The dire salads of my own childhood
came from a grandparent's kitchen;
this grandparent had a thing about onions.
As in,
would you like some leafy greens and dressing and so on
with your plate of raw onions?
The onions were not even finely chopped --
the onion would be sliced lengthwise
and these long skinny strings of raw onion everywhere ...

there are things a real cook can do with an onion,
and this grandparent didn't do a single one of 'em.