{"id":162,"date":"2015-05-15T00:33:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T04:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=162"},"modified":"2015-05-15T00:33:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T04:33:01","slug":"yall-come-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"Ya\u2019ll Come"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My latest book, HALLEY,<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Southern hospitality isn\u2019t what it used to be.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not just referring to the decline of the ritual \u201cYa\u2019ll come to see us\u201d southerners once felt compelled to say on parting.\u00a0 These days, Even the most hospitable and charitable only feel required to say something like, \u201cCome back again sometime.\u201d\u00a0 That would have been bordering on downright rudeness in my childhood.\u00a0 Back then, nobody called ahead to announce a visit either–nobody had phones.\u00a0 They simply drove up in your yard on Friday or Saturday. Surprise!<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if we\u2019d just finished a meal, Mama or Daddy would say, \u201cWell, have you folks had anything to eat?\u201d\u00a0 The polite response was, \u201cNo, but I wouldn\u2019t want to put you to no trouble.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s no trouble,\u201d Mama would say, even though it meant she had to cook all over again.\u00a0 If we had yard chickens, which we did in a few houses we rented, it frequently meant running down a hen and wringing its neck to become company dinner. \u00a0 Or Daddy might go buy pork chops.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever we had such unaccustomed items for a meal Mama would take me aside and whisper, \u201cYou kids don\u2019t get any meat until company helps their plates.\u00a0 Tell the rest.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have to.\u00a0 They knew the protocol. When food was served, Daddy was sure to announce, \u201cMake yourself at home.\u00a0 If you ain\u2019t at home you orta be.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nighttime meant all the young\u2019uns slept on pallets–boys on one, girls on another–so adults could have the beds.\u00a0 In\u00a0 cold weather we kids slept \u201cspoon-style\u201d and woe to you if you had a bed wetter on one–or both–sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were times when visitors stayed for longer durations.\u00a0 One bachelor uncle remained for nearly a year before being diagnosed with tuberculosis and put in a hospital. Why none of us caught it, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t all one way.\u00a0 Once when we were down on our luck, we stayed with my father\u2019s parents for a couple of months.\u00a0 My grandfather Junkins was very stingy, so he wasn\u2019t as gracious as southern rules of hospitality required, but he never kicked us out. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another time we stayed with my Grandmother Long and her husband, Pa Long, for a couple of weeks..\u00a0 We were very welcome there–my grandmother put us to work.\u00a0 On their large farm she could always find work for every one of us.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to say her policy motivated guests to move on as soon as possible!<\/span><\/p>\n

When my sister and I were both out of college we took Mama to visit a distant relative who lived in a rural area.\u00a0 This was in the mid-nineteen sixties, but this woman was still trying to keep up the old standards.\u00a0 She absolutely would not take no for an answer when she invited us to dinner.\u00a0 One of her five children was dispatched to the mom and pop store down the road and the others were set to gathering corn, tomatoes, green beans, lettuce and onions from the abundant garden. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When dinner was spread the browned slices of Spam were on a platter in the center of the table.\u00a0 All five children were eying the meat, but none took any.\u00a0 Mama, Jean, and I helped ourselves to all\u00a0 those fresh vegetables and assured the hostess again and again that we\u2019d much rather have those than meat.\u00a0 Only then did the kids reach for the meat platter.\u00a0 It was empty in a minute or less.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we departed, our hostess,said, \u201cYa\u2019ll come back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou come to see us,\u201d Jean, Mama,\u00a0 and I said together.\u00a0 Back then we still practiced southern manners.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest book, HALLEY, Awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon Southern hospitality isn\u2019t what it used to be.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not just referring to the decline of the ritual \u201cYa\u2019ll come to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}