Friday Night Fish Fry was fabulous. We celebrated my aunt's birthday with the usual. The birthday girl blessed us with a pot of heartwarming, savoring, put your foot in it gumbo. Of course, there were oysters, potato salad, cole slaw and birthday cakes.
A lot of good memories were created that the younger children will hopefully look back on and remember how their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were having a good time doing "weird" dance moves to "Jump On It." If they had only seen Will Prince and Carlton's dance rountine prior to witnessing our moves, they would appreciate our dance tactics.
After my second plate of oysters and potato salad, I sat down and talked to my uncle about his trip to Colfax, La. Listening to his accounts of the trip reminded me of my seasonal longings to return the place where there are no traffic jams, where everybody knows your name and who 'yo people is' and where summer evenings were spent sitting on the porch sharing some of Grands homemade jelly cakes with cousins.
The gumbo had everyone talking and had me wishing that I could make a pot just as good. So that night, I decided that not only am I going to learn to make gumbo that can one day stand against my mom's and my aunt's but I am going to use the simple ingredients of family, friends, food and music to help me on a journey to seek a simpler, healthier lifestyle.