Send Me Back Saturday - Favorite Foods

The question for this prompt, if the title didn't give it away is:

What was one of your favorite foods/meals growing up?

This was a big hit with the FB crowd. I had 66 comments.

My response:

My most favorite meal growing up was my Mammy's BBQ brisket. She almost always only made this on Sunday's for our after church dinner. Oh, how I wish I knew just how she prepared it. The one thing I do remember is that it was cooked in her electric skillet while we were at church. It was so tender and I loved the BBQ sauce she used. Maybe even more than the brisket, I loved dipping my "light bread" in the sauce to clean my plate. I also remember how Bampy's shirt would get a little tight in the button area around his belly after dinner. And while all other days were spent working in some form, Sunday's were a no work day - aside from cleaning the kitchen and checking/feeding/watering cattle.

Mammy's electric skillet was brown on the bottom with a cream lid. I don't know if it was this exact model but it was very close to it. Also, an electric skillet is one kitchen gadget I don't own but would really LOVE. When I was first married to Gaylan, we didn't have propane to hook up to our single wide trailer so the oven was and stove top was never used. I had an electric skillet then and I would use it near daily. I also used the microwave, and a steamer quite often. And I had a little table top toaster oven. 

After further online investigation of vintage electric skillets, this one also seems familiar. I just can't be certain. I've also searched online for some electric skillet bbq brisket recipes and have come up short. If you ever come across one, please let me know! I'd love to try and recreate this meal.




This was my mom's response:

I love food so much that I am not sure I can name a “favorite”. Foods I remember were moms homemade donuts. And pot roast on Sundays. My granny Bondell made wonderful fried chicken. And when we stayed at Granny and Papas house we always asked for Spaghetti O’s. And Grandma Zula’s biscuits and gravy.

The hubs:

I know you're going to find this hard to believe, knowing me as well as you do, but: Sonic. We didn't eat out a whole lot when I was growing up but we lived right across the highway from Sonic and when I finally got a job, I ate there all the time. I either had a cheeseburger dry, a cheeseburger with mustard and ketchup only or a hickory burger. The burgers were bigger back then and I remember the fries being better, too. 

Grandma Marilyn commented that her favorite food growing up was Mexican and that it still is. And there were so many cousins and friends that commented as well. But I'll only blog direct ancestors to the kids.

I hope you're enjoying these. It's been a really nice change of pace over on Facebook and I am more than thrilled people are participating.

Until next time,
Becky

Flashback Friday -- Mischief

Today's Facebook prompt that I am bringing over here is:

What memory of you misbehaving stands out most in your memories? What did you do? What was your punishment?

My memory:

I was a DRAMATIC child. Always upset about something. When I was in about 3rd, 4th or 5th grade. I was living in Country Acres at the time --- that helps date the story. Anyway, I packed my bags, some saltines and cheese, an empty old Boy Scouts of America popcorn tin and some candles and matches and headed off into the woods behind my house to live. I was running away! It was cold in the evening so I melted the bottom of my candle and stuck it to the bottom of the tin to keep the wind from blowing it out. As time went on it became colder and I discovered that if I put the lid on said tin for just a wee little bit it would warm up and I could press it against my cheeks and hands for warmth. A little while passed and my little brother came into the woods to either rub it in that I was upset or convince me to come back but he got cold sitting out there with me too. So I showed him what I had discovered about the lid heating up, only I left the lid on a little too long and branded him with the logo on the lid! Sheer panic set in and I tried hard to think of a cover story. And to my great surprise he was more than willing to go along. We decided to tell our parents that we were outside playing with sticks and I was swinging mine around and accidentally hit him. At the time I didn't realize just how much the mark looked like the logo, only that it was a nice big red whelp. Well as time went on the swelling went down and the emblem really stood out. It didn't take long and they were on to us. I had to confess the whole ordeal. I honestly don't remember what my punishment was. But this is a story I'll never forget. Or be allowed to forget?

This is my mom's naughty child story:

One time I had a loose tooth. Mom said she was going to use pliers to pull it out. I was so scared that I ran away and hid in the corn rows in the garden. I could see everyone out looking for me but I wasn’t going to come out. Then I heard a neighbor say that they should call the police because we lived on highway 62 and they feared I had been picked up by someone. I decided it was time to come out before the search got any bigger.

My Aunt Diane shared this story:

I found chocolate candy bars in Granny's refrigerator. I offered my sisters a small piece. Reine wouldn't take it because Granny had said no candy in the house. Michelle took her part. I ate all that was left almost a whole bar. It didn't even taste that good. You probably guessed it was ex lax. The punishment was enough .

The hubs shared his story too:

The only thing that stands out isn't even a funny story. In eighth grade, I got caught at a football game with some marijuana. I was taken home and the next morning, I was in the police station in front of Don Kennedy, a local cop. He said that a girl I knew had already sold me out (and she probably had) but that since it was on school property and dad was the superintendent, he'd let the school deal with it. I was expelled. Mom called in a favor to the super at Grove and got me in there. The next year, I started back at Jay, tarnished reputation in tow.

Until next time,
Becky

Throwback Thursday -- Vacations

I'm sure if you're on Facebook any amount of time, you will have noticed it's not nearly as interactive as it was in the beginning stages. From the beginning one of the things I loved most about it, was that it allowed me to share my life, children and our daily activities with family. Now I almost only see memes and political jabs or fake news. As a way to try to get a little less "noise" and more real conversation, I've started asking questions to prompt conversation and stories. Today was my first day and the question was:

What is the first vacation you can remember taking? Who all went? Where did you go? Why did you go there?

I felt like this was a good blog prompt too. It will allow me to share my memories with my kids (if they ever care enough to read my blog someday).

So here's my answer to the above question:

When I was about 4 years old (it was actually Aug 1985 so I was 5. This was right before I started kindergarten), my parents, myself and my little brother traveled to California. On the way there we traveled South and made a little trip into Mexico (I think). I can remember driving slowly and people approaching the car from all angles trying to sell us things. We drove a little brown car, a 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

I don't remember where in California we went but we visited my stepdad's father and his family. We went to the ocean. My Mom will tell you I'm overly dramatic but a wave nearly swallowed me whole and drug me out to sea! (I might be a little dramatic but to a 4 year old that was a terrifying experience). And I pouted and complained the entire time afterwards because my clothes were wet. My dramatic little self also remembers being outside at an apartment complex and being approached by a young man (maybe 10 or 12) who looked just like Mr. T. He asked me where I was from and when I told him, Arkansas, he sucker punched me right in the gut. He knocked the breath clean out of me. I don't remember how long we stayed. I know we went out on a boat on the ocean and saw seals. And I remember when we came home we traveled North and got to see antelope somewhere around Wyoming. 

Later mom told me we went to Los Angeles, San Diego, and Pasa Robles. And we even went to the Zoo. I didn't even remember that part.

She also shared her memories of her first vacation and her sisters helped fill in a few the details. The whole of the story came about in several different questions and replies on Facebook, so I'll summarize it.

One hot summer around the year 1967, this family of five traveled in a single cab '66 blue Chevy pickup with a  3 on the tree. They were headed to 6 flags over Texas, Carlsbad Caverns and further South into Mexico. Michelle recalled purchasing lunch boxes at Carlsbad and taking salt from the salt flats and keeping it in the lunch boxes. They ate pizza in their motel rooms. If you're wondering how all 5 people (kids ages 9-5 ish) fit in that truck, Michelle said sometimes she rode in the floorboard and one of the other girls would lay behind the seats up against the back windshield. 

The hubs also shared his first vacation memory:

I think my first vacation was to New Orleans with mom and dad when I was 13. Lots of time was spent on Bourbon Street, which was actually scary for a kid that young from a town as small as Jay. Drunk men have no qualms about asking a kid for money. I loved the smells of the restaurants on Bourbon Street. The plantations homes were neat and so were the white alligators at the Audubon Zoo (which, incidentally, I had seen on TNN just a few months earlier). We rode a river boat and I also got my first taste of public transportation. What I didn't see was just as memorable. According to mom and dad, when we were on Bourbon St once, this woman in a tube-top was yelling at a man down the street. When I got right next to her (again, this came from Roy Drake and Kay Drake), she yanked her tube-top down and flashed her boobies to that guy and everybody else who looked. I didn't look. Didn't even know there was real live boobage right next to 13-year-old me.

Later on in the Facebook conversation my MIL Kay, confirmed the boobage event and the hub's recollection that maybe the New Orleans trip wasn't his first vacation. My FIL was the Superintendent of Jay Public Schools and traveled to different conventions and the rest of the family could tag along. When I asked the hubs if they drove to New Orleans this was his response:

We flew. But I don't remember the flight. I remember the flight to Anaheim, because I threw up in a trash can at John Wayne International. And that makes me think California was my first vacation. Went with mom and dad and DisneyLand was closed just for the people with the convention. DisneyLand sucked. Got diarrhea from Mexico. So, maybe California/Mexico was my first vacation/

My maternal grandmother also shared her first memory:

When I was 10 or 11 we came to visit Aunt Dood and Uncle Hoyt (In Fayetteville) It was when Polio was raging. The adults wanted to go to the movies but didn't want to take the kids for fear of polio. Uncle Hoyt had a sister who lived next door so they thought it would be OK to leave us with her so close. Everything went OK for a while until Doyle started snoring and Joyce convinced us it was a ghost (she was the oldest) It scared Darlene and me so bad we all ran over to Elsies and got her out of bed in the middle of the night. She had some choice words for our parents.

Aunt Dood and Uncle Hotyt were actually my grandmother's great aunt, Effie Equilla "Dood" ACORD and her husband Hoyt KARR. Doyle, Joyce and Darlene were their children. Elsie was Hoyt's sister. She married  Chester Eldridge.

My MIL shared her memory as well:

I don't know if you would call it a vacation but when I was about 10 I spent the summer with my oldest brother in Altus, Oklahoma. Tornado Alley! We went to the storm shelter often. 

She also remarked that she and her SIL spent the summer going to watch the movies. Her oldest brother was Troy Lynn Bates.






I hope you enjoyed our memories!

Until next time,
Becky