Food Equals Love

I don’t think southern culture is the only one that equates food with love in the family sense.All cultures have their equivalent. I just think that here in rural Southwest Alabama we have distilled the tradition to a meaningful fine art.

Several things have happened recently, tht have brought this fact home to me in a personal way. The first was the gift of my Aunt Hazel. She was literally at death’s door 6 weeks ago. I mean literally. She quit breathing twice. She is on oxygen around the clock. She smoked her lungs away. She was so addicted to tobacco that she would slip and smoke after she was told it would kill her. She unhooked the oxygen and lit up a cigarette. She was in the hospital for weeks. I just had a birthday. She cooked me dinner for my birthday present. She knew I loved her cooking, so she prepared food for my special day. It was one of the greatest acts of love anybody has every given me. It was not just a simple meal. She had made stuffed peppers, fried eggplant and green tomatoes, her famous potato salad and a butterscotch pie for dessert. Each dish had several steps in its preparation. The fried eggplant and tomatoes had to be individually pan fried. I don’t know when I have enjoyed a meal more. There was love in every bite.

Another recent example was when a long lost relative we had never met came to town to put a marker in the family cemetery named for a relative who was the first person buried there. She knew who some of us were because we had emailed family genealogical information back and forth. The local family, who had never met this woman got together and fixed a special supper for her and her husband. When she remarked on how nice it was of the local branch of the family to do this, she was told “If you will come all the way from Texas to dedicate this marker, the least we can do is fix supper!”All the local relatives were invited. Several came, all bearing dishes. One friend of the hostess had a garden full of the fresh vegetables. She lived 18 miles away. She came on Saturday morning bringing fresh string beans, cucumbers, okra, squash, corn and new potatoes. Not only did she bring them, but she sat down and helped the hostess snap the beans. We are still eating leftovers, which is a really good thing. One of the out of town relatives came. She brought 6 people with her, who ended up being my houseguests. I was the fortunate recipient of the leftovers. We had barbeque, snapped beans, squash casserole, coleslaw ( 2 kinds – broccoli and regular), baked beans, lemon rice, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and bell pepper rings. For dessert, there was chocolate pound cake and strawberry cake. There was sweet tea and cherry limeade to be had by all. This was another labor of love, which the guests apparently enjoyed. They didn’t leave until midnight.

The gift of the leftovers has served me well. I fed 6 guests for 4 days on them. The guests left yesterday, but the leftovers remain. I had another guest yesterday from Arizona. He was here researching his own roots. I live in what was his family home. I treat any of the Dunnings who come through as family. I had a family reunion for them here several years ago, so they know that the door is always open. I fed this man more leftovers for his dinner yesterday. He said he wasn’t hungry and didn’t want much to eat, but he made a liar out of himself. He didn’t eat many choices, but ate a lot of what he did eat.

Southern hospitality is what most people would call having all these people in to feed. Did I mention that some of the people who came with my sister, I had never met in my life? They came highly recommended by my sister and included 4 teenagers. Yes, you heard me right – 4 teenagers. I have observed one thing about teenagers, If you treat them like people, they will act all right. They giggled a bit and spend a lot of time on the computer, but they were pleasant and helped eat up the leftovers. Alll in all, there was a lot of love and a lot of food floating around these past few days. It’s a southern thing and we are celebrating our culture. Hurray for rural Southwest Alabama!