Sunday Dinner, Love and Devotion

The closest and most devoted couple I ever knew, were Dink and Thelma. For most of my life they were the icon of the perfect couple. Almost anyone who knew them felt the same. He called her “mama” and she called him “daddy”. They only had one child and he  was born almost 10 years after they were married. The affection in their voices when ever they called for the other one was unmistakable. . Good at reading each others mind, they almost never had to communicate in full sentences. They existed like two parts of one thing

Both of them came from hard poor histories. Dink had a loving family but they were more than just dirt poor. Thelma was said to have “just growed up on her own” from a poor and rough family. Both of them though, had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh. When  first married, his family was not taken with her. They were serious people who spent every waking moment just trying to survive and a great hope hopes for their first born son. Dink was serious too in his work, but fell deeply in love with the little light hearted worry free girl from down the road. Thelma was slight and small and a “ball of fire”. It was said she had a hard time telling work from play and constantly got them confused. That didn't help her image out much when they first got married. On more than one occasion, she was found in the house playing on the floor with kids from the local community while Dink was out working in the fields.

She started out not knowing how to cook very well and spent little time in preparation for Dink’s noon meal, much less his supper. In that place and time, a farmers wife spent from sun up to sun down preparing meals for her husband and whoever else would be spending from day light to dark working in their fields. When I asked her about it, she said she was having too much fun in those days to spend all that time cooking, besides, she really didn’t know much about it. Dinks mother, must have spent a good bit of time walking down the their house to teach her, because Thelma eventually would become a renowned cook, known throughout the community for her skill.

It was amazing to watch her cook. She never used a measuring device of any kind and had no recipes written down. When it came time to cook, she was like a whirling little devil in the kitchen. No one could learn from her if she didn’t want them to, she just went at it so fast! A pinch of this, a smidgen of that and “just about that much” of something else. Every single thing she ever cooked came out exactly the same each time. Famous for her chocolate pies, they all came out perfect, with “calf slobbers” (egg whites) as high as a three layer cake, nary a one was too runny. Eating at Dink and Thelma’s was pure delight and everyone had plenty to eat. In her old country kitchen stood along dinning table which on Sundays no one could sit at. It was absolutely so full of food there was no place to site. She always made a point of making one two or even three dishes that were special favorites for whoever she knew would be there. We all had to line up and fill our plates, and then spread out through the little country house or out into the yard to eat.

Now this Sunday meal always followed a huge breakfast of every southern country delicacy there was. In those days, no body was on a diet, but no body was fat either.

I guess it was because the food was all natural home grown food of one kind or other and we all stayed moving constantly. (except for the nap after the noon meal). You couldn’t set in front of the TV all day cause there wasn’t much on TV and people would have thought you were sick or something if you did. No one had air conditioning and in Texas it was too damn hot to be in the house most of the time anyway. If all the work and play didn’t keep you slim, the heat would sweat it out of you.

After the noon meal was over, the table and the food was covered with a long, plain white cotton, table cloth. Today we wouldn’t think of not putting the left over away, but back then no body thought to do it… we never ended up sick from food laying out as long as it was under a white cotton cloth. What was on the table was the only food for the rest of the day. It was Sunday, and around here women didn’t cook after noon on Sunday.

She might cook up a batch of makings for afternoon home made ice cream, but the kids or the men had to crank it.

Thelma always said there was only one reason to be good at cooking, it was a way to love those who needed feeding. She was not proud of her ability to cook, she was proud of how much we enjoyed it. Each and every item had one main ingredient… Aunt Thelma’s love. She would sing and laugh while she worked in the kitchen, then sit at the table and absolutely beam watching you eat it. Eating her food, with her there with you, was like being held and loved and pampered by an angel who had a one track mind….centered on you!