Nice Hat

We went up to the Delta, in Mississippi, again last week. It was my third time in less than 7 months. This now equals the total trips I have made to the region in the previous 15 years. Going up there now is not as interesting as the first trip to the home of the Blues. It’s a bit like the 3rd or 4th date and some of the quirks begin to move from interesting to odd or even annoying.

I think that is the reason you should always think twice about moving to that favorite vacation spot. Visiting is one thing; but, everyday might prove to be a different story.

Regardless, it was a trip filled with good visits and excellent food; albeit, the “Zone” diet can only be described as the area of the house you eat all the food. My mother-in-law is a wizard in the kitchen (her Chinese kitchen is in on the other side of the carport from the house and makes me think of Emeril on ‘speed’). She can have 2 turkeys in the oven, 4 pots boiling on the stove and her wok in full gear, all the while as she grabs fresh vegetables from her expansive garden next to the kitchen.

Momma grew up in a small village in Southeast China; she did not come from wealth and survived the Japanese invasion and brutality prior to WWII. She takes very little for granted and nothing is assumed.

My in-laws are the classic American success story. With hardly a penny to their name, they built a grocery store business in the Mississippi Delta. And with blood, sweat, and patience, made ‘something’ out of what would seem like an impossible formula for many of us.

PBS once did a special on the ‘Delta Chinese’ and my wife’s family was very much the corner stone of this story. As my wife and I drove through the small town she grew up in, a town that now holds the distinction of “the highest murder rate in Mississippi”; we passed the hubcap store, the rows and rows of abandoned storefronts and the Quickstop Gas station that seems to serve as the social spot for most of the town’s youths. You would think twice about stopping for gas.

I told my wife I thought her the bravest woman I have ever known. Coming from what has the feel of an area in America that time has forgotten to where she is now, took more courage than I could ever imagine.

All that being said, there is one thing I always marvel at when it comes to my mother-in-law; nothing and I mean absolutely nothing, goes to waste. Over the years, a gate on the fence adjacent to the kitchen had blown down. Momma had made ‘do’ with what she had…propped it back up and attached it to the remaining fence and with an assortment of stakes and bricks to keep it in place. A tough job for most, even tougher when you are 5’ tall, weighing 100 pounds soaking wet and are pushing 80.

It didn’t seem like a big problem to her. I decided to fix the fence last week and it took me a better part of the morning just removing the wires, stakes, nails and garbage bag ties that held the gate in place. As I took this puzzle apart, Momma was right behind me picking up the “junk” pieces and carefully folding and saving each and every piece for her next project. Later in the day, I would see Momma cooking away, her hair covered by a carefully folded brown paper bag from Kroger’s to preserve her ‘hairdo’. Like I said, nothing goes to waste.

After working on the fence, I showered and found some Advil for my aching back. I went outside to have a cigarette only to discover Momma pushing my father-in-law in his wheel chair up and down the 1/4-mile driveway to make sure he got his fresh air. Apparently, she can push a wheel chair at a pace faster than I would care to walk… even without pushing something.