Thanksgiving and Christmas…

Well it’s early November here in the hills of north La. The weather is cooler and we’ve had a coupla frosts. That always makes the turnips, mustard, and collards taste even more delicious. It’s time to make preparations for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The rooster and hens that have been shut up in pens and fed special food are looking good and clucking all the time. As a young child I fed the chickens. I’d look at them and think, “you’ll die happy”. I didn’t feel sorry for them too long knowing how good they would taste. Mama was known for being the best cook around. She could make delicious meals out of practically nothing. Pecans were cracked and stored for fruit cake, pie and just for eating. Hickory nuts and black walnuts were gathered and used for Mama’s delicious cakes. Sweet potatoes had been dug up and banked in pine straw to get even sweeter. Mama made sweet potato pies and cobblers out of them. Mama always canned a lot of jars of turnip greens along with two or three gallon of greens for supper Christmas night. Everybody looked forward to greens, hot corn bread and milk. That was a tradition in our family.

Well, let me get on to hog killing time. I remember waking up early in the morning and hearing a flurry of activity outside. Uncle Saul, my older brothers, and our neighbors would be there for the hog killing and butchering. This yearly event was important because it provided meat and lard for months to come. I was only allowed to see the hogs after they had been cleaned and washed. They were put on long tables, outside, and cut into hams, shoulder roasts, ribs and slabs of bacon and steaks. Pork chops were also cut. Everywhere we lived there was always a smokehouse. Papa always moved in his big wooden meat box. A low fire was built in the center of the smoke house. The hams, shoulder roasts and stuffed sausage links were hung from a rack over the smoke and turned periodically. They were brushed with liquid smoke until they were cured. They were then layered in the meat box with salt--that’s the way meat was preserved. Cracklins were cooked outside in large pots and then the oil was poured into cans and cooled for lard. We didn’t have healthy cooking oil back then. Lard and butter were used for cooking. It wasn’t healthy, but oh how good it tasted. Hams were saved for Thanksgiving and Christmas--oh what joy. Many times during the year we would run out of meat and we only had chicken for Sunday dinner. Come the holidays the women always cooked a big feast to feed everybody and guess what…I always ate too much and got sick. I’ve given you too much information. Back to the story of the hog killing which was so important it could affect the survival of the family. That may be hard for you to understand, but there were no supermarkets in that day even if you had money and we didn’t. The Thanksgiving meal was always basically the same. We would have chicken and cornbread dressing--Mama would always put sage, onions, lots of spices and sometime sausage in her dressing. We also had ham, candied sweet potatoes, potato salad and all kinds of vegetables. The desserts were pecan pie, butter roll, fruitcake, black walnut cake and many other delicious dishes. All the family came home and it was a joyful time with a lot of nieces and nephews to play with. We played a lot of games like jump rope, drop the handkerchief, red rover come over, London Bridge is falling down and ring around the roses. The little kids would play hopscotch and the little boys might shoot marbles (with their fingers, not with guns, ha).Those were good times--remembered in the bad times.

I’ve talked about all the good cooking done by Mama. Well let me tell you about her kitchen. It didn’t matter what sharecroppers’ kitchen she lived in, it was always clean. Remember cleanliness is next to godliness and so important to keep your family safe from disease. In her kitchen there was always a cook table covered with pretty oil cloth. Then very important was her pie safe where she kept her dishes, cooked goods and a lot more. The safe had two doors on top with a screen inset in them. Under them were two drawers and a cabinet with two doors and shelves inside. There was also a large meal and flour box. The most important thing in that kitchen was her large cooking stove. It had a large oven and there were four burners on top. On the back there was a large reservoir the width of the stove. Water was stored there for washing dishes. The water was also used for washing up at night. Mama always had nice clean linoleum on the kitchen floor and there was always pretty starched and ironed curtains for the windows. It was always warm there and smelled so good. Mama always made the best with what she had and praised God for it. There’s much more to tell you about my mama. Have a happy Thanksgiving Day. I love you all. I’ve already written the story about Christmas. I still have to type it. Talk to you later.