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PIZZA TIME

© Cindy Ovard

I think back to my childhood and remember some of the more pleasant memories. Time with my family comes flooding into view. Time spent with my brothers and sisters and our parents were the best. I had a large family and we spent a lot of time together. It was nice always having someone to do things with. And even in the times of wanting to be left alone I could go to my bedroom and shut the door, pick up a book and be taken away from reality for a short time.

Some of most memorable times were having homemade pizza. My mom would make the dough and each of us would add our own favorite topping. I always added olives. Of course, not all the olives made it on the pizza, a few found their way to the tops of my fingers and then to my awaiting mouth. They were by far the best topping. During our pizza dinner we were allowed to pick off the things we didn't like. I found that I didn't care for pineapple. I just couldn't get that sweet and sour flavor to my liking. Once my mother let my sister put anchovies on. That was the only time my dad almost threw away our whole pizza. Those little fishy things gave our whole pizza a yukky after taste.

Sitting around the table eating the pizza that we had all helped to make leaves me many memories. I remember how we treated each other while we worked together and how sometimes my brother would play tricks on us just to see if we were watching what he put on the pizza. Once I found a shoelace between the sauce and cheese. Of course it was a new one that he found in the drawer. Not one of his own, thankfully. We all got a good chuckle out of that one.

Another kind of pizza that we had a lot of fun making was my mom's Brownie Fruit Pizza. We'd have this for dessert and who ever had their turn cleaning the kitchen got to help mom garnish this pizza with fruit toppings that were in season or that we had on hand. I loved this pizza because I love brownies. I find my kids love this pizza also. It's very yummy.

It wasn't just the pizza that we loved to eat or the toppings we got to put on, it was the time spent as a family doing something for our family. We were working as a family for each other. We learned how to get along and how each of us had such different personalities and liked different types of food. We were each individuals, but yet, we were one. We were a family. That's what counts in this day and age. Families are where the heart of our nations are. Families are where we learn about unconditional love and where we learn to trust even if it's just making pizza together.