My Mom’s Parents (and One of Her Uncles) Have Some Explaining To Do…

I had a little time to travel today so I opted to support the Black owned, Seafood Destiny in Greensboro, particularly because they launched their new contactless feature. As I thought about the shrimp and thinly sliced potatoes, I also thought about how I was not raised eating “scavengers of the sea.” I was also not raised drinking alcohol/caffeine, smoking, eating pork, listening to secular music nor having premarital sex which could result in having a child out of wedlock.

These rules were linked to growing up SDA (aka Seventh-Day Adventist, aka we went to church on Saturdays), which primarily all members of my maternal grandmother’s family are/were. My paternal family believed in smoking cigarettes, playing big AND LITTLE Luther’s vinyl records, and drinking brown liquor. None of which prevented them from getting up and going to church on Sunday mornings.

My thoughts on my ride back included thinking about how we typically spent New Year’s Eve at my late aunt and uncle’s house. We celebrated there because my aunt would have just returned from spending Christmas with her family in Pittsburgh, and her mother would send her back with plenty of pastries to share. Her father played for the Steelers and one of my grandparent’s bestfriends was an avid Steeler fan. His wife was SDA, he was Baptist and a Veteran, so most of his Saturdays were spent either at home watching college sports or at the Post.

We saw him during the holidays because he would usually bring treats his wife, mother-in-law and daughters prepared, while also picking up items my grandmother prepared for his family. We would always find airplane bottles of liquor or wine somewhere in the packages. We would also expect a phone call (before Caller ID) from someone with a strange voice. The strange voice would be him trying to disguise his voice as a woman, but he could never get through the call without either laughing or us hearing his wife in the background yelling, “Henry…stop that!” He was checking to see if we found the bottle so he could laugh some more.

The airplane bottles would be anywhere from Gin to Vodka to Cognac to Crown, or wine. The joke was always because he knew my grandparents didn’t drink, and also because he would put them in the most inconspicuous places. I have a question for my non-alcohol drinking grandparents, but since they are “resting in the Lord” or in heaven (whichever you believe), I won’t be able to get the answer.

WHAT DID Y’ALL DO WITH ALL THAT LIQUOR?!?

They had been friends for 50+ years and I witnessed at least 20 years of exchanges, but I never saw where the bottles went. I know my, cut the mold off but still eat the bread and cheese, grandmother didn’t throw them away because she didn’t waste ANYTHING!

While caring for my client I learned how melatonin decreases the older we get, so we tend to not sleep as much; yet my grandfather slept a lot. He would not consistently take his meds, but I wonder if he was sipping some of that liquor and it put him to sleep? 🤔

Back to the “scavengers of the sea”…

My grandfather’s (Geechie cultured, beer drinking, pig roasting and brass band playing) family had biennial family reunions. My grandmother’s SDA brother came one year to pray and speak at the service. The Saturday dinner included 5 appetizer shrimp (don’t ask why I remember the exact number). My sister was grown, I was a teen and we both had eaten shrimp before; me at my other grandmother’s house (which is also where I ate some fat back, but that’s another conversation), so we were good. I don’t remember whether my mom ate them, but my grandparents moved them to a saucer. My grandmother’s brother ate later because he was on the program, so he was still eating while we were up dancing to the secular music. When we got back to the table, his plate was clean; not a piece of shrimp in sight.

So…WHAT DID HE DO WITH THE SHRIMP?

These questions may not be that serious for you, but if you understood the “fire and brimstone” message the SDA church preached…these questions need answers.

As I eat my shrimp and think about which liquor I will sip around this time tomorrow (I can do that since I was voted out of the church for breaking at least two rules…you figure out which two 🤣), I also think about how much I miss my grandparents and watching them interact with their friends. Those were some special times with some special people and I hope we all have special times with some special people next year…WE DESERVE IT!!!

🍤☕🍤🍷🍤🍹🍤🍸🍤🍺🍤🍻🍤🥂🍤🍾