Carl's Lunch at the Round Up

Daddy and Carl were cooking up plans for lunch at the Round Up. Carl wanted to let some of his old buddies know how much he loves and appreciates them. Daddy wanted to let Carl know how much he loves and appreciates him. The rest of us wanted to let Carl and Daddy know how much we appreciate both of them. And how much we admire their long time friendship.

So on Friday morning Carl, Weasy, Carl's three sons Mike, Tim and Mal and several of Carl's old buddies met at the Round Up for homecooking. This was a real mixture of Jack' Cookin' and Ruby's Cookin' because even though we were at the Round Up, we did have tablecloths, napkins and real flowers.

We fixed green beans, crowder peas and silver queen corn from the Lattimore garden. We had biscuits, cornbread, slaw, macaroni and cheese, homemade mashed potatoes, country ham and sausage. Daddy made two kinds of gravy - sausage gravy and red eye gravy. For dessert, we had Mama Crowder's chocolate oatmeal cookies and two apple pies. It was a very tough time to be counting calories so I tried to keep my hands busy arranging table and taking pictures.

The weather was cold with bone chilling rain, but inside the Round Up it was warm and toasty with great food, great friends and a great deal of love. Daddy and Carl are 88 years old and have been friends for about 82 of those years. Mike found a toast that Daddy had written for Carl's 60th birthday and brought it for Daddy to read to this group 28 years later.

Daddy started with when they first became friends in Lattimore. Daddy deadpanned, "Carl was the older kid. He was 6 and I was 5 1/2." He went on to describe the friendship through the early years, teenage years, high school, young adulthood, hunting trips, army life, jobs, hobbies, kids and families. They were such close friends that long ago Nishie used to say, "If Carl was a girl, Jack would probably marry her!"

Daddy said that when he and Carl were little boys their Mama's took care of them, then their teachers and neighbors looked after them, then their wives; and that there were times that it just had to be the Lord looking after them. They were adventurous boys and sometimes he wondered how they lived through it all.

Daddy went on to say that all friendships are special but that a long lasting friendship is a true joy. Some of us were starting to feel emotional hearing the touching testimony. Daddy said that through all of those years, he and Carl hadn't had a serious disagreement - even over a bird dog. I knew that this was true, but I've been around these two long enough to know that comic relief was coming.

Then Daddy starting talking about the bird dogs they had shared, naming each special dog with reverance. The list grew longer and longer when Daddy dramatically ended with two of their favorite dogs ....Roxy and Jake. On cue, Carl prayerfully motioned the cross in high honor and respect to his dog and said "ah Jake!" Most of us remembered Roxy and Jake and we all cracked up. Tim shook his head and said, "I was doing okay until you started talking about the bird dogs."

It was a great lunch and everyone hung around the Round Up talking for a while. Mal said that if it was his last meal on earth he would want exactly the meal that he just had. Libby offered Mal the rest of Mama Crowder's chocolate oatmeal cookies. Tim mentioned that in Colorado he couldn't find good cornmeal to make cornbread. Chris offered Tim a fresh bag of buttermilk cornmeal mix to take home with him. Tim put the cornmeal in a safe place until time to go. The safe place was the last sink on the Round Up's vanity display. We had a piece of leftover apple pie and offered that. And there were a few other things we wanted to give them. We laughed because pretty soon the last sink was full of booty to take home.

We all took home the realization that it is really special when old friends take time to honor their true and lasting friendship.