Family Get_togethers

      Family get-togethers are a bit different now than when I was a girl growing up in Georgia. One special day my family would get-together was each year on my granny’s birthday. Everyone in my house would get up early and dress especially nice for this occasion. Getting dressed up nice this day was our way of showing our respect and love to my granny. Family members would begin arriving at my granny’s home any time between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm.     Lunch was always at 1:00pm. This time was set for those in the family who attended church service on Sunday morning. I loved getting to granny’s house early so I could greet everyone else as they arrived. If I got there early enough, I had first dibs on the left over cake batter. One by one the cars would begin to fill the yard. The trunks would pop open and boxes of food would emerge along with jugs of sweet tea and kool-aid.     The men would set up long tables on the lawn in the side yard. The food was carried inside to the kitchen, while the jugs were carried to the tables. The jugs were placed underneath the tables.  Large coolers were filled with ice and placed behind these tables. This left room on top of the tables to place the cups for ice. Some of the men would then group together in the living room to watch football and catch up on men gossip.( Though my dad said men do not gossip, to my ears it was just that!) The other men would gather in the backyard to watch the football game going on between the kids. Here, they could be coaches and referees.     Meanwhile, the ladies grouped together in the kitchen and the side yard. This allowed enough room in the kitchen for the meal to be finished and allowed eyes to watch over the children too young to participate in the football game going on around back. There was always something last minute to be taken care of in the kitchen in order to make this year’s dinner better than the last.     The smells radiating from the kitchen would seem to almost starve me to death. If I was quiet and quick enough, I could sneak through the ladies undiscovered and return to the yard with a handful of cookies. If successful, this would hold me over until the ladies were done and began carrying the food into the yard. The smells would cause a faint feeling from deep inside, it would seem as if I had not had food for weeks. I would eat my stolen cookies and resume play with the girls.     Finally, it would become time for the ladies to begin bringing the food into the yard. Each dish was placed on a certain table, in just a certain way The vegetables were placed on tables of their own. Walking by, I could see dish after dish full of cabbage, turnips, broccoli, mustard greens, potatoes,mac and cheese, vegetable soup and every sort of noodle salad imaginable. This table would hold the cornbread also. Cornbread was made either in patties or in the oven as a cake. After the bread was emptied onto plates it was cut into slices. Those golden yellow slices would make my mouth water waiting to grab a slice.     The next set of tables held the meats. Battered and fried chicken, pork chops and cubed steak lay there browned and crispy, waiting to be devoured Baked hams with pineapple slices centered the tables along with beef roasts topped with onions and peppers. Scattered throughout the tables were dishes of cucumbers in vinegar, potato salad, deviled eggs, sweet pickles and yams. Along the outer edges of the meat tables were the chicken dumplings and dressing.     My granny would awake early on this Sunday morning, to roll out the dumplings by hand and prepare her homemade dressing. No one else could possibly cook a pot of dumplings that tastes as delicious as those she made with her loving hands. Sometimes, I was lucky enough to be allowed to watch her as she mixed the ingredients together, rolled out the dumplings, cut and dropped them into a huge pot of chicken boiling on the stove top. It amazed me that she never had to measure anything. She simply added a bit of this and a bit of that and it was always perfect.     Last, but absolutely the best, was the tables full of sweets. Chocolate cakes, light chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate with pecans on the top, coconut cakes drizzled with caramel, orange cakes, upside-down pineapple cakes, red velvet cakes, german chocolate cakes and my favorite coconut cake with raisins and caramel were arranged elegantly on the tables. Woven in and out of these mouth-watering cakes were the pies. Chocolate, egg, pecan, cream cheese, peach, apple, blackberry, cherry and lemon pies decorated the tables.     Everyone gathered together to say the blessing and wash up his or her hands for the meal ahead. Mothers walked the children to the sinks as fathers prepared plates and drink for their children. Kids sat dangling their feet off the front porch, plates in lap and their drink sitting on the porch beside them. Teen-agers transformed car hoods into tabletops in order to eat and dance to the music from their parents’ cars. The entire house and front yard was filled with everyone grouping together to share a meal and catch up on each others lives.     Before anyone was allowed to touch a pie or cake, the entire family was called together. Everyone gathered around granny and sang Happy Birthday. She would stand there looking around from face to face. Her eyes would become shiny from the tears she held back and her smile would grow larger than the year before. It was love radiating out of her face onto all of her family. She would then take a slice of birthday cake into the house and put it into her freezer for the next morning, Presents were opened and thousands of pictures were taken. This truly was the event of the year. Some family members got up before day and started their drive to my granny’s house. This was the only time of the year they would be able to visit her.     After everyone finished eating, the ladies would carry the dishes back into the kitchen. Clean up would begin both inside and out. I remember the laughter and singing from within the house and the grunts and groans from outside. Inside the ladies cleaned and enjoyed the company of one another. Outside the men groaned about putting tables away and missing the beginning of the next football game. They also grunted from the overstuffed bellies trying to bend and lift the tables. The older children resumed their fantasy games of the morning, as the babies decided to take naps in the bedrooms of the house.     After visiting together for most of the day, one by one a family would gather together and leave for their trip home. The house would become quieter as the day passed. Sometimes my family would be the last to leave my granny’s house and I would be asked to spend overnight with granny. This was a wonderful night indeed. Granny and me would sit up late talking. I mostly listened as she spoke of different events of the day, and laughed aloud at things people had said. Bedtime would call us and we would snuggle back to back and fall asleep in her huge bed. Morning would come and we would share the cake she had stashed in the freezer the day before. A glass of cold milk and a slice of birthday cake, was a wonderful way to start our day.     My granny passed away a few years ago and I have since moved to Connecticut. There are no more huge family get-togethers. Fact is there won’t be anymore. They stopped the year after she died. I miss the laughter, the hugs, the children screaming and the men yelling at the T V. Most of all I miss that look of love in granny’s eyes and in her smile. I miss the excitement that one precious lady’s birthday could bring one day a year.