November 12, 2011

Can you believe that Thanksgiving will be here in 12 days? It will be a time of the casserole. Don't you just love sweet potato and green bean casseroles? Who makes the best broccoli casserole you ever tasted? My mother used to make Waldorf salad every Thanksgiving. To my knowledge, she never visited the Waldorf Hotel in New York City. My mother used to get up at 4 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning to put the turkey in the oven. I had roast turkey every year until about 15 years ago when Louisiana singer and songwriter Sammy Kershaw taught me about fried turkey. I fry one every year because it cooks the bird to perfection. The hardest part of it is clean up of the peanut oil that is used in the fryer. We can pick this topic back up in next week's edition of the Tallapoosa Journal. For the first time in a long time, I am living by myself with the exception of Bama the cat that I got from Kay Allen Newman. I am enjoying life these days because Bama never tells me to pick up dirty clothes off the floor and to make the bed. I don't have to ask permission for a Chips Ahoy or a scoop of Mayfield. I can stay up as late as I want to and I am not scolded for having the television too loud. I now don't have to watch HGTV, Lifetime, Oprah's channel, or any exercise channel. I can watch ESPN anytime and I can watch all the college football I want on Saturday. I am convinced that my Aunt Freddie could have made that field goal last Saturday in Tuscaloosa. The Tide will be back. I was convinced of that the morning after the "Game of the Century" when the sun rose last Sunday morning. Living alone I can get up in the middle of the night to hang a picture up or move a box to the basement and nobody can complain. I have found that if I wake up hungry in the middle of the night that buttermilk is good on Rice Krispies if you run out of skim milk and the Piggly Wiggly is closed. The kids are out here this weekend. They love coming out here because they can play in the yard and ride their bicycles. Of the things I am proudest of with my two daughters is they inherited a love for Tallapoosa that was instilled in me by my mother who was born on Freeman Street. I called Bud Jones several days ago when I thought I saw a bobcat in the backyard near dusk. Bud deduced it was merely a domestic tabby who had got its tail cut off when it backed into a Weedeater. A week ago yesterday about 25 members of the faculty of Kennesaw State toured the Kia Motors plant in West Point. The impressive facility makes one of the most dependable cars in the world. The quality control that goes into each and every car and sport utility vehicle is fantastic. If a car has a cracked windshield, that car never makes it to a dealership. I felt like I was in one of the Transformers movies with the huge robots doing welding and other steps going into the manufacture of the vehicles. They employ a lot of folks and has been a boom to the economy of the Chattahoochee Valley that saw a downturn due to the closing of most of the textile plants that moved operations to other countries. I decided that when it is time to get a new vehicle, I want to get the Kia Soul. I like the looks and it gets wonderful gas mileage and besides Presley and Callie love the television commercials with the hip hop hamsters. Kudos to the many businesses in town with collection jars for Toys for Tots. Your donations will brighten a child's Christmas. Is the Herman Cain story as boring to you as it is beginning to be to most folks? Rule of thumb to remember, Gloria Allred is a legal vulture and will do about anything to get her face on television. Have you adjusted to Standard Time yet? Have you tried one of the new Subway breakfast sandwiches? While watching "Good Morning America" on Tuesday of this week they said that more refineries are converting over to making diesel fuel due to demand and that gasoline will be in short supply soon thus making the price jump to about $4.50 a gallon by next Spring. I wonder how long it would take me to bicycle the 52 miles to Kennesaw?