Do you remember sweet potastoes? No, not the kind you eat in a pie for Thanksgiving. The clay ones. It's funny that I've been reminded of sweet potatoes,the musical instrument twice recently. The other day I was writing about when I was a kid and the music that was around me. I was remembering going into Goodenough's music store and buying a clay sweet potato, with my friend Earl (the original owner of Herbert the rooster, referred to in the kitchen table thread.) We were getting older and somehow the nose flutes (remember nose flutes) seemed too unsophisticated for our tastes. Sweet potatoes are a wonderful ittle instrument (they're formally known as ocarinas.) They have a sound something like a small, hand-carried pipe organ. There's a scene in Meet John Doe where Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan play a break neck instrumental of what kids knew as the theme for the Lone Ranger, duetting on harmonica and sweet potato.

All good things seem to pass away. Over the years, sweet potatoes were made out of plastic instead of clay, and while they didn't shatter when you dropped them, they didn't have the same resonance. In case you've ever wondered why they don't make the pipes in pipe organs out of plastic, try playing a plastic sweet potato.

This thread will be whatever you was nit to be. Share memories of when you were a kid. I'm sure someone else has the same memories and will get a luagh out of remembering them. The memories can be musical, about movies, the war years, food, pets, or anything else that springs to mind.

After this gets started, just to give some variety to it, I'll write about creamed peas on toast.

Jerry