What we aways dreaded was the burlap sack on the porch. My mother would always try to have it out of sight before we got home from school if at all possible, because it meant my Italian grandfather had dropped of something - such as a bushel of starlings, a bag full of eels, or some such...If we spotted it before she cooked it up into something something vagulay resembling food we were likely to not touch ANYTHING for at least several days...