My clearest memory is my mother’s crescent-shaped blue eyes dancing while we taste freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and sip from cool glasses of milk. I feel her gathering me onto her lap because the boy I loved broke up with me. I hear the mellow dinner bell ringing in the backyard and her voice at twilight calling us to come in for supper. Her love did not overlook. Not one of us. Not once.
Tag: family
Lulled by a Late Snowfall: “Iowa Dreams”
A few days ago, snow dusted the southern landscape. Winter’s last blast showed up in a flurry of images on social media. Memory took me back to my time in Iowa. Yards seemed snowbound from November to March. I once stepped outside for a midnight sojourn in a still garden—and walked away with a poem.
Keep This Table Now and in Our Hearts
My thoughts turn to a fundamental ritual: the family table. After dinner on Sunday, three generations leaned into conversations, propping our elbows on the kitchen table that stood for decades through years of mischief, arguments, tears, and joy. Wherever you take a meal this holiday, I wish you sweet memories.
You Can’t Take the Country Boy out of the Man
Was I lucky to have a dad obsessed with transplanting north Georgia mountain tradition to Alabama soil? I didn’t think so, especially on Saturday afternoons. While the neighbors’ kids played kickball on the cul-de-sac, our family tended the crops on the utility easement. There was nothing sentimental about growing squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, corn, and beans, beans, beans—until now.
Too many cooks in the kitchen? Holiday crunch makes room for love
Do too many cooks spoil the sauce? Not in my family. Competitive chefs added their own flavors to oyster stew, breakfast casserole, cornbread dressing, and giblet gravy.