MLK Day

When I think of MLK day I think of milk. I know my thoughts should go to the enduring memory of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, nevertheless I think of milk. Why? Because my freshman year at BYU my friend Jarom celebrated MLK day by drinking an insane amount of milk during breakfast. I remember it clearly. I lived in Deseret Towers which meant every meal I had occured in the lovely Morris Center cafeteria. My freshman ward was pretty tight. We would always like to eat together. We even had eating shifts depending on your schedule for the day. For instance there was the 7am breakfast group for the crazy folks who had 8am classes. The 8am breakfast group, and the 9am breakfast group.

My first class (at least the first semester) was at 10am, meaning that I was more inclined to sleep in and join the 9am crowd. However, as I recall most of the cool people were a part of the 8am group, or at least the people I wanted to be with. So many mornings I would drag myself there by 8am to enjoy morning breakfast with the crew.*

Anyway, on MLK day Jarom made a big to do about drinking lots of milk to celebrate the day. He had an array of several glasses full of regular milk, BYU Creamery chocolate milk (which is the greatest chocolate milk available on the planet) and I think he even brought his own strawberry quik to add to regular milk. There wasn't much to it other than that and to be truthful I have lost complete contact with Jarom. I have no idea what he's doing now or what's going on in his life. But nine years later, I still remember the satisfied smile planted on his face throughout the meal. It's amazing the joy food brings to the soul.

Sadly, as I live in Virginia, it is impossible for me to drink BYU Creamery chocolate milk. But as soon as I finish this post I am gonna run upstairs and make myself some chocolate milk in honor of my old friend Jarom and his great appreciation for milk.

* I remember a girl in the ward who was so interested in one of the guys in the ward that she went to 7am breakfast everyday so she could maximize encounters with him in the hopes of getting him interested in her. She would then walk down to campus with him and the rest of the 7am group and go to the library to study while they all went to class. As I recall, she got a 4.0 gpa that semester, but never did hook up with the sought-after guy.