Green. The color green. Some see waving grass, towering evergreens; others a wallet filled with money. And a few think of emeralds or jade.
Although I love God’s creations of grass and trees, when someone mentions the color green, I think of spaghetti and my niece Stephanie.
While in her teens, Steph decided to try making spaghetti sauce from scratch. She put tomato sauce, garlic, and other seasonings in a pot. However, while adding the latter, the shaker top of the oregano container popped off and a half cup dumped into the sauce. She tried fishing some out, but the sauce still ended up quite green and a tad bitter as her father testified later.
For fun one day soon after this catastrophe, when Steph joined us for supper, I made spaghetti, but when boiling the pasta, I added several drops of green food coloring. (Try it! It’s fun! We’ve even tried blue and orange.) The noodles turned a lovely shade of velvety green.
Steph laughed when she saw her plate and said it looked very Christmas-y with the red sauce on it. We grabbed a Santa cap, stuffed it on Steph’s head, and told her to hold the plate of green and red spaghetti and pose for a picture.
“Tilt the plate a little,” my husband said, holding the camera.
“Like this?” Steph replied and turned the plate completely vertical. The spaghetti slid off the plate, sloshing to the floor. Silence filled the room, as we watched spaghetti noodles and sauce pool on the floor, seep between the cracks in the vinyl chair seats, and run in red streaks down the cupboard doors. Steph stood with the empty plate in her hand and looked from her cousins to me to her uncle.
We all held our breath, sure we’d hear a roar. (Sometimes, my husband doesn’t appreciate messes!) But soon, a laugh started, followed by girlish giggles. Then we all howled until our sides hurt. Eventually, we cleaned up the spaghetti, but the memory of that laughter has lasted much longer than the chairs with the spaghetti sauce stains.
I like to think about what Jesus would have done had He been sitting at our table. I feel certain I know.
*** To share your favorite “green” story with us, click on the words beside the date on the line below the title to this post. Then scroll down past the other comments to find a box at the bottom with the line, “Leave a Reply.” I’m excited to read your stories!
*** Stop by next Monday to read how coffee became synonymous with love for me!
legaciesletloose 
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Thanks!
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Hi Cathy,
What a nice greeting to Monday morning, to find your blog! I could tell you many “green” stories since my mom’s favorite color was green and we were marinated in it all our lives, lol. Green house, green walls inside, green shutters, green carpeting, green clothes, you name it! Mom wore green all the time and since she bought Dad’s clothes, he also was dressed in green most of the time — such that when little kids would see them walking around their neighborhood in their later years, they were referred to as Grandma and Grandpa Green! BUT — the story I most want to share is a St. Patrick’s Day story when my three boys were little. We were having hot dogs, baked beans and macaroni & cheese for supper. When Tim, the oldest stepped away to the bathroom during dinner, I put a few drops of green food coloring in his beans and macaroni and stirred them both up. Oh the look on his face when he returned to the table! We just roared. Later we did learn that there are some “side effects” to consuming green food coloring (or any color), but we won’t go into that!
Thanks for sharing your green spaghetti story. Hmmm, and just when I was planning to make spaghetti for supper tonight! Hmmmmm….. 🙂
–Leafy
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Oh, Leafy! I loved all of this! The idea of being “marinated” in green because of your mother’s love for that color! My favorite color, too, although my husband hates it…so green clothes and such can only be taken in small doses! 🙂 And Grandma and Grandpa Green! How utterly delightful! And your story about your son’s baked beans…I can imagine the look on his face. Thank you so much for sharing!
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What a beautiful story of joy and love! It made me smile as I can remember stories like this growing up which were unforgettable! I grew up with 4 other siblings and as we sat around the dinner table we weren’t allowed to laugh since Daddy was so serious! Once as we held our snickers in from something, our Daddy let out a big laugh and so we all got permission from that point on to laugh along with him! I’ll never forget the release of JOY we ALL felt at that moment of grace and love! It was BEAUTIFUL! This might not be a green comment but to me this was GROWTH in Spirit as a family unit! As Chlorophyll is to make a plant green, it needs sunshine, and that is what happened when my Father laughed!
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Oh, Lise, I can’t imagine you sitting at a table trying to hold in laughter! I’m glad you have this memory. Thank you for sharing it with us! 🙂 Blessings!
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What a memory to treasure! Thanks for sharing. We’d read green eggs and ham and of course had to make them.
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Thank you, Phyllis. We love and treasure those memories made with our children, don’t we? Love to you and yours!
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Hmm, green, always a pretty color that makes me think of a few things. Crisp summer grass, my favorite character from my favorite musical (Elphaba from Wicked of course!), the lime green accents on my bedroom furniture, and a pretty dress I had in high school that I wore to my then best friend’s homecoming dance when were freshmen. But perhaps my favorite instant related to the color green was the time I was at Knoebels Park with my family, when I was about 14, and my uncle and I both unbeknownst to the other decided to get identical green apple slushies from one of the snack stands. I’ll have to see if I can find the picture of the two of us holding up our matching green slushies, back when we still had a film camera and actual photos!
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What a “sweet” memory! I remember times our daughter Sarah and her cousin Steph (the star of my green story!) would end up wearing the same color clothing to our play rehearsals, sometimes almost in the same style! It was uncanny. BTW, Steph’s favorite color is green! 🙂 Thank you for sharing, Andrea! Hope you like the coffee cup tale from today’s post!
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The Day My Daughter Wore a Green Smoothie
My daughter Suzanne and I hurried to get ready to leave. We had just enough time to get to work. I gathered our things while Suzanne finished making her breakfast smoothie that she planned to drink on the way. She had put some greens including spinach in it.
At that time, we worked together on college campuses buying used books for a textbook company called Follett. The drive down to New Jersey together from our separate residences in Pennsylvania and our check-in at the hotel had been uneventful.
Suzanne pressed the blender button, and the smoothie forced the lid off and shot up in the air. Her hair, clothes, and knee high boots had a green frosting as well as the wall, floor, and counter. She pulled off her boots and then headed for the bathroom. I cleaned her boots while she changed clothes. With a new attire and wet hair, she left the room with me. We descended in the elevator.
I stopped and explained our predicament to the desk clerk. She agreed to my request to send someone to clean up the mess. Out the door we scrambled to find that we couldn’t open our car doors. A freezing rain had fallen during the night and froze them shut. We tugged and pulled. Finally, we were able to get one back and one front one open.
After loading our computer and supplies in the back, the back door wouldn’t shut! I slid in the back seat, and Suzanne got behind the wheel. I strapped on my seat belt and held the door shut.
On the route we took to the college, we needed to travel a toll road. Suzanne attempted to roll down her window to pay the man at the toll booth, and her window wouldn’t open. She pulled up a little and handed the money back to me. I opened my window and paid the man.
At the school, the car door still wouldn’t shut. I fastened it from the inside with a rubber bungee cord she found in the trunk, and I slid out the other side. We had to hurry to get the computers set up, but we completed the task before the doors to the bookstore opened to students.
Suzanne slipped outside at lunch time and came back with a triumphant smile.
“I got the car door fixed so we can close it,” she said.
“With what?” I asked.
“I forced the latch down with the car key.”
I shook my head. All I could think about is that she could have bent the only car key that we had with us. What a day!
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This is by far more entertaining than our story! My favorite part was when you tried to pay the toll! I wonder what the man taking the money thought? Did you find yourselves shaking your head with a laugh at your predicaments? More often than not, that’s what I do. Even when it’s serious complications to a day, if it goes on and on, I can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it. Thank you for sharing, Sandy!
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The day is much funnier now. We talk about it and laugh.
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