SOUTHERN FRIED THURSDAY

I love my Mema.  As I mentioned a few weeks back, sometimes I think of her and it makes me feel all good inside.  We had a certain bond.  I was her youngest grandchild, and the only daughter to her baby boy.  Both of our birthdays were in February - her's 02/10/1900 and mine 02/05/1969 - so we were born under the same sign.  She never learned to drive and only went to school through the 9th grade.  She lived a humble life, and was one of the sweetest ladies I have ever known.  She didn't cook much in her older years.  But the things I do remember eating with her bring back fond memories....

 ...whenever my family went on vacation (like the rest of you - 98% of the time to the beach in Florida) we would stop by her house on Yancy Avenue in Montgomery to pick up a chocolate chip cookies she had baked for us.  She must have made 4 batches because it was always an upside down Tupperware cake storage full of cookies!

She love her instant grits for breakfast!  I still get these during the winter.  They are kinda gross but I love them because I can still see myself sitting at her Formica table eating a bowl with her.

 One of the last meals she would still prepare was salmon croquettes. (not patties, now, but croquettes - everyone in my family still refers to them as croquettes)  She ate hers with ketchup on them, and she always served Kraft Macaroni and Cheese from the box when she had them.  Funny, now I couldn't think of eating croquettes with it!

But my favorite place to eat with Mema was McDonalds!  She always, always, always got the fish sandwich and a vanilla milk shake.  We would walk about 5 blocks from her house to this little section of neighborhood that had a McDonalds, a grocery store (where Aunt Louise was the manager) and a post office.  We would eat, buy stamps, get a few groceries and then head back to her house.  Her little house on Yancy Avenue with no cable TV, a furnace in the floor for heat, one bathroom with no shower, one window unit air conditioner that you could talk into and make your voice sound funny, filled with lots of love.

Ah, the good old days...