Yoo-Hoo Dinner Is Ready

My Nannie's Potholders

My dad always received his vacation the first two weeks of July.  There was always so much excitement as my mother packed our suitcases to hit the road down the old US route 1 highway heading toward my maternal grandparents who lived in Rockledge, Florida. 

The drive was filled with anticipation and lots of questions such as "Where are we now"?  We always drove straight through. Mom always packed a cooler with sandwiches, drinks and snacks to eat.  Dad only stopped when he needed gas or the very important potty stop, lots of those with four kids in the car. My three sisters and I in the back seat did all sorts of contortions to find a comfortable place to sleep, i.e. legs on top of each other and even one of us ended up on the floor sleeping.  No seat belts back then.

Of course when we got close to our destination we recognized the familiar sights we have seen so many times before and soon we would be at my grandparents home, where we knew fun and spoil city lived.

I remember my grandmother Florence, whom we called Nannie. She always served ice tea at lunchtime with cold cuts to make sandwiches and slices of cantaloupe and other good stuff to enjoy. It was very hot there in July so cold food for lunch was always an enjoyable meal. We sat at a table in a very large dinning room that was once utilized as a restaurant. She was a very good cook and at one time had many faithful customers, especially truck drivers hauling their goods down route 1 known as the Old Dixie Highway.

Dinnertime we enjoyed good old southern fried meals cooked in a hot kitchen with potholders and dishtowels hanging nearby. Whether it was steak with gravy and peas or chicken and gravy and always lots of mashed potatoes with corn on the cob with ice-cold juicy watermelon for dessert. Always delicious and fun to all be together.

Our Nannie made her own potholders and if you look closely you can see the fruit and flowers that she cut out and applied, and then crocheted around each item and around the eyes and mouth of the faces she so carefully made.  It's fun to look at them and remember her.