Teddy Radiator (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
teddy_radiator) wrote2013-07-04 11:18 am
teddy_radiator) wrote2013-07-04 11:18 am
Entry tags:
Happy July 4th
“... as the air filled up with the smell of a feast bad for the arteries and good for the soul... Dupree had a pot of Frogmore stew simmering near the line of picnic tables and I could smell the pork sausage, mingling with the fresh corn and shrimp, cutting the air with its special tang of barnyard, field and saltwater creek... Tee and the sisters-in-law served platefuls of barbeque, which glistened in a mustard-based sauce that made the pork look like it had been painted with gold leaf.”
- Pat Conroy, Beach Music
Every time I read this passage I am transported home with my family eating wonderful food on an endless Fourth of July picnic. It always brings to mind a particular Fourth of July spent over at my Uncle Jan’s home. My parents and their generation had staged it to rekindle the feeling of the Independence Day picnics they remembered as children, when their local mill town hosted great Barbeque picnics and horse racing and variety shows in the evenings.
We started early that morning, arriving at Jan’s at around nine o’clock and slathering suntan oil all over ourselves in preparation for a day’s sunbathing. Already the grills were blazing with the charcoal that would burn the day’s burgers and hot dogs.
Homemade ice creams and cakes followed this banquet, and it was as perfect a day as could be had in a small town known for its Spring Park and perfect summer days.
We spent most of the afternoon full of great food and laughter, singing and fun, splashing around in Jan’s swimming pool. It ended with one of those fantastic four o’clock thunder showers so prevalent in the South; when the heat of the day bumps into the cooling afternoon air to produce a light and sound show guaranteed to chase everyone onto the porch to watch in relative safety. We were bullied out of the pool by my grandmother who feared we would be struck by lightning, but by the time we all climbed out, the storm had all but spent itself and was reduced to a soft rain.
Later, long after the storm ended and the sun reappeared, we kids gleefully started the fireworks display far too early, but they were a little disappointing after the dampness of the storm and the grandness of the meal we’d all consumed.
That day has been stamped forever in my mind, full of nostalgia, loved ones now gone, and the soft days of summer when I was young and vain and pretty and could eat as much as I wanted without considering the scales once.
For my folks, this had been their attempt to rediscover their youth, and in doing so, gave me a moment in my life I would always try to recreate. I have come to understand as I’ve grown older that Love made this day special. Food cooked with love, laughter and happiness married to one of the most perfect days of the year added up to a memory that is always golden and beautiful and will be with me forever."
~Excerpt, Brits and Grits, A Victoria Tea Room Cookbook and Almanac, Teddy Radiator
- Pat Conroy, Beach Music
Every time I read this passage I am transported home with my family eating wonderful food on an endless Fourth of July picnic. It always brings to mind a particular Fourth of July spent over at my Uncle Jan’s home. My parents and their generation had staged it to rekindle the feeling of the Independence Day picnics they remembered as children, when their local mill town hosted great Barbeque picnics and horse racing and variety shows in the evenings.
We started early that morning, arriving at Jan’s at around nine o’clock and slathering suntan oil all over ourselves in preparation for a day’s sunbathing. Already the grills were blazing with the charcoal that would burn the day’s burgers and hot dogs.
Homemade ice creams and cakes followed this banquet, and it was as perfect a day as could be had in a small town known for its Spring Park and perfect summer days.
We spent most of the afternoon full of great food and laughter, singing and fun, splashing around in Jan’s swimming pool. It ended with one of those fantastic four o’clock thunder showers so prevalent in the South; when the heat of the day bumps into the cooling afternoon air to produce a light and sound show guaranteed to chase everyone onto the porch to watch in relative safety. We were bullied out of the pool by my grandmother who feared we would be struck by lightning, but by the time we all climbed out, the storm had all but spent itself and was reduced to a soft rain.
Later, long after the storm ended and the sun reappeared, we kids gleefully started the fireworks display far too early, but they were a little disappointing after the dampness of the storm and the grandness of the meal we’d all consumed.
That day has been stamped forever in my mind, full of nostalgia, loved ones now gone, and the soft days of summer when I was young and vain and pretty and could eat as much as I wanted without considering the scales once.
For my folks, this had been their attempt to rediscover their youth, and in doing so, gave me a moment in my life I would always try to recreate. I have come to understand as I’ve grown older that Love made this day special. Food cooked with love, laughter and happiness married to one of the most perfect days of the year added up to a memory that is always golden and beautiful and will be with me forever."
~Excerpt, Brits and Grits, A Victoria Tea Room Cookbook and Almanac, Teddy Radiator