The Exploding Potato and Other Seemingly Small Matters (On doing what you’ve been taught to do)

The potato I was cooking for my daughter was particularly large so I wasn’t worried about leaving it in the toaster oven while I went to pick up my daughter from her dance class.

Nor was I worried when the meeting after class ran over nor when I stopped by the grocery store to pick up cough drops on the way home.

When I arrived home the 45 minutes to an hour I had planned to cook the potato had stretched to an hour and a half.

When I opened the toaster oven and touched the potato with my fork it exploded and pieces of potato went flying everywhere.

Now I understand why my brother taught me to prick the potato with a fork before baking it.

I have always made a habit of doing what my big brother had taught me to do.

Now I know why.

Now I know why I was taught to … I told my daughter.

I got to thinking about the myriad of things that I do because it’s the way I have been taught to do things.

Many things I have done unconsciously and now do consciously (such as pricking the potato).

Some I am sure I still do unconsciously, while others I have consciously changed.

For example, despite growing up on a steady diet of grilled salami, I now eat no salami or meat of any kind.

Some habits I cling to religiously (such as voting Democratic).

I don’t think any one of my siblings or I have ever voted Republican.

That is one habit I don’t see myself changing anytime soon.

My brother, I noticed, still uses Crest toothpaste (the toothpaste of choice in our family’s home growing up).

My wife now buys us "natural" toothpaste.

I am told advertisers take note of buying patterns and make efforts to form habits when children are young and impressionable.

This is one of the reasons I find the Cokes and McDonalds of the world as school partners so objectionable.

I tried with my business to become a partner with my daughter’s school by contributing a percentage of either long distance or Internet usage back to the schools from family’s usage at home.

I was turned down because I was told the school couldn’t endorse any products.

None of this prevents the school from giving children coupons for free French fries.

"If you feed a child a French fry they will become a loyal customer for life," is the McDonald’s credo.

Recently my wife was reading one of my stories and commented on my paragraph structure.

"Why do you change paragraphs so frequently," she asked.

"Because that was what my father taught me to do," was my reply.

I have made an effort this time writing to consciously change my paragraph structure.

Prior to my wife’s question I had never thought about how or why I write the way that I do.

Recently my daughter decided to bake herself a potato.

"Do you think I should prick the potato with a fork," she asked.

"What do you think," I asked.

"I think I should," she said.

"I do too," was my reply.

That is one tradition that will now consciously live on in our family.

The McDonald’s French fry is one that I am afraid, will unconsciously live on.