Some More Things About Marie
since she grew up in arkansas and
spent most of her adult life in detroit
she had a sort of a lazy midwestern
accent, which is pretty much an
oxymoron. on thanksgiving and
sometimes christmas and other
special family meals she often
made a dish i would otherwise
despise, but since it came from
her it was nothing but greatness:
sweet potatoes with syrup and
marshmallows. is it because i
am now a diabetic and that it
has been over thirty years since
we all sat down to one of her
meals together that i cannot
remember her signature
desserts quite so easily as
i obviously should? my
dad’s absolute must have
was, i believe, a banana
walnut double or triple
layer cake with white
frosting. and i do re
member those, and
as i think about it
more, it was truly
amazing to the
senses and i am
pretty sure it was
my favorite as well.
though there were to
certainly desserts too
numerous to taste all
of in one holiday, that
is also something i re
member. cornbread
was a household staple,
period. and of evening and/
or throughout the day there
would be the occasional solo
individual who just could not
get enough (which would be
anyone in that household after
a meal had been served) who’d
be eating cornbread with milk
poured over it with a long spoon
out of a tea glass. the mister to
marie, my grandfather, would do
this very shortly before he hit the
hay of an evening, but rather than
with regular milk, his cornbread
would be swimming in buttermilk.
may i take a moment to interject here,
for the sake of some attention, perhaps,
or a bit of pity, but no, never pity, maybe
more as a hint that will never even be seen,
much less acted upon by what remains of my
family, that these things are so vivid to me, i
am most certain, because i just made my way
through my 8th thanksgiving alone, and soon
will be encountering the 8th christmas i’ve had
in a row (just as with the 8 thanksgivings) wherein
i’ll be spending its duration without a soul other than
myself in my coffin-sized apartment? i must add that,
much to my elation, i received a care package from my
mom and sister last year shortly after christmas which
included all of the standard sweet fare from the family’s
christmas, and so therefore much of what was included were
sweetstuffs that filled me with such nostalgia it seems im
possible to imagine today, nearly a year ago later, as many
of the goodies were made with the same care by the same
hands using the same recipes as those from which i indulged
so greedily during my childhood and youth. now that i’m
hungry for things that i’m sure i can not find in order to
become sated for the rest of this evening and my stomach
has become grumbly for the very same reason, i believe
that’s where i’ll have to stop on this, my second short
list of things about marie in under a week. which, as
you can see, turned out to be just as much about me.
