{"id":614,"date":"2020-03-25T12:10:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T16:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=614"},"modified":"2020-03-25T12:10:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T16:10:54","slug":"the-old-grey-mare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=614","title":{"rendered":"THE OLD GREY MARE"},"content":{"rendered":"

My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction, and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books: www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon.<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Faye was the first children’s writer to be recently inducted into the Alabama Writer’s Hall of Fame<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"IMG_2629\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lingering at one of the tables with dessert after a big family dinner back in the late Nineties.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"IMG_2635\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A family dinner in the early nineties. Benjamin, Faye, and David in the kitchen.\u00a0 But look who’s wearing an apron!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Well, I thought I was old to do it anymore.\u00a0 I was sure all that was behind me.\u00a0 In fact, I hadn\u2019t even dreamed of doing it for years.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not hinting about a night of romance.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking something requiring a lot more energy.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about hosting the family Thanksgiving gathering.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There was a time back in the Eighties when I volunteered to take over my mother-in-law\u2019s job of hosting that gathering.\u00a0 I never did it with as much style as Mama Gibbons, and I didn\u2019t offer as many family dishes as she always had in her spread, but I knew, unlike her, I could do it without using every single pot, pan, dish, and culinary tool in the kitchen (and leaving them for volunteers like me to scour after the feast).\u00a0 However, I knew right out of the gate that I\u2019d have to use mostly her recipes, because she had set too high a standard to do otherwise.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So I did.\u00a0 I dug through my recipe box.\u00a0 Though not as well-organized as I\u2019d like, it is easy to spot the good dishes.\u00a0 As a onetime friend once told me, if you want to find out whether you\u2019d like a Faye recipe, you only had to lick the index card.\u00a0 I confess\u2014each time I use them, those recipes collect more debris.\u00a0 So I selected all those butter stained, cream splotched cards and in a couple of days I put out a Thanksgiving feast that I felt proud of. In fact, I did this for maybe twenty years.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Then something wonderful happened\u2014Benjamin\u2019s cousins invited us to their Thanksgiving gathering in Memphis.\u00a0 The burden of cooking for days was lifted from my shoulders.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even have to clean up afterward.\u00a0 Several men in the family (one in particular) INSISTED that cooks should not have to clean up afterwards. Don\u2019t you just love that kind of sexy man?\u00a0 I qualified as one of the cooks, since I always provided my mother-in-law\u2019s jam cake.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Time moved on, and our oldest grandchild, Matthew, went off to college at Auburn.\u00a0 One of his scholarships was for band, so that meant he had to be back at Auburn on Friday after Thanksgiving to practice for the biggest game of the year\u2014the Iron Bowl.\u00a0 Memphis was out of the question.\u00a0 The parents of this grandson live in Huntsville\u2014still a long drive from Auburn.\u00a0 Our younger son and family live near us, but in a small house with a small dining room. \u00a0 A shiver of apprehension passed over me.\u00a0 Was I going to have to step up and volunteer after all these years of sloth?\u00a0 Then David and his wife Aca saved me.\u00a0 Despite the crowded conditions, they wanted to do the family gathering.\u00a0 Miracles still happen!\u00a0 Now where was that jam cake recipe? And could I still read it beneath last year\u2019s splatters? I could.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That brings me down to Thanksgiving 2019.\u00a0 Matthew was still in Auburn.\u00a0 Still in the band.\u00a0 Still had to be in Auburn to practice the day after Thanksgiving.\u00a0 BUT David and Aca (younger son and wife, remember) were in the middle of renovating the kitchen, one bathroom, and the dining room.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t even have a kitchen sink!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

No one stepped forward.\u00a0 There WAS no one to step forward except for the person who\u2019d been sitting on her rear end for the past eighteen or so years and letting someone else do the work.\u00a0 So I bit the bullet and volunteered.\u00a0 I do have a few excuses for all that sitting\u2014a few back problems, a worn-out knee, and feet problems\u2014okay, I\u2019m old.\u00a0 In light of this, I decided that with some help from my husband, I\u2019d do as much as possible ahead. I made dressing first, freezing it in quart bags.\u00a0 Then I made cake layers for jam cake and chocolate layer cake and froze those layers.\u00a0 I made squash casserole and put that in the freezer.\u00a0 A couple of days ahead I made Cousin Barbara\u2019s marinated vegetable salad and refrigerated it.\u00a0 A day ahead I made Sister-in-law Jo Ann\u2019s wonderful chocolate chess pie and refrigerated that.\u00a0 My husband in the meantime, did most of the cleaning.\u00a0 Be still, my heart!\u00a0 Keep. Mind. On. Cooking.<\/i><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Thanksgiving Day, my wonderful daughters-in-law appeared with side dishes.\u00a0 I pulled that turkey out of the oven (baked by my mother-in-law\u2019s foolproof method), along with dressing, squash casserole, and so on and on and on.\u00a0 I sat down with everyone else\u2014as amazed as anyone that I had done it. There\u2019s life in the old girl yet.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Two post scripts:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First, I should say, my terrific sons cleaned up afterwards.\u00a0 Sexiness must be genetic.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Secondly, I am praying that David and Aca\u2019s renovation will be complete by Thanksgiving 2020!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Faye Gibbons<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction, and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books: www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon. Faye was the … 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":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}