My gateway drug

My addiction started early in life.  Around the age of 10. 

I had a flashback the other night while making a mini-smore.  I was placing chocolate chips on a wheat cracker when suddenly I was transported to my childhood kitchen.  I saw my younger self hoisting my younger self onto the kitchen counter.  I was in search of the bag of chocolate chips. 

In the back of the top shelf of the cupboard I could see the bag.  I knew it already had been opened, so taking a handful would not alert my mother.  And that is just what I did.  Stole chocolate chips. 

Did it stop there?  Oh no.  I became expert at getting in and out of that cupboard without notice.  They were so deliciously tiny, and it's not like my mom was counting them.... until she could actually count them.  My greed had been my undoing.

Who ate the chocolate chips?  My mom demanded to know the identity of the selfish, lowdown thief.  I had to confess.  Or was I outed by one of my brothers?  That detail I don't recall.  I swore I would never do it again (I did).  I now craved the chocolaty goodness.  Withdrawal was too painful.

The other night as I placed chocolate chips on my crackers and then mini-marshmallows on top of the chips, it occurred to me that these chips were my gateway drug.  I have tried all kinds of sweets over the years, but continue to come back to my gateway sugar: that beautiful and perfectly sweet chocolate chip.   Of course I no longer have to hoist myself onto the kitchen counter to reach my drug of choice.  I also have discovered other ways to ingest them, such as on salty wheat crackers with mini-marshmallows, then ever so slightly melted in the microwave.

And it all began on nice streets of Aberdeen, South Dakota.