My family members really, really like salt, probably more than they should.
“Please pass the salt” is something heard over our dinner table countless times, as is the tune “Here Comes the Bride”.
Huh?
Yes, you read that correctly. Whenever I pass the salt, I pass the pepper with it, and I hum the first few bars of “Here Comes the Bride”.
Although the Nick, Jr. show “Blue’s Clues” (one of our family favorites, back in the day!) has taught kids that Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper are INDEED married*, I am convinced that surely that television relationship was born out of the real rules of etiquette, which state that salt and pepper should always be passed together because “they get lonely if separated.**”
So kids, I’m only using my manners when I’m passing the salt AND the pepper. I know you think I’m crazy, but talk to me in twenty years when you’re doing the same thing at your own dinner table. I can’t wait to see it with my own eyes.
*And I’d guess that their daughter Paprika is adopted, because really, have you ever tried to mix salt and pepper in order to make paprika? It doesn’t work.
**From Miss Manners’ Guide to the Turn-of-the-Millennium by Judith Martin (Simon & Schuster, 1990)
©2010 Suburban Scrawl
11 Comments
WeaselMomma
You are nuts, but it's part of your charm. I may start doing this because it sounds fun and a little crazy. I like crazy.
SeriousMom
My daughter eats her peas in pairs so they don't get lonely.
Mags
So you sing "Here comes the SALT" to that tune or you just mean they are married. B/c if you don't sing it, you totally should. It's fantastic.
Otter Thomas
I always pass them together too, but I had no idea they were married.
Lutheran Grilled Cheese
I had a friend who said if you don't pass them in a pair a sailor dies….that always made me pass them together.
But on Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper being married, does this give into a way of talking about interracial marriage?
seashore subjects
The humming is a great idea! And though salt and pepper do not combine to create paprika, I always thought of it as a DNA thing – but maybe she is adopted!
Shelley
My 15 year-old used to love Blue's Clues when she was about 5 or 6. I used to amuse myself trying to come up with names for the next spice child. I assumed it would be a boy. Cumin, Tarragon and Sage were my favorites. Or if it was another girl, Rosemary. Clearly, I had way too much free time.
Heather
You are such a goober. hahaha! But seriously, I would have never of even thought of that. I didn't even know you were supposed to do that, and my mom made me attend an entire summer of etiquette school. Yes, it was a horrific as it sounds.
😉
Mr. Man
Are "Tony Chachere" and "Zatarain's" their distant cajun cousins? They are currently living in my spice cabinet.
Jason @ The Devoted Dad
We don't even have salt and pepper on our table. I will have to get going with it, just so I can have the experience 🙂
nycgirl0501
Damn I thought that Pepper was single! Lost another one! LOL!
This is brand new info for me. Funny!