Eating Habits Changed by... George Pierrot

Not sure what happened in other households when 5 year olds were visiting grandma, but for my sister (a year older) and me, our “down time” was relaxing in front of the old tellie watching cartoons… nah… For us, our relaxation consisted of watching the George Pierrot show. Who the hell is that you might ask? George Pierrot was a regional guy based in Detroit who had a travel show which aired on channel 7 first and then on channel 4 in the afternoons. Yep. World Travel. Educational. This was right after multiplication tables (yes at the age of 5)… so yeah George Pierrot’s travel show must have aired right about the time good old grannie’s patience began to wane, late afternoon. This is when my sister and I were ushered into the front room. God how I hated that show. It was George talking with people, traveling, you know doing stuff I had absolutely no interest in (at that point in my life anyway)… until one day…

There on the screen -- right after the Mutual of Omaha commercial -- was George and his bud in a boat fishing, the big event, as only a big fishing event can be, captured by a 16 mm camera shot in breathtaking footage. I could hardly tear myself away. What with the calm waters, George’s monotone voice and all. But all of a sudden there it was. George was not pulling a fish out of those waters at all. Who knew? He didn’t even have a fishing pole in his hand like I saw in the cartoons. He had some sort of net. Now that was kinda funny. Who puts a net in water? He and his bud had this net and were pulling it up and there were all these wiggly things in there and the funniest thing of all was that they called these funny things shrimp. HA! These old guys. They were so funny. What did they know? They thought they were so smart. Shrimp didn’t move. My favorite food was shrimp. Grandpa picked them up from the fish fry every Friday from Holy Redeemer with that little red sauce. And they never moved. Not one little bit. But now here George and his bud were and they kept talking about these moving things, calling them shrimp, pulling them out of the water, like it was real or somethin’. And I was no longer amused.

I ran up to the TV. If I could have crawled in, I would have. I strained and strained to see. These supposed shrimp things were definitely moving.

“GRAAAAAAANNNNNNNMMMMMMMMAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!”, I screamed… breaking her hard earned snippet of silence… GRANNNNNNNNMMMMMMAAAAAA, GRANNNNNNNMMMMMAAAA, GRANNNNNNMMMMMAAAAA… Racing round the house, terrified George would disappear and we would not get to the bottom of this.

Me, now back in front of the TV, jabbing my pointed finger at the screen…

She ran in, probably thinking my sister and I were yet again locked in battle.

--Shrimp move???!!!!!

--Yes.

--Like the shrimp we eat???!!!

--Yes.

And that’s how it all started. I stopped eating shrimp from that day on.

I never ate fish.

Between the ages of 8 and 10, I stopped eating chicken and turkey because their bodies looked too much like animals.

Red meat was the last to go because a hamburger doesn’t look like a cow when it’s delivered to your plate. It was so gradual I hardly noticed. In my mid-twenties, when one of my relatives tried to put a piece of steak on my Christmas dinner plate, I realized I hadn’t eaten red meat in six months and didn’t want any. And so I thought… I guess I’m a vegetarian.

And vegetarian I remained for the next thirty years until a friend told me about a book called “The China Study”. In it, Dr. Campbell writes about the link between dairy and cancer and other chronic diseases. (The movie Forks over Knives was later made based on the book). And it then occurred to me that over the course of my life, I had learned to acquire a taste for dairy but dairy too was something that I didn’t like and didn’t eat as a kid. I never liked milk or cheese. After reading the China Study, I decided to return to my childlike ways. And so… From vegetarian to vegan I went.

I’m not someone who tries to tell others what they should or shouldn’t be eating. Yet, sometimes I do wonder if people would make the same decisions about what they eat if they had certain information. And so I say nothing because it is my assumption my friends are privy to the same information, are adults and can make decisions about what goes into their bodies.

And even though my daughter is now an adult and can make decisions about her diet, a few weeks ago I felt compelled to say something.

--You know I’ve never really been strict with you about what you’ve eaten. I didn’t have to. You had pasta. Veggies. But you know one thing I really didn’t want you to have was pop. It’s just so bad for you. There’s so much sugar in it. And I noticed when we went out that you were drinking it and I just felt that…

--Mom, I hardly ever drink it. Oh My God… I can’t believe we are even having this discussion…

--Listen, you know I haven’t talked to you ever about this. Your great grandmother was insulin dependent and had to stick a needle in her. Your grandmother was insulin dependent and had to stick a needle in her until the day she died. My brother and sister—your aunt and your uncle—both have to stick needles in their bodies. I would probably have to do the same if I didn’t eat the way I eat. You have those genes. And I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t say something and you ended up that way.

We ended the conversation.

A few weeks later we talked and she did tell me she’s trying to eat healthier.

So yeah… George Pierrot… it was educational. Little did granny know she was educating not only me but her future great-granddaughter. Thanks Grandma.

Patricia Nemeth received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She earned her Juris Doctorate and Masters of Labor Law degree from Wayne State University School of Law. She is the founding partner of Nemeth Law, P.C. which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2017. Patricia decided to start a personal blog because she wanted to write about topics other than the law.