Our New Year's Day began early leaving the house around 7AM with a goal to make it to Lucedale, MS to visit with Aunt Mary Helen. I did not realize it until we arrived that they invited the whole family to come visit with us, which was great. We saw Lisa, Lorie, and Leslie, and most of their family. I spoke with Lisa the previous week, and she said her husband liked to cook, so we were happy to visit with them in their home, and have some home cooked food. Magan even managed to hit her superstition...with some ham and black eyed peas...for the greens she had to settle for broccolli. Mary Helen's great grandson Brooksey got all the attention in the house, and found some good friends with Belle and Ruby.
It is always good to visit with family that you don't see often, and get stories that you haven't heard. Leslie told us about a fun drive out west they had done a few years back. Lori and Aunt Mary showed us some paintings that Odessle Junkin had painted before she died. Lori had taken up the skill as well, and showed us some of her paintings.
I shared with them about my vague memories of playing with hot wheels at the feet of Grandpa in the old house on the farm. I learned from Leslie that that was his seat in that room, and he was always there. I also learned that Grandpa always had biscuits and jelly at every meal. He loved to have something sweet at the end of the meal.
Curious about Aunt Mary's husband, I asked about how they had met, and why I don't remember him. Apparently he died about the same year that Grandpa died in 1984, so I never remembered seeing him at any of the Christmas get togethers. Julian had been friends with Uncle Lenwood, and went to school at Livingston to be a teacher. It seems that him and Lenwood were roomates or close friends, so that one summer when going home, Lenwood invited him to Gordo when he was going to visit my Aunt Ruth. And while there in Gordo, he saw Aunt Mary. Later after Lenwood and Ruth married, they went to the beach, and took with them Aunt Mary and Julian as company. She told me that out on that beach, Julian asked her to marry him. And not to try to talk him into doing anything else, because he was set on being a teacher. And they married and moved to where he had a job teaching in Mobile. It seems to be a strong passion, as both Lisa and Lorie also became teachers. But what I love to hear in these stories, is there is always a strong pull back home to be on the farm with family. I read the same sentiments with many of Mawmaw's stories of her and PawPaw....a pull back to home. I look at these pictures of Aunt Mary's family, and see that they still have a good pull back to together often.
Lisa's husband made some bread, he called it cheesy bread, but it probably needs a more heavenly name. Wow, it was so good. The meal was great, with a pile of extra cheesy mac and cheese. But I knew we had to get moving to get into New Orleans before it got too dark, so i got us moving, knowing that it would take 30 minutes to say our goodbyes and give our hugs. It actually took 45 minutes. And for Mary Helen to be turning 90 in February, she was doing amazing.
Our drive into New Orleans was rather uneventful, and not much to see as a thick fog had rolled in blocking the usual view of the city you have as you drive in. We made our way to our hotel, and got all of the stuff up to the room. And we quickly smelled the aroma of New Orleans...which the kids referred to as the porta potty of the US. We walked a couple of blocks to a cajun restuarant that night "Mulates"...and ordered and assortment of cajun food, with clean plates that we could just sample lots of different things. We all watched the crazy good dance guy twirl his girl around on the dance floor, and secretly wished we could all dance like that. Davis' favorite was the shrimp and grits, and we had to stop him from licking the bowl clean.
Back at the hotel, the family all gasped as I took some benedryl. My allergies were killing me, but the kids knew that this could be bad. Dad is bad, and gets mad when he takes benedryl. But fortunately it was not too bad on this night as I fell asleep at about 9PM. But then the kids said at 9:30 as they were a little loud playing happy Salmon, I sat up, yelled something incoherent (but they understood that they were being too loud), then passed out again. In my drugged sleep, I slept like a baby, but Magan with baggy eyes told us of a miserable night she had. She was almost to sleep one time, and she said I groaned very loud. Then finally almost asleep, she said the boys started talking in their sleep, and it appeared they were actually talking to one another. Then a party started up down the street with some booming music. Then there was a light shining in the window that seemed to her to keep getting brighter. Needless to say, she was not real rested the next morning.
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