Today is Monday, July 4, 1983 Time 11:17 AMToday is Indenpence Day. It sure dosen't feel like it. yesterday We got to Grandma J.'s house around 7:00 a.m. We got lost in Penn following Mr. Derr's instructions or we would have got here sooner. This morning I had breakfast over Uncle Hyram's with some relitaves. it was good, I am having fun.
After dropping my friend off at her grandparents' house, our family continued south to North Carolina to go to my maternal grandmother's farm. It must have been a long night of driving for my folks, since we apparently took the really long way. Now that I think about, it may have been a reprieve for them, somewhat relaxing and quiet (finally) with all three of us asleep in the back seat.
We kids must have gone to my great-uncle's house for breakfast so my parents could nap. (We referred to all our great aunts and uncles like Mom did, simply as Aunt or Uncle. Less confusing.) I'm sure we had a huge breakfast with Nahunta sausages from the store around the corner from his house.
There are many small pork plants in North Carolina, and each one has their own special blend for sausages and the vinegar-based pulled pork that is "barbeque" for this family. From all these visits south, our family has developed a deep abiding love for the spicy Nahunta Pork Center sausage patties. (The closest to the national brands I can find is the Jones brand, but they aren't quite the same thing.) Even now, whenever my mother goes south to visit with the copious amounts of relatives, she has to bring back CASES of sausage and pints and pints of pulled pork barbeque. I have a stash of sausage in my freezer and many a frozen patty has been shipped, flown, and trekked across the country to my brothers. (After I wrote this a few days ago, I had to go thaw, cook, and devour a half dozen from the freezer. Not the smartest move when you have gout and aren't supposed to eat pork .... but sooooooooo good.)
Trips to the farm meant hanging out with our cousins -- well, our second cousins. Mom was the oldest of 36 first cousins. Most of Uncle Hyram's children lived nearby and had lots of feisty kids around our ages. It was a bit disconcerting, though, to realize on Sundays that you were somehow related to every single person in the chapel. If you asked the right relation, they could verbally recite the genealogy charts back more than the standard four generations. We "Yankees" often felt a bit out of places, and cousin Krissy enjoyed telling us to "kiss it" when she felt we were being too uppity or thought we were mocking her accent.
We weren't mocking it ... too much. We were just trying to fit in. If that meant learning how to drawl, so be it.
Programming Note: Enjoy Independence Day weekend. I will be off enjoying a four-day mini-break.
More later, ya'll.
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