Memorable Contests
05/07/14 05:34
Sometimes I wish I had paid more attention or at least gone to family members and asked to hear particular stories again. As I get older and more of our elders pass on from this life, there are fewer original sources for some of our family stories, and I fear that I might not know the details or get the stories right. I am especially aware of this when I spend time with siblings. They have different memories of our growing up years than I do. Sometimes they recall events of which I have no memories. Sometimes they recall things very differently than I remember them. For the most part we have no arbitrator of our memories - no authority to which we can turn to find out what really happened.
One of our family stories is that our Great Uncle Ted, for whom I am named, once entered a banana eating contest in California. Uncle Ted lived in California for a number of years and he was considerably more adventurous in his young adult years than he was as a senior when we got to know him best. We remember him as quiet and inventive and a man who liked to keep to himself. We used to joke that he was the slowest opener of Christmas and birthday presents we had ever met. He would get out his pocket knife, carefully cut the strips of tape one by one, remove the paper without ever making even the smallest tear and then carefully fold it for reuse before looking at what was contained in the package.
A look at family photos, however, illustrates another side to Uncle Ted. He rode motorcycles and moved to California when the rest of the family stayed pretty close to the family home. So I guess I’m not surprised that he might have at one time entered a food eating contest at a fair in California.
The version of the story that I remember is that he won the contest, got violently ill and that another competitor died as a result of the contest. When I search my memory, I can’t remember ever hearing the story from Uncle Ted, however. I can remember being told it by older sisters and I think that a couple of my cousins also told me the story. the part about someone dying might have been an embellishment that wasn’t part of the actual event. In fact it seems possible that Uncle Ted entered a contest and didn’t win.
I do remember that Uncle Ted never liked bananas. Having at one point eaten enough to get sick would provide a sufficient explanation for that particular dislike. Then again, our brother Vernon didn’t like peanut butter when we were growing up. We never figured out why. He seems to like it fine enough now that he is an adult. Sometimes food preferences don’t have any basis in trauma - they just exist because people are different and our likes and dislikes are also different.
I’m not a big fan of contests. I pay attention to some sports, but am not among the biggest fans of sport. I play a few games, but am not big on board or card games. I rarely enter contests when you have to fill out cards and enter at business places. I don’t buy lottery tickets. I don’t gamble. I don’t even purchase raffle tickets. Those things simply aren’t entertaining for me.
So I don’t follow the world of competitive eating. I happened to run across a story with photographs about the Nathan’s Coney Island Hot Dog eating contest on the Washington Post web site this morning. I like the picture of Joey “Jaws” Chestnut of California proposing to his longtime girlfriend, Neslie Ricasa before the contest. She’s a competitive eater as well. Chestnut went on to win the contest by eating 61 hot dogs with buns. It was his eighth victory in the contest.
The picture of him proposing is the only one that is worth a second look. Some are so disgusting that they ought to have a warning about graphic photos. It is not a pretty sight.
I don’t think I’ll celebrate July 4 - or any other holiday - by seeing how much food I can stuff into my face.
There are a couple of stories about food that I caught in my reading that were more interesting. The Costa Rica team has advanced farther in the World Cup than many people expected and that means that the team has been staying in Brazil longer than was expected. They had to have more gallo pinto shipped in to keep the team going. They received a shipment of 200 kilograms of rice and beans, 74 small bottles of Salsa Lizano, 80 packs of coffee and 36 bottles of a Costa Rican Tobasco sauce to keep the team going as it faces off against the Netherlands in the quarter finals today.
Another story was about a group of four Costa Rica fans who have had to come up with an additional $3,000 each to extend their stay in Brazil to be able to watch their team make history. They are all sharing a single small room and have been skipping meals to make the stay as inexpensive as possible. They also have been doing their own laundry in the sink of their room. I suppose that includes washing their jerseys. In the meantime an Italian sportswear brand had to have an additional 50,000 Costa Rica jerseys shipped into Brazil because of the popularity of the shirts - and of the team. If Costa Rica were to double its population, it still would be the smallest country participating in the quarterfinals. If they were to double the salary of their coach he still would be the lowest paid coach in the quarterfinals. Some things just can’t be valued in dollars and cents.
The good news is that I think I will be able to get the images of the hot dog eating contest out of my head by watching Costa Rica play soccer today.
One of our family stories is that our Great Uncle Ted, for whom I am named, once entered a banana eating contest in California. Uncle Ted lived in California for a number of years and he was considerably more adventurous in his young adult years than he was as a senior when we got to know him best. We remember him as quiet and inventive and a man who liked to keep to himself. We used to joke that he was the slowest opener of Christmas and birthday presents we had ever met. He would get out his pocket knife, carefully cut the strips of tape one by one, remove the paper without ever making even the smallest tear and then carefully fold it for reuse before looking at what was contained in the package.
A look at family photos, however, illustrates another side to Uncle Ted. He rode motorcycles and moved to California when the rest of the family stayed pretty close to the family home. So I guess I’m not surprised that he might have at one time entered a food eating contest at a fair in California.
The version of the story that I remember is that he won the contest, got violently ill and that another competitor died as a result of the contest. When I search my memory, I can’t remember ever hearing the story from Uncle Ted, however. I can remember being told it by older sisters and I think that a couple of my cousins also told me the story. the part about someone dying might have been an embellishment that wasn’t part of the actual event. In fact it seems possible that Uncle Ted entered a contest and didn’t win.
I do remember that Uncle Ted never liked bananas. Having at one point eaten enough to get sick would provide a sufficient explanation for that particular dislike. Then again, our brother Vernon didn’t like peanut butter when we were growing up. We never figured out why. He seems to like it fine enough now that he is an adult. Sometimes food preferences don’t have any basis in trauma - they just exist because people are different and our likes and dislikes are also different.
I’m not a big fan of contests. I pay attention to some sports, but am not among the biggest fans of sport. I play a few games, but am not big on board or card games. I rarely enter contests when you have to fill out cards and enter at business places. I don’t buy lottery tickets. I don’t gamble. I don’t even purchase raffle tickets. Those things simply aren’t entertaining for me.
So I don’t follow the world of competitive eating. I happened to run across a story with photographs about the Nathan’s Coney Island Hot Dog eating contest on the Washington Post web site this morning. I like the picture of Joey “Jaws” Chestnut of California proposing to his longtime girlfriend, Neslie Ricasa before the contest. She’s a competitive eater as well. Chestnut went on to win the contest by eating 61 hot dogs with buns. It was his eighth victory in the contest.
The picture of him proposing is the only one that is worth a second look. Some are so disgusting that they ought to have a warning about graphic photos. It is not a pretty sight.
I don’t think I’ll celebrate July 4 - or any other holiday - by seeing how much food I can stuff into my face.
There are a couple of stories about food that I caught in my reading that were more interesting. The Costa Rica team has advanced farther in the World Cup than many people expected and that means that the team has been staying in Brazil longer than was expected. They had to have more gallo pinto shipped in to keep the team going. They received a shipment of 200 kilograms of rice and beans, 74 small bottles of Salsa Lizano, 80 packs of coffee and 36 bottles of a Costa Rican Tobasco sauce to keep the team going as it faces off against the Netherlands in the quarter finals today.
Another story was about a group of four Costa Rica fans who have had to come up with an additional $3,000 each to extend their stay in Brazil to be able to watch their team make history. They are all sharing a single small room and have been skipping meals to make the stay as inexpensive as possible. They also have been doing their own laundry in the sink of their room. I suppose that includes washing their jerseys. In the meantime an Italian sportswear brand had to have an additional 50,000 Costa Rica jerseys shipped into Brazil because of the popularity of the shirts - and of the team. If Costa Rica were to double its population, it still would be the smallest country participating in the quarterfinals. If they were to double the salary of their coach he still would be the lowest paid coach in the quarterfinals. Some things just can’t be valued in dollars and cents.
The good news is that I think I will be able to get the images of the hot dog eating contest out of my head by watching Costa Rica play soccer today.