Another institution that has been almost forgotten, by my family at least, is Cod Fish Gravy. Louise and I were having breakfast with my sister, Zenobia, at Kitchen’s Restaurant in Orange City, Florida when the subject of this delicacy came up. My parents used to order the dry, salted, and I do mean salted, cod fish from the Sears Roebuck catalog. It came in small wooden boxes, that I imagine held about a pound of the dry cod fish.1 Zenobia said that she never cared for boiled potatoes except on those occasions when Mother would have Cod Fish Gravy. Then she would eat her fill and enjoy it. I also thought that it was something special until about 1960.

It was during that summer that Louise and I took a trip, along with Jim and Frances Shively, to Nova Scotia. There, along the coast, we saw how salted cod was prepared. They would skin and fillet the large cod, and after they were thoroughly salted, the slabs were laid on racks, in the sun, to dry. Now I am sure that those racks were high enough to discourage cats and dogs, but they surely were not high enough to keep the Sea Gulls from flying over them. In fact, I saw several Gulls parked thereon. Almost immediately, I lost my craving for Cod Fish Gravy and haven’t had any since.

There is no doubt that more modern methods have since been devised, but in as much as I am not sure, and also because I have seen what Sea Gull droppings will do to the finish on an automobile, I will deprive myself of the pleasure of Cod Fish Gravy on boiled potatoes.

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By the way, I saw one of those boxes of cod, in a market recently and it was $7.00 a pound.