Southern Hospitality is Alive and Well

"If I never have another piece of fried chicken it will be too soon," I said on our way home from Buna last Sunday.

The minute we walked in the door of Jeff's parents' house last Thursday, Mrs. Holmes said, "Oh, good! Come in and help me eat this food." Four pizzas and two large boxes of fried chicken to be exact.

When unsure of what to say when a beloved member of a small-town community dies, it's best to just stop by and bring food. Of course, I completely agree with the philosophy that food does indeed make everything better. Well, food and chocolate. (Do you consider chocolate food or candy? No, Rebecca Holmes, candy is not food.) Anyhoo...

Within minutes of our arrival, in came the casseroles, pies, cakes, rolls, more fried chicken, cookies, bags of chips, sandwich trays, meat trays...did I mention fried chicken? Yes, I believe in total we racked up at least six boxes of fried chicken. I feel sure the local deli at Kaine's Supermarket had a banner day last week. In spite of my attempts to eat well and not totally wreck my diet, I had to give up that dream. It just wasn't possible. After all, someone had to help clear out all that chicken!

I would like to give special acknowledgement here to Mrs. Sybil Stanley, God bless her, for the most delicious rum cake I have ever eaten. Well, the only rum cake actually, but it was warm from the oven, and "Oh, she did hope it tasted all right. It just didn't look like it usually did." I can assure you, Mrs. S., it was ALL RIGHT. And I'm sure the homemade rolls were the same recipe that we had back in elementary school. Divine, I tell you...practically manna from heaven. (Hang on a sec, while I wipe the drool from my keyboard.)

So, in the Southern way of thinking, here's my little equation: food = love. If that is true, then lotsa food = lotsa love. Thanks everybody for showing us how much you loved Mr. Holmes, and in turn, us too!

And now we return to our previously scheduled diet...