Family Reunions

Family Reunions...what a mixed blessing. I loved going to em for the most part...mostly cause I liked to eat if the truth be known. I kinda liked the "hello's" and seeing how much the other kids had growed and listening to Grandma or Daddy sayin "Jimmy passed his grade agin this year, all A's,B's and C's too, I think! Seemed like there was a "D' in there....usually in English, but if they was willin to forgit so was I. Everybody brought a covered dish, so you got to eat food you otherwise might not have been exposed to, and in some cases make fun of it later! "Did ya'll try that Chocolate Pie Ethyl brought, I didn't taste much chocolate in it, did you? She musta just drug a chunk of chocolate over it and saved it for another pie! Landsakes, I thought it was a waste of good piecrust." "Them Pork Chops Lila brought musta come from a hog that died of natural causes....I've eaten leather shoelaces that was mo tender and had a betta flava!" Everybody was encouraged to bring "Pepsi Cola" but two liter bottles weren't around then, and a 12 oz. bottled drink cost a nickel....plus you needed ice to cool it....so everybody brought Kool Aid or Flavor Aid for the most part. Potato Salad, Deviled Eggs, and boiled Hot Dogs were standard fare but sometimes there was BBQ chicken, Fried Chicken, and Hamburgers. Sometimes a little Deer meat but usually not much in the way of game. They quite often took light bread and mixed it in with the hamburger to make it go farther. "you cain't tell no difference" they would say....but they was wrong! Pasta Salad won't around then and I don't think carrots had been invented yet. There were snap beans, butter beans, sliced tomatoes, fried and creamed corm, mashed potatoes, boiled red potatoes, fried and pickled okra, all fresh garden vegetables! Plates of "tater cakes", baked sweet taters, pork sausage, and fatback. We had a "pecking order" did you? The men ate first, then the kids, then the women....I never really knew why. I always thought the kids should eat first myself! The men got all the good stuff, and the kids made a mess, so the lady's who made the meal had better have eaten before they came....if not they had slim pickins. Desserts was where I headed first, usually straight for the Chocolate Pie, Lemon Chess Pie, and Sweet Tater Pie. Not having eaten any of the 'real food", I was normally scolded and threatned with a "whuppin" for traipsing by with three slices of pie, a slice of cake and fudge if there was any...dangerously hugging a paper plate thin as any napkin. "Boy other folks got to eat, I ought to stripe them legs." I didn't care, "stripe em" I thought,.....I'll be eating pie while you do it!