Hold the 'taters...

Howard Tucker was my bus driver when I attended Millville Grade School. Once a month, on the trip home, he would drive the bus through Kelly's Ranch Market, and every child on the bus could walk into the store and receive a nickel candy bar on Howard.
And on the last day of school before Christmas break, each child on the bus would get a box of candy.

One Christmas, when I was in about the third grade, Howard handed each of us a one pound box of chocolate covered cherries as we boarded the bus after school. I couldn't believe my good fortune. I also realized that I would be arriving at home in about 20 minutes, and imagined a houseful of younger siblings circling the treasure like a pack of hyenas around a fresh kill. I decided the only logical thing to do would be to consume the entire contents before the bus made it to my house. It was several years before I could even look at a chocolate covered cherry again.

I don't know what made me think we were going to run out of sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving dinner today,or who I thought was going to take the last helping, or why I thought it necessary to gorge myself on it. I just hope I'm over my current aversion to it by Christmas.