Does your family have stories they have shared over and over again? Do these become more funny with each retelling? One story will reappear at the Christmas table this year. Since both parents passed away in 1998 and 1999, we haven’t shared this one. It’s time.
Macon, Georgia
At 27, Daddy met a preacher he respected, and our lives changed. Daddy gave up all alcohol and a lot of stuff I’ll discuss in a later blog. For 3 of my teen years, my family lived on “Preachers Row” or “Poverty Row” where married ministerial students at Mercer University with families lived in old houses on College Street and College Drive. Our house faced College Drive. We could walk out our back door and through a neighbor’s yard and cross College Street to the Mercer campus. The men on our block had given up their careers to become preachers, so most of us were pretty much poor.
Baptists weren’t allowed to dance or drink alcohol or wine, except for “The Lord’s Supper”. (Actually, we drank grape juice as I’m sure the preacher did on that occasion.)That’s important because of the fruit cake. When some of the ministerial students studied at our house in December for the first quarter finals, Mama served them her fruit cake and coffee or sweet tea. Those preachers ate Mama’s fruit cake and went back for seconds. Mama’s fruit cake had magic ingredients. She soaked her dried fruit in cheap cooking wine, yep, cooking wine, but that’s not all! She baked her cakes weeks ahead and poured wine over them to soak them. She wrapped them in cloth and stored them in the pantry. I think she got her recipe from Grandmama Mary, Mama’s Mama.
Those preachers weren’t accustomed to drinking, and Mama had liberally soaked that cake more than once the over the time it sat and aged. That bunch of men studied happily, so Theology sounded like way too much fun. It was good that they all lived on our block and were not driving home.
Their wives soon requested the recipe, and, of course, Mama shared it. I wonder if she mentioned the wine? Mama made new fruit cakes for family due to visit for Christmas. I can’t say how good the second cakes were because they hadn’t aged as long as usual, but Mama’s family liked the replacement cakes. We kids didn’t usually enjoy fruit cake, anyway, which might have been a good thing.
Background
At 27, Daddy met a preacher he admired and trusted. Hearing that man preach, Daddy “got the call” and gave up his job as a truck driver for the Augusta Arsenal to become a preacher. That meant getting his GED so he could go to college and study the Bible and get an education. We left Augusta and headed to Newnan, Mississippi and Clark Junior College. After a year at Clark Junior College in Newton Mississippi, Mama had been a housewife. This was in the 1950’s and we had one car, one Daddy had repaired after someone discarded it. Mama tried working as a sales clerk in a dress shop, but that wasn’t good for a woman not accustomed to grabbing customers for commissions. The others in the shop had no issue with fighting for that money. Daddy learned that the librarian at the Mercer library was looking for a new secretary. Daddy spent a lot of time studying there since he hadn’t actually finished high school and missed a lot of material. He informed the librarian that out mama could fill the job. Mama had a couple of typing classes at the junior college where he attended for his freshman year. She applied for the job and got it. I suspect some of Daddy’s instructors spoke up for her. As an employee, she got Daddy’s tuition paid and took classes free. For the second time in two years, we are all 3 in school. Our lived changed again! He also became a teacher.
If you love Hallmark movies and other Christmas movies, check out these 4 short stories. They approach Christmas in different ways, but all aim at touching your heart and giving you the message of Christmas and love.
MaryMarvella 