Dad's Creamed Spinach

I was thinking about brother Gene today. I don't know why the infamous creamed spinach came to mind except that it is irrevocably linked with Gene in my mind. Ha ha! I can see our dining room in the house in Millville and Mom bringing in bowls and platters of food. What was in all but one of those bowls I can't recall. Now, some of you may not know this but Dad was a really good cook. Not as good as Mom, but then again, Dad knew better than to spend much time in the kitchen. For one thing he made a mess and for another he generally left that mess for Mom to clean up. Mom much preferred to clean her own mess and not his, so you can imagine what she had to say to him. But every now and again he would get in the kitchen and "experiment" with a recipe. Why in the world he chose to make something called "creamed spinach" none of us will ever know. I'm not sure of the ingredients but considering that Mom always kept a tight rein on her grocery budget I'm pretty sure it didn't contain real cream and probably didn't contain fresh spinach. Maybe milk, butter, flour, or cream cheese. Most of us liked spinach more or less. When Mom put the bowl on the table it was whitish with dark streaks of green. Kinda thick too as I recall. Gene looked at it and you could just tell by the expression on his face that he wasn't the least impressed. Mom passed the bowl around and we all took some (it actually didn't taste bad at all, but it was thick and sort of slick if you know what I mean). Out of the corner of his eye Gene watched to see what every one's expression was and then the bowl was passed to him. He looked down, then up and then turned as green as the spinach. He put the bowl down and said he didn't want any. Well, that was enough for Dad. He just couldn't understand why Gene wouldn't taste it. So he told him to........Gene said No, he didn't want to taste it. Dad asked him why. Gene said he would get sick if he did. Dad told him that if he didn't, he would make him sick. I'll give this to Gene, he stuck by his guns but Dad wasn't having any of it and before we knew it Gene was sent to his room without any dinner. Good thing we didn't have asparagras the following night or Gene would have lost 5 lbs.