Saturday nights in the 60s - Homemade Pizza

In the mid 1960s, our family moved from the brick Hewitt house in Lattimore to a rented house on West Warren Street in Shelby. Mom and Dad had bought a big lot in Shelby to build Mama's Dream House. In trying to decide exactly where to locate the house, they walked over the lot many times, drove stakes, then tied strings from stake to stake to 'see' where they liked the house best. This process took several years, so we lived in the rented house on Warren Street during that time. Mama never really loved the Warren Street house, but we always had alot of fun there. We were within walking distance of three schools - Graham, Oak and Shelby Junior High. We were also within bicycle distance to the Shelby City Park and to Uptown Shelby. So it didn't matter that I couldn't drive because I could get most everywhere on foot or bicycle. Judy and Penny were in high school, Cindy and Libby at Junior High and I was in the fifth grade at Graham. We had a trampoline in the backyard and many days all ages of kids would walk from school to our house to jump. It really wasn't unusual for 25 plus kids to be there - just jumping.

On Saturday nights, our family watched TV together and made homemade pizzas. TV was still fairly new then and we basically had three channels. The TVs had huge cathode ray tubes, rabbit ears for antennae, and broadcast in black and white. Most TVs ended up with a pair of pliers to change the channels because, after jumping up to change channels alot, the knobs would fall off. I remember watching Neil Armstrong take the first steps on the moon and we were all glued to the tube in awe when he said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Sometimes on Saturday nights, Daddy would play cards with us. Daddy still loves to play poker, but the game at that time was Gin. We were all pretty good Gin players before long. On TV, we watched Flipper, Jackie Gleason and my favorite, the Carol Burnette Show. Flipper was a show about a very special dolphin who was like a water version of Lassie. I didn't know alot about Florida, but it seemed pretty wonderful and exotic to me. Jackie Gleason had a funny variety show with alot of characters like Crazy Joe, and the Honeymooners. What I loved to watch most on his show were the June Taylor dancers. They all had long legs and looked so sophisticated and smart when they performed those amazing - and very 60s - kaleidescope figures.

Carol Burnette had, by far, the funniest show on TV. Carol, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway could just walk across the TV screen and it would be hysterical. I loved so many of their skits and mostly I loved that they seemed to have so much fun together.

But the highlight of these Saturday nights was making pizza. We did not make the crust from scratch, but used a boxed mix. We didn't use a round pizza pan, but rectangular biscuit pans. Everyone had favorite ingredients and we all got to make our part of the pizza exactly the way we wanted it. We would decorate our 'masterpiece' so that when it came out of the oven, we knew which side was ours. This was a really creative time. The sixties were all about creativity and experimentation and we embraced that with our pizzas. To this day, I love sliced green olives on a pizza as much as the tomato sauce and cheese.

We only lived on Warren Street for five years. Mama said that after they had staked up the houseplan three times and the strings rotted three times she knew it just wasn't where they needed to build. Mama's heart was in Lattimore and they decided to build the dream house on Peachtree Road. I'm glad they built in Lattimore, but that house on West Warren Street has alot of happy memories.

So, I have been thinking about how much fun we had making homemade pizza and since both of the boys are home, tonight we each made our own masterpiece. Sure wish Carol Burnette was on.


Homemade Pizza - 60s style

1 Box Chef BoyArDee Cheese Pizza Kit
Make the dough according to the package and spread onto greased baking pan

Decide ahead of time what everyone wants on their side. Chop it, saute it, etc. Fresh basil, oregano, onion, olives, anchovy, peppers, tomato, pepperoni, hamburger, sausage are favorites at our house.

Sometimes, I make my own sauce, or at least add something to the boxed one.
I don't use the cheese that comes in the kit, because I don't like it. It is worth it to buy real parmesan and mozzarella and grate it yourself.

Divide up the pizza so that everyone knows where their side is.

Here's the hard part. You have to let everyone involved put what they want on their side. Anything goes.

Recently, we have had the fun of making homemade pizzas at several friends homes. Beth and John get a special dough and sauce and make them in their kitchen. Susan and Thomas get a special dough and sauce and make them in a backyard pizza oven. Everyone adds their own flavors from vegetables to herbs to meats, and they are all wonderful flavors. Besides how good they taste, the best part about homemade pizza is watching how much fun everybody has when they are encouraged to do their own thing.

Harmonic Balancer - Mama's Homemade Biscuits

My favorite newspaper columnist is Tommy Tomlinson with the Charlotte Observer. For years, I have read his column and he is always speaking my mind. The normal morning routine at our house is to have coffee, read several newspapers and online articles, and then talk about articles we have read. David knows I will want to talk about whatever Tommy Tomlinson has written so he makes sure to read that one along with his favorite sports and business reports. Today's column was vintage Tommy Tomlinson titled, "My car needs a part all humans should have, too".

The car part is called a harmonic balancer. I was amazed to learn that there was such a part in cars.

David not only knew it existed (even in old cars), he knew where it was located (near the crankshaft), and why it was there (to reduce vibrations from the engine, which reduces stress on the engine).

Growing up with four sisters, car talk was not a big part of my life; but living with three males has changed all that. Living with a house full of males changes alot of things.

Both boys are home from college and life around the house is back up to warp speed. I love having the boys home and I love having their friends around again. Over the last 20 years, we have had ALOT of activity at our house - backyard basketball, football, frisbee golf, swim parties, prom parties, the 'gallon challenge', poker tournaments and dance parties. Warp speed might not cover it.

But we have always had a Harmonic Balancer in our lives. Mama's Biscuits.

Things can be moving really fast; everyone on their own schedule with their own plans. But, when we say, "We're fixing dinner at 7:30", you can bet that the stars will line up and everyone will be at the table.

So, this week, both boys came home from college with all the stuff that college kids bring home - lamps, laptops, bedclothes, chairs, and piles of dirty laundry. Within a few days, the laundry was done. We cleaned out the storage building, cleaned out the old playroom, hauled alot of things away on the trailer and stored away the college stuff until next fall. It is amazing what can get done in just a few days with everyone working together. Cooking has stepped up to warp speed as well. We have had Mama's Pot Roast, Mac and Cheese, Corn, Beans, Salads, and Grilled Chicken.

On Saturday we wanted to clean out the Summer House. The Summer House is a screened room outside where I like to read or just visit with friends. David likes to watch golf out there. The boys like to play cards and dance. It's a great place to take a nap. Over the winter, the Summer House gets dusty with pollen and full of spiderwebs. To whip it into shape, we have to take everything out, hose it all down, and put it all back together.

So after a week of stepped up activity in the house and alot of extra boys spending the night, we planned our Harmonic Balancer - Saturday night Dinner. After looking up what was on sale, the menu was set - steak, grilled chicken, baked potato, green beans from last year, salad with ranch dressing, fruit salad, sliced tomatoes with fresh basil and Mama's Homemade Biscuits.

Mama made up her own biscuit recipe. She had watched Nishie and Mama Crowder make biscuits over the years without a recipe. Biscuits only take three ingredients - self-rising white flour, buttermilk and Crisco. The Biscuit Trinity.

Once Dad figured out the cost per biscuit and it was about 2 cents. Daddy is always figuring out the cost per item of everything. But we all understand that the material cost versus the actual value of Mama's homemade biscuits doesn't really compute. How do you compute Harmonic Balance?

Mama's biscuits are neat, tidy and uniform. They are the perfect size and shape and will melt in your mouth with just a little butter. Mama and Daddy are famous for their Country Ham Biscuits, but my favorite is a Biscuit with a slice of fresh tomato inside. I can't claim to make the biscuits exactly like Mama's, but I am working on it. It takes alot of practice to achieve Harmonic Balance.

Mama's Homemade Biscuits

4 cups sifted self-rising flour
3/4 cup crisco, and a little more the size of an egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, a little more or less as needed

Cut crisco into flour with pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the buttermilk and mix a little with hands. Turn onto a floured surface. Knead 3-4 times. Dont' work with it very long or it will make the dough tough. Roll out dough about 1/4 - 1/2" thick. Cut out biscuits and place on greased cookie sheet. You should get about 24 biscuits this first cut.

Pull dough back together and roll out again. You should get about 6 biscuits the next cut and 6 the next. Mama Calls the last six the dog biscuits because they have been worked longer and will be tougher. I love a dog biscuit.

Precook at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Bag and freeze.

When you want to serve the biscuits, remove from freezer, place on cookie sheet and bake in preheated 450 degree oven for 7-8 minutes. When Mama wants to get the tops brown, she will turn on the broiler but she warns us not to get distracted. "You have to watch it like a hawk!" We know to be quiet and still while Mama achieves harmonic balance with her Homemade Biscuits browning in the oven.

Old Fashioned Sayings

Mike, my son David's college roommate, was in the hospital for a week with an unusual and serious illness. Mike's parents live 7-8 hours away and came to be with him, but after several days needed to return home to work. Since we live less than 1 hour away from the college, I promised his mother that we would check on him.

On one visit to the hospital, I wanted to talk with Mike about adjusting to his new health needs - getting plenty of rest, eating right, finding the right medication and generally focusing on his long term health. He wanted to talk with me about his worry about the cost of his hospital stay.

My initial reaction was sadness that a 20 year old college student was in a hospital bed worrying about the cost of getting well. In an attempt to get him to focus on the most pressing problem - his health and not the cost - I said "Mike, don't worry about the mule going blind." His face broke into the widest grin and he said, "That sounds just like the things David says! Oh, I have gotta write that one down with the other ones!" He went on to say that living with David, he had heard all kinds of sayings that were unfamiliar to him.

I guess I had never realized how many old fashioned sayings are used by our families. Or maybe the expressions are just forgotten from generation to generation. How many people today know WHY somebody might worry about the mule going blind?

"Worrying about the mule going blind" is actually something that my husband used to hear from his father who likely heard it from his father. Mr. D. W. Royster was sometimes called Mr. Ich. I have heard that his nickname originated because his tall, lanky frame resembled Washington Irving's character, Ichabod Crane. The grandchildren called him Pop Ick. When you were told "don't worry about the mule going blind", it meant don't spend non-productive energy worrying about something that you cannot control.

Several years ago, my Dad stumped me with an old fashioned saying when I was typing a letter for him. It was a recommendation letter and the point he wanted to make was that the applicant was a consistent, dependable person and focused on reaching his goals. Trying to decipher Dad's handwriting, I typed the words "he doesn't fall off the tracks". Dad laughed when he read what I had typed and told me it was supposed to say "he doesn't fall out of the traces". I had no idea what that meant, but he explained that it was a mule driving term. A good mule knew it should stay on a straight path while plowing all the way to the end of a row. If a mule, "fell out of the traces" it meant it wasn't consistent, dependable and focused on its task.

Another favorite saying in our family is one that Mama uses alot. Mama is the queen of diffusing an argument. Growing up, my sisters and I were encouraged to have independent thoughts and express our opinions. Discussion and debate are still normal at the round dinner table and the kitchen chopping block. So when something comes up that Mama sees is NOT going to be agreed upon, she just shrugs her shoulders and says, "That's why they make chocolate and vanilla". Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. This one has really caught on in my little household. It is not unusual to hear it as often from our boys as from their parents!

Nishie had alot of good sayings, but the one that everyone in the family still uses in many different situations is - "You got to know when to turn it loose!" When Nishie said turn it sounded like tarn. In the original story, Nishie was telling dad, "Jack, you got to know when to tarn it loose!" This can be used for a variety of reasons, but basically means it's important to know when enough is enough.

This year on Mother's Day at the Hunt House in Lattimore, we were sitting on the front steps talking when somebody on a loud motorcycle sped by; the engine popping and the bike swerving and swishing around the corner. Daddy grinned and said that when he was a little boy and somebody came by the house like that in a loud, fast car, the kids would yell from the yard "go ahead on, hell ain't half full yet!"

These old fashioned sayings can really drive home a point.

Mother's Day at the Hunt House - Sour Cream Pound Cake

The Hunt's like to gather. We gather for all kinds of occasions and sometimes for no reason at all. With Mama and five other mothers in our immediate family, we spread out the chores and have Mother's Day at The Hunt House. The Hunt House is where Daddy grew up in Lattimore, NC. Nanny and PaPa (this sounds like Paw Paw) were married in 1911 and they built the Hunt House in about 1930. The Hunt House originally had 7 bedrooms to accomodate Nanny, Papa and their four children - Burnette, Robert, Julia and my father, Jack. Sometimes teachers from Lattimore school would also live with the family.

PaPa (Robert L Hunt) was a dentist and co-owned Hunt and Hewitt General Merchandise. The store was in a building on Main Street that was later Martin Milling Company and is now a restaurant called The Depot. Lattimore in those days was a busy intersection of two major railroads - The Southern and The Seaboard. PaPa's dental office was above the store on Main Street. He built the Hunt House on the corner of Main and Lee Streets. Lattimore School was across Lee Street on the other corner and Daddy remembers shooting basketball in the playground at all hours of the day and night - sometimes by moonlight. Across Main Street from The Hunt House is the two story red brick house where my family lived and where my sisters and I used to dance on the roof. I barely remember PaPa because he died when I was about 2 years old. I know alot of stories about him and I know that he was very involved in the community. I also know he had alot of energy and alot of fun.

I remember skipping across the street to visit Nanny at the Hunt House and how, in the mornings, her kitchen always smelled like coffee and cinnamon toast. Later in the day, it seems like she always had a chicken stewing in a big pot on the stove. There were dairy cows in Nanny's pasture. There was a barn with stalls for the cows to be herded into and then their necks were clamped into a harness to keep them still. Golly Hopper, Nishie's husband, would attach milking machines to their udders. The milking machines reminded me of an octopus. The milk was pumped through hoses into another room that had a huge electric stainless steel container where the milk was kept cool until the Sealtest man came to pick it up. Sometimes, my sisters and I would carry a glass milk jug from our house across the street to the milk barn. If we got there just after the cows had been milked, the milk was still warm. Warm milk on your cheerios is awful.

The railroad tracks run behind the Hunt House and under a bridge on Lee Street. When we would hear the train, every kid within earshot would run to the bridge and the conductors would throw candy from the train up to all the kids on the bridge. This was one of the highlights of the day for a kid in Lattimore.

There were hills between Nanny's house and her sister's, Garva Blanton (she was called Garvey). Once I remember there was a huge snowfall. It seemed like it snowed about 8 feet, but I am guessing that would be a slight exaggeration. All of the Blantons, Hunts, Martins, and other Lattimore kids went sledding in a big canoe on the hills between Nanny's and Aunt Garvey's.

So, the Hunt House is full of memories for everyone and this is where we spent Mother's Day Lunch.

When my grandmother and my Aunt Burnette passed away, Daddy bought the Hunt House, renovated the kitchen, added extra bathrooms, and it is now a five bedroom house. My sister, Judy, and her husband, Hanse, have bought the house from Daddy. They live in Blowing Rock full time and I think they are the only people who have ever had a permanent home in Blowing Rock and a vacation home in Lattimore! But I am so glad they do, because we all enjoy being at the Hunt House.

My sister, Libby, organized the menu for the Mother's Day lunch. Libby and Mama had the house warm with peonies on the tables and mint in the kitchen window. Daddy had it warm with a fire in the fireplace. Mama and Daddy brought corn and green beans from last years garden. My mother-in-law, Katherine Mabry, (we call her Sister), made her special coconut cake and layered salad. Unfortunately, she was not feeling well on Mother's Day, but she insisted on sending her delicious cake and salad. Judy, Penny, Libby, Cindy and I brought specified dishes and we did our very best to make them the way Mama and Daddy taught us. We must have done okay because Daddy called later and said he and Mama had now learned that they don't have to cook anymore! Doubtful that they won't cook anymore, but it was nice to hear him give us such a compliment.

The menu was ham, potato salad, strawberry salad, deviled eggs, corn, beans, mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, Sister's Layered Salad, and Biscuits. For dessert, as if we needed any, we had Sour Cream Pound Cake with strawberries and whipped cream, Sister's Coconut Cake, Nanny's Pecan Pie, and Mama Crowder's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies.

Friends and cousins started pouring into the house. When Mama arrived, I was struck by how pretty she is and how she always has a smile on her face. Mama has always been pretty, but that day she looked even prettier than usual.

We told stories and remembered and laughed and missed the ones who weren't with us, but mostly we were grateful that we could enjoy sharing the day together.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

2 sticks real butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups cake flour (sift, measure and don't sift again)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream (a little more)
1 tsp vanilla (more)
1/2 tsp lemon extract (more)

With electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add soda and flour alternating with sour cream. Add vanilla and lemon. Bake at 300 degrees for 90 minutes. This is a really big cake so I use a large bundt pan. Leave in pan for 10 minutes before turning onto a plate and then flipping back over onto a cake plate. The top is the best part!

Cut up strawberries and add a little sugar if needed. Serve cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

Any leftover cake is great toasted for breakfast!

Jicama - the wonder vegetable

Jicama is my new favorite vegetable. I had seen this vegetable a few times here and there but had not eaten it until my trip to visit Mary in Clearwater. Jicama (pronounced HICK-ah-mah) is a mexican root vegetable from the Morning Glory family. It looks like a potato. It does not taste like a potato. It is crunchy, juicy and mildly sweet. To use jicama, all you have to do is peel and cut it. It is great raw in salads. It can be stir fried or cooked with other veggies. And it works like a carrot stick for dips like hummus or salsa.

Here is the real bonus on jicama. Not only does it taste good, but it is also fairly cheap, easy to peel and chop, and it works in alot of recipes. It is low in saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium and calories. It is high in potassium, vitamin C and fiber. I think it might be able to tap dance!

The way you cut it depends on how you are using it. It is easiest to work with if you cut it in half and then peel it. For salads, I like to cut it into shoestring potato-like strips. If you are using it for a dip(in place of Tostitos), cut a little wider and thicker. If you are cooking it, you can cube it in various sizes.

Since it is juicy and sweet, it is great to balance out spicy foods. In Mexico, it is eaten like "street vendor food" - just sprinkled with cayenne pepper and lime juice.

Mary sent a recipe for Beet and Jicama salad. Tonight I tried it in a Chopped Salad. It is great in alot of different combinations with either fruits or vegetables. Here are a few ways to use jicama:


Chopped Salad with Jicama

I made this one up, so just use whatever amounts you prefer.

Lettuce from the garden
Radish - sliced then halved
Cucumber - sliced then halved
Sweet Red Pepper - chopped
Vidalia Spring Onion - chopped
Jicama - peeled and cut into shoestring strips

Toss everything into a big salad bowl. Sprinkle a small amount of red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and toss again.

Mary's Jicama and Beet Salad

(4 servings)

One 15 oz can sliced, marinated beets, drained
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp fat free raspberry viniagrette dressing
1/2 cup diced jicama
4 cups torn romaine lettuce

In a medium bowl, combine beets, scallions and salad dresing. Refrigerate covered, until the flavors are blended - at least one hour. Stir in jicama. Place 1 cup of lettuce on each of 4 plates. Top with beet/jicama mixture.
52 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 3 fiber, 2 protein, 237 mg sodium.

Mandarin Orange and Jicama Salad

1 jicama, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, minced
1 large lime, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
1 11 oz can mandarin orange segments, drained, liquid reserved

Combine everything and add just a small amount of the reserved orange juice. Allow mixture to sit for 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste, stir just before serving.

Playing Catch Up - Chicken Salad

This week has just flown by. I had some catching up to do since I was gone last weekend. Also I had several volunteer board meetings at night this week. And I 'needed' to play tennis a couple of times this week - once for a team and once just for fun.

I actually do have a part-time job. Very part-time. I used to say that my hours were from 10 till 2 and I take a 2 hour lunch. But I just had to cut back on those hours to make time for everything else.

I do bookkeeping for my Dad's building materials business, The Round Up Store. The Round Up has a very colorful and interesting history and is still very interesting. The Round Up deserves it's own blogpost - maybe several.

For me to be doing bookkeeping is pretty interesting in itself, but that, in fact, is what I do. After working in the computer industry, and then doing some computer teaching at several community colleges, I realized that what I really wanted was to be a Mom. And I have never regretted that decision.

However, I enjoy the challenge and the experiences in the working world so the perfect fit for me was to do something that I could keep flexible hours. The Round Up needed someone to keep up with the bills, taxes, and other paperwork, so there I was. It has been so much more rewarding than I would have ever dreamed. I have done this for 20 years and I have always enjoyed alot of flexibility with my time. Now that I have a laptop, Quickbooks software, email, etc, I have even more flexibility and I am very grateful.

So this week, I played catch up at work, played catch up with housework, played catch up with my volunteer committments and I played tennis. The trick was trying to have something decent for supper that didn't require alot of time.

With both boys away at college, David and I do not eat huge meals at supper. So, tonight we had Chicken Salad, Saltine Crackers and Fresh Watermelon. We love chicken salad alot of different ways. David's mother makes a great chicken salad that she seasons with dill. Carol makes a great Fruited Chicken Salad that I will post one day. But tonight, with all the playing catch up and then needing to catch up in the garden too, I made the easy version of Mama's Chicken Salad. Actually Mama usually uses Turkey - so it's Turkey Salad. She cooks a Turkey breast really often. It is like so many of Mama's dishes. I don't have real exact amounts. But one of the most important things is to cut everything up uniformly. Another thing is when you are cutting up the chicken, you should not include any gristle or fat or other icky things. Mama's rule is "Don't put anything in that you wouldn't want to eat yourself". So here is how I made Mama's Chicken Salad tonight:

Mama's Chicken Salad

Cube chicken, taking out anything that you wouldn't want to eat yourself
(tonight I used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to speed things up)
Make sure you cube it up uniformly - We like it fairly chunky, but not so chunky that it will fall off of a saltine cracker!
Several stalks of Celery - diced. We like alot of celery.
Sweet Salad Cube Pickles. We like alot of pickles too.
Mayo, Salt and Pepper to taste. Remember "You can add more, but you can't add less"

Sometimes Mama adds thyme to her turkey salad and probably some other spices now and then. But, it can hit the spot just to make the quick and easy way.

May Garden Update - Tomato stakes and suckers

I just checked on the garden. Everything is growing well and looks green and happy. I mean everything. Including the weeds. I see some serious weeding time in my near future. The cucumber plants are holding their heads up, sending out little tentacles and looking for places to run. The squash and eggplant need more water, but look pretty healthy. The peppers love hot dry weather so they haven't minded that I have been gone alot. Same with the herbs. Herbs love to be hot and dry.

The tomatoes are growing fast but were starting to lean over, so it was time to stake them. I have used various methods to do this. I used to think the best way was with a tall wooden stake and nylon hose cut into strips to tie up the plant. The nylon hose expand and won't cut or damage the plant when you tie it to the stake. But, last year I bought some of the tomato rings and so that is what I am using again this year. One thing you have to do if you are using rings is to train the tomato plant as it grows by adjusting it up the rings. If you get too far behind with this, you can break the plant or damage the tomatoes. Tomatoes need to be tended to a little more than some plants.

So I have staked the tomatoes and I have picked off the suckers. Suckers are non producing branches that grow between the producing branches.

Suckers are alot like bad habits. If you leave them on the plant, they will use up alot of the energy and nutrients of the plants and the tomatoes on the producing limbs will not grow to their full potential. You can spot a sucker right away when they are little, but it gets harder to tell as they mature. When you notice which have the yellow flowers and which do not, alot of the damage is already done. It's important to 'nip those suckers in the bud' before they hold back a producer.

We sure could learn alot from plants.

Clearwater Beach

Our friend, Mary, invited Carol and me to visit her home in Clearwater Beach, Florida. She mentioned that Allegiant Air usually had some good flights out of GSP airport in Greenville, SC. That was an understatement. A one-way flight to St Petersburg, Florida was $27.99! They did add some fees for things I could have declined, but we still got a great rate for a very convenient way to get to Florida.

Mary is an avid scrapbooker and we have known each other a really long time. A big part of the fun of this trip was going thru her scrapbooks of our childhood and then watching videos of past trips and reunions. Our lives were literally flashing before our eyes and we both realized how much fun we had growing up in Shelby. She had a scrapbook page with the invitation to a party that my parents had at their house in Lattimore when we were in high school. It included a picture of me dancing with my dad. And she had a get well card that I had given her with little kittens on it. The funny part was that I had written on the card that I knew she wasn't sick, but I thought she'd like the card because she liked kittens! We were always kind of silly like that and had alot of laughs over the years.

That part had NOT changed. We had a ton of big laughs during this trip.

The first thing you notice about the Tampa Bay area is that there is alot of water - bays, rivers, the Gulf of Mexico - and there are alot of bridges connecting everything together. The second thing you notice is that there is a tremendous cultural diversity in and around Tampa. By the end of the trip, we felt like we had visited alot of different countries.

We started out visiting Tarpon Springs which was originally settled by Greek sponge divers. We had lunch at a restaurant called Hellas. We sampled spanakopita, then hummus, tzatziki and feta dips. We tried something called sagnaki which is a baked cheese that you spread over bread. They recommend that you wash sagnaki down with a summertime greek white wine from a grape called Moschofilera. All I can say is "Oopaaa!"

Then we had a great American/Irish hamburger at the Fitzpatrick's home with really good homemade potato salad and deviled eggs.

David had encouraged me to try and find a Cuban restaurant that his father loved in Tampa, so Friday for lunch we headed to the Cuban district called Ybor, and found The Columbia Restaurant. The Columbia opened in 1905 and is the oldest Spanish restaurant in Florida. It is beautiful with old dark wood, lots of great photographs, beautiful spanish tiles and furniture. There is alot of history at The Columbia and the food was outstanding. It's no wonder 'D' loved this place. Carol discovered that she did like Cuban food after all.

We wandered around Ybor where the Tampa cigar factories were headquartered. The old Tampa cigar factories have been redeveloped and there was a cuban coffee shop roasting coffee beans. The smell in the air was wonderful.

Next, we drove around Tampa, sometimes knowing where we were and sometimes not, but we eventually got to the University of Tampa which was originally an old Russian style hotel. We felt like we had been from Greece to Cuba to Russia all in one day!

But it didn't stop there. Saturday we headed to a Florida state park called Honeymoon Beach which is a wild undeveloped area with palm trees, sea grapes, and with signs that say 'watch out for rattlesnakes'. When you get to the beach, you see beautiful turquoise blue water and white sandy beaches and no development. We could have been on an island in the Bahamas. The beach was fun and we had a picnic, watched kite surfers and enjoyed good conversation. Then we headed to Clearwater Beach to watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico. For North Carolina natives, we are used to seeing the sun RISE over the ocean. To see the sun SET is an unusual sight and, in Clearwater, they have made this into a party. Every night at sunset, they have live music, good food, lots of people all waiting for the big event. The sun did not disappoint us.

We headed to an Asian Seafood restaurant (Islandway Grill) for a late dinner and definitely the best Sushi I have ever had. It had really fresh ingredients and it was wrapped in soy paper so it wasn't slimy and tough to chew. Mary discovered that she did like sushi after all.

We all learned that we like jicama and gobo. But the day was still not done, because Mary wanted to take us to Dunedin which was originally settled by Scottish people. They have alot of Scottish restaurants and traditions, but we were on a mission to see the Peacocks in the Scottish cemetery. Never mind that we were running out of steam and it was close to midnight. We drove slowly around the cemetery and then Carol started talking about 'haints' and the hackles started rising on our necks. We saw a rabbit and a 'possum, but no peacocks or haints. We made a quick and hilarious exit from the Scottish cemetery.

Recapping the trip, we realized we had experienced the cultures of Greece, Cuba, Tampa Bay, Russia, the Bahamas, Japan, Scotland and the Fitzpatricks Irish home!

We had an early Sunday morning flight and while talking with another passenger, we learned he had booked his flight for $9.95. I don't know how they do this, but it's like you can't hardly afford NOT to go. I'm just saying.