{"id":327,"date":"2009-02-27T14:54:39","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T18:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/?p=327"},"modified":"2009-02-27T14:54:39","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T18:54:39","slug":"heres-the-chicken-theres-the-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/heres-the-chicken-theres-the-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s the chicken-there’s the head…….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0When I was growing up I would spend a couple of weeks each summer at the home of Anne\u00a0Price Brown.\u00a0 A southern steel magnolia of a Grandma.\u00a0 My\u00a0 mother’s mother.\u00a0 The two weeks included my cousins.\u00a0 We all\u00a0met\u00a0in Goldsboro, NC. Back then I thought for sure the whole town belonged to my Grandma Brown.\u00a0\u00a0She had\u00a0to have been the unofficial\u00a0Mayor. There were three of us-between me and my cousins- all girls-close enough\u00a0in age-but looking nothing alike.\u00a0 But Annie Brown\u00a0would always have matching outfits for us to\u00a0wear while we were there.\u00a0\u00a0She would have gone to Weil’s in beautiful downtown Goldsboro and with the help of Miss Mary, picked out an array of outfits for her “Grandchil’ren”.\u00a0If the theme was\u00a0polka dots-then we would all have the same dress-but the color of the dots would differ.\u00a0 If the theme was nautical-then we would all\u00a0have the same outfit-but in different versions.\u00a0 I would\u00a0have the sailor top with the gianormous collar and\u00a0a skort with little gold anchor trim,\u00a0Beth would have the jumper with the big red bow, and Lisa would have the\u00a0short and middie\u00a0matching set.\u00a0 She was younger and could get away with “showing her tummy”\u00a0 She was 7 at the time.\u00a0 I, of course, was going through the “cute little pudgy phase” and there would be no mention of me wearing the middie.\u00a0 Beth always got the jumpers.\u00a0\u00a0And with Annie Brown- there were always hats.\u00a0 We\u00a0hated the hats.\u00a0 On the first day of our summer visit- she would insist we all get dressed in our outfits -which were laid out on each of our twin beds with the chenille bedspreads-and Annie Brown would load us up into her\u00a0Cadillac and off we would go. Downtown Goldsboro.\u00a0 Weils Department store; where matching outfits were purchased, Brown’s Radio and T.V. to see Grandaddy and James and eat a pack of Lance nabs,and finally,\u00a0Weeks Luncheonette. \u00a0They were known for daily blue plate specials and hush-puppies.\u00a0 Hush puppies came with everything. Plopped right down in the middle of\u00a0the\u00a0table in a red plastic basket, with a slip of wax paper.\u00a0Everyone knew Weeks\u00a0had the best hush-puppies.\u00a0Weeks didn’t put “them little tiny onions”in the mix.\u00a0 Just cornbread.\u00a0 We always dipped them in melted butter.\u00a0 Sweet\u00a0tea or Pepsi to drink please.\u00a0 Annie\u00a0Brown was in her glory, she in her own matching ensemble surrounded by her family.\u00a0\u00a0That woman could match a pair\u00a0of shoes with a handbag in seconds flat.\u00a0And don’t get me started on her jewerly.\u00a0 She\u00a0adored jewelry-and my Grandaddy Brown used to keep her in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the parading of the grandchildren- we got back to the house, kicked off\u00a0the matching\u00a0fussiness-put\u00a0 on our own clothes and played, played played.\u00a0 Barefoot and full of adventure.\u00a0 Grandmama and Grandaddy’s house was full of all things summer.\u00a0 We were safe and carefree.\u00a0 They had the perfect porch for a theater-so you can imagine what I had in mind-though Beth and Lisa did not share my dramatic enthusiasm- we had quite the world on a string.\u00a0 We would race around the yard from front to back-\u00a0go-cart to playhouse, to pecan tree, to giant magnolia tree,\u00a0to secret places we created somewhere in the intertwine of rosebushes, azaleas and irises.<\/p>\n

Grandma Brown would look out the window from time to time, just to\u00a0check,\u00a0or come outside and sit in the aluminum glider and watch us. She’d be barefoot too.\u00a0 Perfect feet with perfectly painted toe nails.\u00a0 She’d\u00a0beg us to stay out of her rosebushes and azaleas- oh and please\u00a0do not step in the\u00a0little trays of beer set out to kill the slugs.\u00a0Wait! Dead,drunk slugs floating\u00a0around in\u00a0a stale beer swimming pool made out of\u00a0aluminum foil?\u00a0 This I gotta see.\u00a0\u00a0 Yep, the only reason\u00a0beer or for that matter,\u00a0alcohol, was ever purchased was to kill rosebush eating slugs.<\/p>\n

I’d be all over the place.\u00a0\u00a0Feet black from\u00a0southern dirt and\u00a0concrete.\u00a0Grandma Brown would yell across the yard “Gloria!”……….strong in tone and southern dialect-in fact, I\u00a0can\u00a0still hear it clear as a\u00a0bell in my head-but\u00a0could never duplicate it-still today,even at my\u00a0best attempt.\u00a0 Her shock of white hair, all perfect and wavy-it dare not be out of place; “Gloria!” she’d yell,\u00a0and then utter the well known southern if not universal phrase:\u00a0 “Ya look like a chicken runn’in around with it’s head cut off”.\u00a0 The image of that picture in my\u00a0ten\u00a0year old pudgy\u00a0\u00a0brain was enough back then to make me stop and slow down.\u00a0 At east for a little bit. Then I was back off again, headless and running around all\u00a0crazy wild.<\/p>\n

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