Hinds County News

February 2017

Good Morning! Happy New year!

I celebrated New Year’s Day the in the southern tradition…. sort of.  This may surprise you all, but smoked hog jowl is impossible to find up here.

 last year, about this time, I mentioned my jowl disappointment to Tim, the gentleman who cuts my hair, he took finding hog jowl as a challenge.   Tim, bless his heart, thought he had found it a time of two…. but just was not to be.

  Black eyed peas, I found those in the bean section, on the bottom shelf, at the Sun Mart, a bit dusty, but hey I found them….no collards though…I grow collards but, mine were in the ground wilted from numerous frosts…so I had Cole slaw….and as you well know, cabbage is perfectly acceptable as your green for the New Year’s meal. Smoked hog shank was the replacement for the jowl. I Made ice tea, they drink tea up here, but it is unsweet as a rule, and cornbread baked in an iron skillet, so it was crusty on the bottom, rounded out my New Year’s Day meal.

Hog jowl is not the only thing difficult to find…. pig feet they can be found up here but, it is a road trip to get them.   Well, that not exactly true, every grocery stocks Hormel’s pig feet, pickled in a jar.

 Storytelling, like the food is different here, I came to that realization one day when a neighbor returned from a trip to New York City.  When I inquired her about trip…she told the WHOLE story in a couple of sentences.   A southerner can’t go to the grocery store without coming home with a longer story than that!  And she went to New York and came back without a story… I was shocked! 

A southerner telling a story about touring New York City!  I am here to tell you, it would be nearly impossible for that tale to be told in just one sitting.  Of course the story would not begin in New York, might would begin in the car headed to airport…because a trip to the airport is never uneventful….but could start anywhere anytime, even weeks before the trip began…shopping for the clothes to take….or even years ago telling about a movie they saw about New York. 

Let me tell you how stories in the south are often born…I was having a gathering on my front porch, everyone had arrived except my friend Fredna…. On after while, she arrives hurried and breathless, and explaining her tardiness as she climbed the front steps.  Fredna was late because she was trying to meet a taxidermist…as she went on with the explanation, we discovered Fredna was carrying around a deer head in the trunk of her car… and because she and the taxidermist had not been able to make connections, the deer head had been in the trunk for several days… Now keep in mind this gathering was on my front porch so it was not cold or even cool…. she did have it in a cooler…. but still and all.

We laughed and laughed and a story was born!   Fredna did not know at the time she was telling a story that will be told over and over.

Maybe the stories do change a bit from one telling to the next… not to embellish you understand, but because we remembered some very significant detail/details that will improve the story greatly.

Things just happen in the south that make great stories. I have a friend who is the mayor of one of our small towns in rural Hinds County, as was her duty, as mayor, she was participating in a celebratory parade, may have been 4^th of July, can’t remember.  Any way she was being driven in a patrol car by one of towns policemen, they were rolling along, waving and smiling at the crowds gathered along the street, when suddenly among the spectators, the policeman spots a “person of interest”.   The policeman had been looking for this “person of interest” all day. So, not wanting to miss this opportunity, he pulls over to the curb, puts the “person of interest” in the back seat and  then continues the parade route…with the “person of interest” in the back seat.   He too, the “person of interest” got in the spirit of the occasion and began smiling and waving too.

Southerner have stories…one story leads to another story… the tales can go on for hours and hours and often do.  I have fond memories of storytelling at social gatherings, pig pick’ns, crawfish and shrimp boils, church dinners of the grounds etc.   And dinners parties…. sitting down at seven and not get up from the table… many times until after 10 to go to the living room for a night cap.

One thing I love about the south…we are easily entertained and not easily offended by a story told on us…heck we will tell one on ourselves.

Love 

Ponderings from my front porch....On the Avenue Holdrege Nebraska

First   published in the                                                                      

Hinds County News

July 2016

I had always assumed my John did not like talking on the phone.   If the house phone rang more than twice he would announce, “Telephone is ringing”.  And he would continue making that announcement until someone answered the phone or it quit ringing.  John refused to answer the phone even if he was sitting right next to it. He claimed, “it is never for me.” And of course he was almost always right.  But now that I am thinking about it if someone was able to get to the phone before the ringing stopped…he would always ask, “who was it?” …. “what did they want?” Hmmmmm quite odd….
                                                     

My dad was not a phone talker…I have known very few men who were social phone talkers…. business yes.   But personal no… for John his phone conversations were limited almost exclusively to arranging hunting or fishing outings and those were short and to the point.

So anyway…as I was drinking my coffee, from the porch I noticed most everybody driving up and down the Avenue were on their cell phones.   Even the men!   

I said all of that to say this:  On the porch this morning I had an epiphany!
 About men and telephones…. They love their cell phones just like women do!   What they did not like about house phones was being tethered to a wire plugged into the wall or a phone that only functioned inside a certain perimeter. And after John bought his first cell phone he became quite a chatter.

Done with that thought

What I planned to talk about this morning is paint and painting.   I recently acquired a darling little building one of those already built, it is a Derksen! 

Little Building
"LB" for short

As I have told you my house is small.  I needed more room so I ordered a 10x12                                                                                                                                                                                               shed … I really don’t know how I will be using Little Building for certain, so far, in the evenings the pups and I just enjoy sitting out there and watch the goings and comings on the Avenue.
                                   

Pups
Emma on the left Shelby on the right

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

So back to the painting, I set out to prepare to paint “Little building”, The outside was already painted a bright shining white, so was only dealing with the inside.  I was determined to do it right, go according to manufacturer’s instructions. I have to tell you they have very specific directions, no grease or dirt, if dirt or grease are present, it must be washed and rinsed meticulously then let dry completely… any glossy surfaces must be sanded lightly….no loose or peeling paint…rust must be dealt with…  Certain kinds of woods must first be primed!   As I was uncertain of what kind of wood, Little building was composed of I bought primer and paint.

Daughter Angela volunteered to paint Little Building over memorial weekend…

Daughter Angela

She was able to get the ceiling completed, it took three coats one primer and two of paint. I was left with the walls…no big deal…the she was able to do the hard part, the overhead painting. Angela calls Monday morning her dog Scout has paint on her back and on her belly…. The latex paint would not brush out or wash out…it had to be cut out.

  After several days of me staying on task, the painting was complete!  Walls and floor!

But!  My brand new pedicure was a wreck, covered with paint splatters, that could not be scrubbed off….Paint splatters all over skin, hands, arms, and nose, that paint did wear off, but it was way on after while …

 Last week I went to get my hair cut… Tim the fella that cuts my hair, after shampooing it, made the remark, “some of the paint came out, but not all”.    This after many washings at least 10!  

 The intended surfaces to be painted must be dealt with carefully for the paint to adhere to it, but on unintended surfaces that paint clings like grime death without any preparation what so ever.  I think that is rather odd….But on the bright side if the paint on little building clings to it like it does to noses, toes and dogs…I will be in the grave many years before it has to be painted again.   

I sure do miss Mississippi

Love to all