From Tahleia Bishop

The Early Years of My Refrigerator

From what I remember of my fridge in elementary school, what it contained seemed to be on a repeating cycle. My siblings and I were always very active children - playing on various club and school sports teams. As such, during our sports season, my fridge mostly contained fruits to be sliced and taken as snacks to our tournaments. These fruit were accompanied by several packages of sliced meat (be it turkey, ham or chicken) that were to be our contribution to the team lunch all the parents would pitch in to make. 

During these months of competition, there was almost always a chicken or package of mince meat defrosting in the fridge, which you would generally find beside the 3-day old left overs of mac and cheese that we always swore we were going to finish but that still never managed to find its way anywhere but the compost bin.

I was always one of those rare children that would actually rather have fruits or vegetables instead of a sugary snack - so on any given day you would also find the crisper filled with a seemingly endless supply of apples, broccoli, oranges (for my sister), bananas (for my brother, and my personal favourite, pears. To this day, expect when the occasional chocolate bar gets the better of me, I will generally reach for a firm pear as my choice of snack. However, on occasion, my father would buy Yoplait Yogurt Tubes as a treat for my siblings and I. Tubes that were always a welcomed surprise, though they would inevitably be used as lazer-swords in epic living-room battles...which may explain why they were such rare treats in my household.  

Finally, for the couple months out of the year when neither me or my siblings were competing, you could find my fridge full of such Jamaican classics as the ever-fought-over oxtail, pieces of goat meat for my moms delicious curry goat meal, akee and salt-fish just waiting to be devoured during Sunday breakfast, and finally a package of hot dogs that my sister would insist on heating up and eating with ketchup while she did her homework after school.

Though the contents of my fridge may vary throughout the months, one thing you can count always on is that it will never be empty.