Things That Once Seemed Peculiar
I remember, for example, how my mother would fry small bream--bones and all--until they were nearly charcoal. Slapping one of those little cinders and a thick slab of onion between two pieces of bread made an afternoon snack she dearly loved. Makes your mouth water, doesn't it?
Just seeing her crumble cornbread and douse it with buttermilk would nearly make me gasp for breath. But watching her actually eat it was more than I could stand. And I never did get an answer to one question: how do you know when buttermilk goes bad? It smells sour all the time. Nevertheless, just a couple of nights ago I enjoyed a big glass of the same vile-looking mixture. Tasted pretty good, too.
Mother also presented a not-so-veiled threat to Mary, then my wife-to-be: "If you're going to be in this family, you have to learn to eat turnip greens. Take one bite." Mary buckled; too much was at stake. But she's been hooked on turnip greens ever since.
I remember when my uncle, Hartwell Foote, began drinking goat milk for his stomach. Just hearing "goat" was enough to cure me of any ailment. The stuff even smelled goaty. Eventually, bouts with allergies compelled me to substitute goat milk for "real" milk. Surprisingly, I now prefer its richness to the chalky water (a.k.a. skim milk) we were buying.
I'm not sure how I stumbled into such a wonderful discovery, but mixing a little goat milk with Dr. Pepper makes a tasty concoction. I call my invention "Dr. Goat," and just the mention of it evokes the gag reflex in my son and his friends.
In the summers when she wasn't working, Mother would take an afternoon nap. Why, I wondered, would anyone want to waste good daylight hours? That question is beginning to answer itself--around 2:30 each afternoon.
I forget who pulled out the cucumbers and vinegar that first summer I worked in the electric shop at the paper mill. Probably Charlie Miles or J. B. Courson. They finally wore down my resistance and taught me to broaden my horizons a bit. Mother wasn't surprised.
Many times I watched my wife's grandmother, Gladys Daniel, eat her breakfast cereal with water instead of milk. Mary would say, "Mama, why do you put water instead of milk on your cereal?" Mama would patiently reply, "Well, Honey, you would too if you had to."
And that's the way it is. Sometimes the "have to's" in life compel us to make changes we might should have considered sooner. And many of them turn out for the better.
Copyright 2000 James McAlister
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