Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-02-09
CHAPTER III

AiA IiC SSlteI VI Tile tdUle WOulu
be a high dish with a single stem,
and on this dish would be a cake
covered with white icing. On low
fiat dish, close beside the tall one
legged dish, would be black choco-
late cake. This cake always showed
the marks made by my mothers
knife when she spread the chocolate
over the cake. But the knife marks
didn't show on the white cake. I
always looked at the cakes first,
even if they were the last things to
be eaten.
Fried chicken! No Sunday dinner
in the summertime would make
sense without fried chicken and gra-
Wy, with the gizzards on a little
dish by themselves so no one by
mistake would get gizzard. But
the necks stayed on the big plate.
Why this was, I don't know; but
they were always with the good
pieces, just as if the scrawny things
belonged there.
Toward the foot of the table, where
my mother sat, would be two kinds
of pies. If anybody asked company
to Sunday dinner and didn't have
two kinds of pies it was pretty close
to an insult. In this little cluster of
pies and jams would be the fine,
creamy-white "coffee sugar." as we
called it. Weekdays we used brown
sugar, or coarse granulated white
sugar, but not on Sunday!
In this group would be the spiced
peaches which my mother had put
up. But spiced peaches presented
problem. The best kind was the
yellow clingstones, but the meat
was hard to get off; so we had to
decide whether to try to cut it off,
or to put the whole thing in our
mouths. You had to know people
pretty well before you could do that.
Ma would make a trip or two back
and forth to the kitchen, then say,
"Everything's on, Amos" and Pa
would say, well, folks, since you're
here you might just as well stay and
eat with u.s."
In moment we'd all be standing
around the table, me pretty close,
and the sight of the food just about
driving me crazy.
Newt would look at the table and
say, II guess you haven't sold any,
thing lately, Amos" and every
body'd laugh.
When we were seated, there'd be
a different air; little awkward
ness now.
"Will you ask the blessing, Newt?"
Pa would say, because it was man.
ners to let the company do that.
Then Newt would lean forward and
clear his throat.
There would be silence when he
finished, then everybody would be-
gin to laugh and talk. The sound
would rise and fall then there would
be a serious note. Somebody had
died, or mastitis was in the next
county. A long pause, here. Then
as if to make up for the serious
note - the talk pendulum would
swing up again and pretty soon ev-
erybody would be laughing.
Ma would pick up the peacock fan
and swish it with its lovely rustling.
''Let me do that, SUSAN" Mrs.
Kennedy would say when it was
again time and Ma would say,
THANK you, Minnie, but l can do
it." But Mrs. Kennedy would pick
up the fan and swish the flies any
way. You had to be pretty well
acquainted for that.
The filling food" as we called
it, would disappear, and chicken
bones would pile up. Suddenly Ma
would jump up and dash out to
the kitchen; then, in few moments,
come hopping back. "Gracious, 1
almost forgot the roasting ears!"
There they'd be, the long Grimes
Golden we had got out of our own
field. We'd butter and salt 'em and
fly into 'em, because there isn't
anything better than yellow field
corn roasting ears.
We'd work our way down to the
fancy vittles, THE pies and cakes
and preserves. By this time every
body would be eating more slowly
than at first, and talking a great
deal, now. Mrs. Kennedy would say,
''Susan, how long do you cook your
watermelon preserves" and Ma
would tell her and I'd get hungry all
over again.
Newt'd push back in his chair
and sigh and say, For a while l
didn't think the food was going to
hold out, but thank goodness! it
did"
Pa, who always joked at the table
with Newt to make the womenfolks
laugh, would say, THAT'S because
my family held back"
After we'd eaten everything we
could, Phebe would get up in her
quiet way and 60 to the pantry
and bring back Mason jar with a
screw top, and say, maybe some
body'd like to have molasses cook
ie."
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