There's not as much to report. We've been taking it easy and visiting with family we haven't seen since our wedding and Clay is meeting others he didn't meet then, and we're both being pampered. Tuesday morning Carolyn asked us what we wanted for breakfast. I said pancakes (fourth time in a week and a half) and so pancakes we had. Yum! After she made breakfast Carolyn got dressed up like a diva and went to work.
We were barely done cleaning up from breakfast before Aunt LaFaye started making lunch: chicken and dumplings from scratch. The house here reminds me more of a bustling train depot. Cousins from three generations are always coming in and out and the kitchen sees the same frequency of use as an industrial kitchen. Good thing it has the size to hold the traffic.
At the house Junior showed us an array of vegetables he grew in his garden and pickled. Before the day was over we'd tasted pickles, pickled pears, and pickled green beans. My favorite was the pickled pears and I do plan on taking a few jars with me when I leave. They give me heartburn though so we headed to the store to get some Tums because I wasn't going to stop eating them.
(From left to right: jars of squash, figs, pears, peppers, pickles and cha-cha)
We stopped by the family business to use the printer and fax machine to take care of some of our affairs and my cousin Roderick gave us a tour. When we returned Aunt LaFaye was pouting because we were a few minutes late for our trip. I told Junior that Aunt LaFaye wanted to take us out to the country. Junior laughed and said we were already out in the country. He had a point.
She and Junior drove us around in the Salem, Friendship and Lisbon - farming communities on the outskirts of Homer where Aunt LaFaye and my grandparents grew up and where our family still owns land, where my grandmother's father built Salem Community Church, and where many of my ancestors are buried. My grandfather's stories come to life on this land and I can see him walking from Friendship to Salem on red dirt country roads to go to my grandmother's church to court her. I can see my grandmother and her three sisters growing up spoiled by all her father's brothers. And I can see the farming lifestyle that taught them a strong work ethic and the kind of self-reliance that comes from raising and growing and cooking and canning and preparing your own food from butter to milk to fruits and vegetables to meats, and the kind of pride that came from owning your own land by being thrifty and outwitting forces arrayed against you.
Now there are only a few families still living out that far. Many have moved closer in to town, to Minden (the next biggest town), and to Shreveport (the nearest city), or to other cities as part of the Great Migration. The land that used to be farmland with crops is now grown over with tall trees sold for timber and spotted with oil wells. As always I checked the gas tank before we headed out that way as after Homer there are no more filling stations and if you get stuck - good luck to you.
When we got back Junior said we had to have his two signature dishes before we left. Last night we dined on fried catfish and blue gill (he calls them creek fish), fried okra, cornbread and salad. Tomorrow he said he's going to make us barbecue. I told him he didn't have to do that but we wouldn't stop him. Aunt LaFaye said she's going to take us to Shreveport to the casinos and such.
I'm excited Clay got to come down here to Louisiana with me. When we were in Tobago last September with his family it reminded me a lot of Louisiana and now he sees why. Rural to semi-rural with beautiful lush surroundings and a focus on family and hospitality.
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