Cod Liver Oil

My grandchildren seem to like my stories of growing up during the Great Depression, even though there was nothing great about it.

I looked like a GD kid should look. Skinny, sallow-skin, stunted growth, dish-water- blond hair color. And I walked like a duck.

In school they took one look at me and ran for the cod-liver-oil bottle. They forced it down my

throat whether I liked it or not. Have you ever tasted cod-liver-oil?

Ovaltine, the well-known chocolate drink was available even back then, and the company ran ads in many magazines. The ads always had a nervous, painfully thin little girl presented to the public in a comic strip style. I always read these ads and I identified with this pathetic little girl.

Of course, after drinking Ovaltine for awhile, she blossomed into a beautiful, rosy-cheeked, healthy child with nerves as strong as steel. I think my mother bought some Ovaltine once,

but I didn't like the taste of it.

On the other hand, here were the Campbell Soup kids. They were fat and rosy-cheeked with

faces glowing over the thought of Campbell's soup. I don't know for sure, but I think the soup

company killed them off some time ago.

And one day my beautiful gym teacher took me aside and told me to train my feet to walk straight ahead. But these days when I see my footprints in the snow, I think I still walk a

little like a duck.