Can We Talk 2

Seeing the New Year In With A Bang

         I am living the good life! I saw the New Year in with James Arness and Dennis Weaver. These days Milburn Stone is more my speed. 1960's, 70's version, of course.

         Today I am cooking the traditional Southern black-eyed peas. I had to buy the canned peas, since there was a run on dried and frozen peas. The store only had 3 cans left, so I bought two. So my traditional meal will be easier than the usual slow cooking beans. I like their smoky flavor. It's supposed to be good luck to cook black eyed peas today. The rest of the menu I got from my mother, but that doesn't involve luck. We'll have cornbread, stewed tomatoes, and greens. You can add any kind of meat or go vegetarian.

         Some groups believe you have to have hog's head or boar's head or hog jowls, but I don't go there. It's an old English custom to serve boar's head and have a feast before forks. In other words, you only use your fingers, but it is a huge meal. Sharp knives are okay. So you don't want mashed potatoes.

         Some black neighborhoods like the hog's head with their peas and cornbread. I worked in a grocery store that sold the hog's head, only after Christmas. The customer base was evenly black and white. Some of the cashiers couldn't handle the animal head; it was like a horror movie. I can do almost anything, so I would ring it up and bag it so that she wouldn't see it, then go back to where I was working. We sold a lot of them. The customers couldn't understand employees who couldn't handle it. This was a treat and time honored tradition for them.

         There are other superstitions I have heard about New Year's Day, things you should and shouldn't do. I am not superstitious, but I am a creature of habit and tradition. Another superstition (I don't believe in) is that whatever you do New Year's Day is indicative of how you'll spend your year. I really can't tell you what I was doing last year, so I don't know if it works. But I usually try to make sure I do something fun. I'm not visiting anyone today, and I'm not expecting company, which is unusual. It looks like it will be a quiet day. To be on the safe side, I'm not just cooking and cleaning all day, but doing a jigsaw puzzle, reading, texting friends, surfing the Web, and writing. Gotta squeeze some exercise in. Not that I'm superstitious, just cautious.