...happy birthday, Mom

Mom would have been 96 today...
when I was a little kid, her birthdays
always meant a special dinner
at my great-grandparents house...

when I was older...
after my great grandparents had passed away...
we would celebrate in late July...
up at the cabin in the high Sierras...
where grandma always spent the summer...
from Memorial Day through Labor Day...every year...
and we always spent the last week of July...

we always arrived with the pickup stuffed ...
with us...[Mom, my brother and I...]
our stuff...and a ton of supplies...
Dad brought us up, then went home to tend the ranch...
on the following Sunday...he would return to get us...

since there was only the small camp store...
Grandma relied on visitors to bring up perishables...
and since it was summer...
we always had a lot of seasonal produce...

tomatoes, squashes, green beans, sweet corn...
bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant...
giant flat sweet red onions, cantaloupe...
peaches, plums & nectarines...

all homegrown...tree or vine ripened...
from our ranch/garden...
or the neighbors down the road...
because in the country...
no one came to visit ...
without bringing something
that they grew...

my favorite meal would always come from this bounty...
oh sure...there are several cold weather meals I love...
but this one, coming as it did,
almost entirely from the labor of "known" hands...
always satisfied a deeper hunger...

Mom & Grandma would generally fix this meal for "dinner"...
[the noon meal] on the Sunday that Dad would return ...
after his week alone...

they would fry chicken...
mash potatoes...
make milk gravy from the pan drippings...

simmer green beans with onions and bacon...
until there was almost no liquid left...
cook sweet corn...sometimes cutting it off the cob ...
and sauteing it with bacon grease, salt & pepper...

there would be thinly sliced sweet red onions and cucumbers...
in vinegar with thick sliced, dead ripe tomatoes...
the tomato juice and vinegar making the most wonderful dressing...

and biscuits...made from scratch...
cut out with an old can...
long ago stripped of it's label ...
and relegated to the biscuit art...

my brother generally drank milk...
but the adults had iced tea...
[including me, as I never liked drinking milk with a meal]
not the sweet tea of the South...
but the sugar bowl was never too far away...

and for dessert... cobbler...
using whatever we had the most of...
peaches or nectarines....
or blackberries...if there were any left on the vines...
[if the summer was cool...there might be...]
with the dough dropped on the top
and baked to bubbling perfection...

I find myself craving this meal...
but it's one that needs a group to enjoy it...
so I just remember the ones past...
and hope for a future chance to share it...

except for my brother and I...
they're all gone now...
I only hope that wherever they all are...
they can celebrate Mom's birthday this year...
like we used to...

with a country chicken dinner...
& all the fix'ns...

happy birthday, Mom...
wish you were here...