not a food blog
Of greens, I love fresh spinach, cooked not raw, also Popeye's brand canned spinach, which I try always to have a can or two in the pantry. Love collard greens too, we never had them at home when I was growing up because Mama couldn't stand the smell of them cooking, so my first taste of collard greens was that summer 1954 when I worked my seven days a week job at Edgewater Gulf Beach development of single story brick multiplexes, a resort at PCB, and the group of Black women who worked there used to cook collard greens and chicken & rice in one of the empty apartments for their noon dinner, and sometimes invited us (the other boy who was working with me and me) to eat with them, which I recall as a treat of deliciousness.
Working seven days a week is one way to lose track of Time. After a couple weeks of it I had no idea what day of the week it was when I woke up each morning. It was 1954, most days I took the station wagon. Some days Linda drove me in her mother's 1953 Ford station wagon, and we cooked breakfast at the Wayside Park then went for a swim in the clear waters. A memory of that is the morning the Gulf was very calm, we walked out a ways, then turned and watched as a large shark circled a few yards from where we were standing. That may have been a lifeTime experience of walking on the water running back to shore.
But collard greens: in later years of life, at The Old Place, our next door neighbor across Calhoun Avenue, Bill Lee, used to knock on the back door with a "mess" of collard greens fresh cut from his garden - - succulent green excellence.
And turnips. My mother was the only person I ever knew who could cook turnip greens that were not sandy.
Kale?, no. Growing up I never heard of kale, and I don't care for it today: it must be food for either Yankees or Narnian swamp-wiggles.
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Stop at Sam's this morning to pick up a prescription and a rotisserie chicken, then out to the Publix at Sweet Bay to buy a can to sample their whole berry cranberry sauce, since our experience that Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce is no longer whole berry but crunched up red things; makes a difference.
While at Publix, I ordered again six catfish filets, which they fried up for me while we browsed the twofers. My favorite grocery shopping item though is convenience which is "Bill's," the Grocery Outlet store that I can see from here in 7H as I type.
Long as it's a foody I might as well mention that we need a near future trip up Harrison Avenue on our city's northern border, reared against the sky ...to Tally-Ho Drive In for a couple buckets of fried chicken livers. My high school years, Tally-Ho was a treat stop for lunch on schooldays when Mama let me take her car, our brown 1949 Plymouth station wagon. Tally-Ho also was a frequent stop on Friday and Saturday night dates those years, as was Jimmy's Drive in on E. 6th Street.
Also a drive-in out in "Little Dothan" on the north side of US-98 a block or two from the Kaiser-Frazer dealership - - I think it was the Chicken Box. We didn't go back there after the evening the manager sent the car-hop girl out to take our tray and curtly tell us "Goodnight" because Linda and I were smooching in the car, in those days a breach of decency. But what the Hell, it was worth it.
Yes, I've recalled that here any number of Times.
Sat Jun 13 7:28PM, tomorrow will be Sunday again, and our current plan, strictly depending on wakeup, is Eight O'clock church.
After church, home for the day is my favorite.
For health and love and a lifeTime of memories,
RSF&PTL
T90