Technically I'm a Southern writer, but I don't write about the South in the rural way that is usually associated with Southern writing.
My feeling is that there are many kinds of Southern. In fact, we've had towns here for a long time. And I like writing about places like India, anyway. The research gives me a good reason to travel.
Still, I've lived in North Carolina all my life and when it's time to break for lunch, I most often go to the nearby K&W cafeteria for Southern vegetables cooked the simmered-with-fat way I grew up on.
Today was a particularly good day at the K&W. My office partner, author-artist Carrie Knowles, and I celebrated her birthday there. The menu?
I consumed:
fried broccoli
lima beans
watermelon
sweet potato pie
sublimely sweet iced tea
Carrie celebrated with a slice of pudding-y chocolate pie with a fluffy white topping.
Some years ago I attended a small dinner for a visiting author, the wonderful short-story writer Lorrie Moore, of NY and Wisconsin. It was one of these Southern affairs, and dessert was a mammoth, meringued piece of lemon pie.
A half hour later, Moore was upstairs in the auditorium reading a short story to a sizeable audience, when, apparently to her surprise, she came upon a section of the story that was very witty and ironic on the subject of a similar meal, including a daunting piece of pie topped by a snow bank of meringue. She winced. I snickered and glanced around for my fellow diners.
A funny moment. At the same time, that was an excellent piece of lemon pie. So was today's sweet potato "tart." Good fuel for this afternoon's literary output. I recommend it to anyone.
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2 comments:
One of my favorite writer friends emailed this week in response to an update I sent her about my books and the querying process. She ended the first email: "got to stir the squash."
She had already cheered me up, but when she mentioned that squash, I was instantly transported to my southern childhood, some sunday summer supper, one of many, when the menu was yellow squash, cornbread, freshly shelled peas seasoned with meat, and cucumbers, tomato slices, and green onions floating in vinegar, salt, and pepper.
I hadn't realized until that moment how much a comfort that meal was; mostly I suppose it was just using the bounty of summer produce to feed one's family.
But the memories were nice and made my mouth water as well... :) Thanks, Lela!
And happy birthday to Carrie!
I feel restored just by the first bite of the broccoli cheese potatoes at the cafeteria. And buy the butter beans to take out.
Carrie will appreciate the birthdaywishes. Today's her actual birthday and she's having to have a bit of annoying outpatient surgery.
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