Viennese children were brought up to a rumbling accompaniment of admonitions that started with "Sit straight!" and went on to cover punctuality, orderliness, silence, and walking with toes pointing outward. But the leitmotif of their entire upbringing and the hardest of all orders to understand and to obey was, "Don't spoil your appetite!" This order was thundered so often and so sternly that it sounded like a latter-day commandment.
It was doubly difficult for children to learn not to spoil their appetites, because their parents condemned as extremely harmful all the sweets which they really wanted to eat, while all the things they didn't want to eat anyway, such as Spinat (an even less popular word than spinach) and farina pudding, were the rewards for which their parents expected them to keep their appetites intact. But when they had grown up and had made the happy discovery that they were keeping their appetites unspoiled for better things than farina and spinach, they appreciated the wisdom of the admonition; and they, in turn, drummed the same old lesson into their own children. As a result, all Viennese sat up straight at table and kept unspoiled that most precious possession - their guten Appetit.
It was doubly difficult for children to learn not to spoil their appetites, because their parents condemned as extremely harmful all the sweets which they really wanted to eat, while all the things they didn't want to eat anyway, such as Spinat (an even less popular word than spinach) and farina pudding, were the rewards for which their parents expected them to keep their appetites intact. But when they had grown up and had made the happy discovery that they were keeping their appetites unspoiled for better things than farina and spinach, they appreciated the wisdom of the admonition; and they, in turn, drummed the same old lesson into their own children. As a result, all Viennese sat up straight at table and kept unspoiled that most precious possession - their guten Appetit.
