Last night I was incredibly tired, had worked hard all day. I just wanted to eat and go to bed. We have entered a season of hard and besides the physical demands, it's mentally exhausting. I had soaked a simple bag of beans the night before and made my mama's barbeque beans. (no recipe really, just knowing what to add)
I had not thought about those beans in a long time. She liked to use daddys homemade barbeque sauce in them. Once, she took them to church for potluck and someone asked if they were pork n beans. She was appalled. You could say my mama was a bit of a food snob. She felt there was no excuse for poor eating if you had beans in the pantry. No! They are not pork n beans, those were made from dried beans. They were made from scratch. She had to bring them pretty regularly after that. Hers were the best.
Growing up with teenage brothers meant mama had to stretch her food dollars. She could never fill them up. We ate a lot of beans, cornbread and coleslaw. I thought we ate beans because we liked them. Pinto beans, butterbeans, and northerns mostly. Daddy raised hogs most of our childhood and there was always a fresh hambone to add to beans and soups, a plentiful garden out back.
I cooked the beans low and slow like she did, just enough water for them to be tender but not mushy. (I actually like lots of barbeque sauce with mine and made a little more last night) Don is not really a bean person but they smelled so good he had a bowl too.
There we sat with our soup bowls full of beans. No cornbread because I could barely wiggle. That's what my mama always said when she was exhausted. Which meant she had absolutely nothing left. I promised to make it up to him, but he didn't mind. He commented mama would have had a slice of onion with hers and he was right.
We talked about our childhoods and the meals we had. I remembered going to swim at Aunt Cebels & Uncle Adds house and coming back by The Iceberg to get a malted milk shake. We talked about penny candy. Do you remember penny candy? I remember once mama handing me 25 cents in Ensley at Winn Dixie, for me to go in and get a loaf of bread and she said, bring me the change please. (which meant, no candy Leisa)
Don reminisced about breaking open watermelons at his cousins house in Vernon and eating them right in the garden. Shirtless, cut off shorts days of summer.
How could we have known those simple days were so very important. It pains me a little that my grandchildren haven't had that kind of life. Slow summer days when nothing was required of you but play and rest. Nights when you slept like rocks because you played so hard all day long.
There we sat with our bowl of beans, enjoying time together and for a little while cancer took a backseat again. Scripture says, contentment is great gain. Thank you, Lord for reminding us that some days are long but there is still much joy in moments together. We need to seek those moments more, make them the greater part of each day.
