Bages and Acon

 I can't remember when it started but I do know he kept doing it into adulthood. It's one of those really, really funny, simple things you just don't forget. And of course, you never let the one doing it forget, even when they've stopped doing it.

The one doing it was my older brother. It was what one would call a slip of the tongue and whenever he slipped, anyone around him would laugh. Rather, roar. The slip would happen when the discussion of what to have for breakfast came up. It didn't happen every time. It never happened on school mornings. We had enough problems getting ready for the school bus. A quick bowl of cereal or some toast was the usual breakfast.

But when it came to weekends or holidays, that was a different story. It could have happened at our house or next door at my grandmother's house. If it was at my grandmother's house, the audience would have been larger. That could have included cousins, aunts and of course, siblings and our grandmother. If it did happen at our grandmother's, she would have laughed the hardest. She had a wonderful sense of humor. That was quite apparent on some Halloweens when she'd let her long grey hair down, freeing her hair of hair combs. Her nose was a perfect witch's nose. Her cackle the perfect witch's cackle so with that nose and long, grey hair and cackle, she scared the heck out of us, laughing all the way.

So, on some weekends or holiday breakfasts when asked (if we were asked) what we might like to eat, we'd give our input. And sometimes, if he wasn't thinking or was excited to reply, my brother would shout out, "Bages and Acon!"

So, whoever was doing the cooking would go to the refrigerator, take out the bages and acon. Then in front of the stove, that chef would put some strips of acon into a pan. When it was cooked, the chef would put the acon on a plate, pat the grease out of it, then cover it up while the bages cooked in the acon grease. Some liked their bages over easy. Some liked them sunny side up.

Bages and acon were always served with toast, and a hearty good laugh around the table. And if we were around my grandmother's table, the cackling of a witch just might have been heard above all others laughing as they enjoyed their bages and acon.