[Previous entry: "PSYCHO ITALIAN MOTHER"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "TORNADOES RIP MISSOURI, KANSAS"]

05/05/2003 Archived Entry: "MOTHER'S DAY"

MOTHER'S DAY

Sunday is going to be a special day for mothers everywhere, but this mother is especially filled with happy anticipation. Our second son made all the arrangements to go to the Brookville Hotel for dinner, lined up the family members and found a time for the gathering that was agreeable to all. I haven't eaten there for a long time so it will be a special treat.

Number one grandson is living in Kansas now (he bought a house Manhattan) so he'll be there. For the past several years, he's missed many of the family gatherings. He still travels with the same job, Overnight Trucking, but they like him so well he can live anywhere in the US and they will see to it he gets to work. What a deal! That's one more fine resident who has returned to call Kansas home.

Our granddaughter is still taking finals at SMU so she is the only one who won't be with us as we converge over the Cole slaw, which is about the only part of their menu that hasn't changed over the years.

I liked it back in the old days a lot better when they raised their own chickens, cut them the way they should be cut in identifiable parts, dipped in seasoned flour and fried in lard in heavy cast-iron skillets. The way Frances Hulse, who worked for them for many years, knew how to do it. The way my mom and about everyone else fried chicken. That deep-fat-fried-in-batter-hunks-of-oily-tasteless-chicken came along a lot later, thanks to the health department. Back then they used real potatoes and mixed their biscuits so they tasted like biscuits. Their ice cream was homemade and came out of hand-cranked churns. They had fresh green beans, homemade sweet pickles and home-canned peach halves. The creamed corn seemed better. The pan gravy had lumps of good stuff scraped from the bottom of the skillets and it tasted like gravy. Things change, but not always for the best.

But, I don’t have to cook and it is always fun when we get everyone together. We make good memories and that is what families are all about.