Shades Of Country

Thanksgiving has come and gone now, and like with most other folks I ate my share of turkey. But I always get a little tired every year of eating it for two or three days in a row. There are always leftovers, right? No one ever eats the whole turkey on Thanksgiving. I have wondered why most people always seem to cook too much food on Thanksgiving? Why do wives torture us guys with leftovers? I am very thankful for everything I have these days because I grew up with nothing. But even ice cream gets old if you eat enough of it. So does squirrel and rabbit. That was pretty much the only meat we had when I was a kid. I'm now tired of turkey, and the taste of rabbit and squirrel is coming back. I've not had it in awhile.

To my dislike, foodwise, Christmas is just around the corner again, and I'm sure another turkey will be in the oven. I hate holidays. I do, however, look forward to the pecan pie. I love pecan pie. But after eating it for two or three days in a row, it also gets a little old. "Honey, do we have any bologna in the refrigerator? I hate to eat all the leftover turkey and pecan pie now. I want to save some for next week. Do we have any buttermilk and cornbread"? Of course, when I ask for that she looks at me like I'm crazy. And especailly when I ask for an onion to go with it. Women sometimes find it hard to understand us guys. They feel, "if I love you enough to cook it, you should eat it". Of course I always get in the last two words of the argument. I say, "yes ma'am". I love my wife. I say her food is good even if I don't like it.

I heard someplace it's best to never go to bed mad at each other. I keep wondering who said that. I have laid in bed a week after Thanksgiving with a belly full of turkey for supper and was mad as a wet hen. I wanted buttermilk and cornbread. I dreampt of it, and I woke up thinking about it. My dream of it all was so intense my breath smelled like green onions. I'm glad Thanksgiving and Christmas only come once a year.

Most all of the above has taken place in the past. I have recently remarried and have had to get used to my new wife's way of cooking. She is Filipina and she has absolutely no idea what a meal of buttermilk and cornbread is. I'm beginning to wonder, myself. Bless her heart, she does know what pork and chicken is. In the past while living in the Philippines she knew how to raise a pig, cut it's throat, cook the whole pig, head and all, and serve it on a platter. She has not killed one in the States yet. But she wants to. She definately knows how to cook rice. My last wife didn't. I'm now eating a lot of rice these days. She is used to having rice with every meal. Rice and eggs, rice and pork, rice and beef, rice and chicken, rice and fish, you name it. I once liked rice, but, well, you know how it is. She was raised on rice. I was raised on rabbit and squirrel. I got tired of rabbit and squirrel, and I wonder why she is not tired of rice by now. I am already. But let's face it, we never go to bed mad, right? I dream of rabbit and squirrel every night now. I love my dreams. I look forward to them every night.

It's interesting how we get tired of certain foods after eating them for so long. We want something different for a change. But after having that same difference all the time, we go back to wanting the first thing we had and got tired of. I'm sure my Filipina wife is tired of eating potatoes, bacon, white beans, cornbread, green onions, and corn on the cob. She's also tired of eating turkey lately. God bless her, I understand. I am also tired of it. But she has learned to cook it! She also knows turkey is what Americans eat on the holidays. Wives try to please their husbands, right? Can you see where I'm coming from? It all boils down to the fact regardless of which wife you have, or what country she is from, you are going to be fed turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's the American way. The only thing different with my holiday meals now is my turkey is served with rice. I'm sure someday I would love to have a bowl full of rice again. Possibly mixed with turkey. But I doubt it.

Mark Collier

(BELOW): The Army basic training graduation of my grandson, Marcus Collier. Graduation was at Ft. Benning, Georgia on June 29th. The soldier pinning on his blue cord is his step-brother, Andrew Rosario, who is a decorated military combat soldier just returning from Afghanistan. Andrew and another Army buddy of Marcus' named David, who is a combat soldier in Iraq, somehow managed to get a leave from services to attend the ceremony. Marcus did not know they were there until Andrew stepped forward to pin on his blue shoulder cord. After Ft. Benning, Marcus was sent to the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky for air assault training. At this writing on October 14th he is in Louisiana for jungle, swamp, and urban battle training. He is scheduled for deploymemnt to Afghanistan the first of the year.