many of those same carts contained cilantro too.


We were all cooking simply.

My father’s comment when I walked him to

his car, leftover cornbread in tow?


”Enjoyed it.”