“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Dear Clifford. Happy birthday to you!” And with that… my wife broke off a piece of a day old blueberry muffin and gave me a bite to go along with my roadside coffee.

I recently celebrated a birthday while away from Texas soil. It was my first time to ever leave this state on my birthday, but my wife, my mother and I enjoyed a three-day trip though parts of Pennsylvania.

It was the first time the three of us had ever traveled together out of state without other family members. We had a very pleasant time in places like Hershey and Valley Forge.

One of the pleasures enjoyed was the food. Now, I am about to enter very delicate territory because the basis of this story involves my mom. It is very, very difficult to write about her because of the sensitive issues. What will her friends think? What will people think about me divulging secrets about my own mother? How will she be perceived in public? Those are all issues when writing about your own mother, but I have decided to delve into the story headfirst!

My family has always enjoyed each other’s company over a good meal. Everything we do together is celebrated with good food, and a lot of the family food has always been made by my mom.

As the years have progressed many of the other ladies in our family are now supplying the same traditional dishes my mom makes, each with their own style and flair. Now, I set this food thing up because, with all due respect, not only can my mom cook it, but she also enjoys her cooking, too.

During our trip we stopped at a country buffet. Here is a listing: pot roast, beef strips, chicken strips, chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie, fried chicken, baked chicken, dressing, buttered noodles, boiled eggs, beets, broccoli, corn, green beans, salad, tea, coffee, apple pie, apple cobbler, ice cream and Shoo Fly Pie were on the list. Now I don’t mean the buffet list. I mean on her list of things she ate! (I must admit I may have taken some liberties to this list to emphasize my point.) I, too, had my own list!

The food we consumed of course made us miserable, but after the fiasco we had at breakfast, it nearly became our only meal of the day.

I made a wrong turn on the expressway and when you get on a Pennsylvania turnpike there ain’t no getting off for nearly twenty miles! We traveled the same road twice! That is why my breakfast/birthday cake consisted of what they call a “plaza stop.” It is simply a small refreshment stand and gas station on the side of the road.

However, the meal issue set me up for the rest of my story. When traveling with someone who occasionally walks with a cane, a new respect is usually shown by most of the public. As a society we tend to watch out for those who have an advanced age. So was the case while traveling with my mom.

People had a tendency to slow down a little and give us a little more space as we made our way around in public places. The following day, after eating our buffet, we decided we wanted a Philly cheese steak sandwich. Once again, we missed our breakfast call because we had traveled in circles and missed the eating places we wanted, so it was well into the afternoon before we hit the local eating establishments for a meal.

We had simply snacked on junk food to tide us over. Junk food is good, but after a while eating junk is just what it means. Junk! You finally get tired of junk and want some real food!

We were walking down the main corridor of the local market when my wife and my mom began discussing the next meal. Back and forth they chatted while walking and the public was well within earshot of everything they said. It was then suggested that once again we grab a snack and save our big meal for later in the day when my mom blurted out very forcefully “no, I want some food and I want it now!” A hush seemed to hit the people around us as my wife and I began to receive those evil stares from people.

We could feel the daggers being thrown at us in their minds because we had deprived this sweet lady of some food! Never mind we had been packing away all sorts of miserable calories the whole trip! Never mind she had eaten 29-plus items from a buffet less than 24 hours earlier! This sweet lady walking in a public place with a cane in hand was being starved!

Fortunately, the conversation was laughed about between ourselves and we felt the public’s perception of us subside. We finally found an eating place. We enjoyed.

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