"Summertime.. and the living is easy."
That opening lyric is from one of my favorite songs of all time. I don't remember the first time I heard this song. I have heard it sung in many places by many people and I have never heard a version that didn't make me fall in love with summer again.
In 1975 I visited New York City with a History professor, Dr. Lewis, from Appalachian State and saw my first Broadway play - Porgy and Bess. Bess sang Summertime and I fell in love with theatre and how it can move you to see things from all kinds of perspectives. Carol and I recently saw La Cage Aux Folles and theatre is still working its magic to connect people of all kinds to the family of humanity.
I have heard Pat Martin Greene sing Summertime at Christmas time, at the cabin in the Fall and on the Martin deck at the Lake in Spring and Summer. Anytime Pat's clear, true pitch voice travels from her throat to your ears it is unforgettable. Her soulful singing of Summertime will have you in a summer trance with a fishin' pole regardless of where you really are or what season it is.
And thank heavens for the miracle of recording because we will always be able to hear Doc Watson's version. Doc went home last week but his sweet gentle soul and his music lives on.
I posted a blog about Doc's visit to Lattimore church last fall and reposted on facebook last week. I'd link if I knew how, but if you want to read it look in the October 2011 posts. Anyway, Mom and Dad had a chance to hear Doc and visit with him after and the October post can explain what all that meant to me.
Dad doesn't sing like Doc but he does sing a lot. He actually has a pretty good voice. A couple of weeks ago Mom, Dad and I were in Wake Forest visiting the sweet Sarazens and on the way home we took a nostalgic tour of Old Wake Forest University. Before the Reynolds Family moved Wake Forest College to Winston-Salem, NC it was actually in the town of Wake Forest. This is where Dad went to college. He remembers leaving Lattimore by himself with his little suitcase, heading for college by at the tender age of 15. He was a young graduate and they also only had 11 years of high school at the time.
As we drove around the old campus, Dad pointed out various buildings where he lived, worked and studied. I felt transported back to the 1940s and could envision Daddy and his college experience. I could picture him in sepia toned scenes as he described being on bumming corner and hitchhiking with his buddies to Raleigh on a Saturday night. Or walking across campus to the classroom building. Or having to go outside his dorm to get downstairs to the basement level showers. Or getting into mischief with some other guys as they pulled off their own version of Orson Welles War of the Worlds. College boys will be college boys.
The campus was called the Magnolia Campus and there were still many beautiful magnolias blooming as we drove around. The campus and the magnolias touched off a flood of memories for Dad who started singing this sweet, old song:
"Is it true what they say about Dixie?
Does the sun really shine all the time?
And the magnolia blooms wind around the cabin door...
And we've eat so much possum that we can't eat no more!"
A sly, impish look - a college boy look - came over his face and he said, "Well, we may have made up that last line."
That cracked Mama and me up and we were snapped back from the 40s to the current day. But it was a great trip through Old Wake Forest ... and time.
Back in Shelby in 2012 the Foothills Farmer's Market opened and going there is one of my favorite summertime pastimes. It gets better every year with fresh local vegetables, flowers, homemade breads and other goodies, homemade goats milk soap, herbs, locally raised and processed sausage and more. It's a treat to wander around and score some great finds.
On a recent visit I found some fresh squash, cucumbers, onions, oatmeal raisin bread, sweet potato bread and some of the best tomatoes so far this season. The tomatoes were so good that I bought about a dozen and then got them home and wondered how in the world I would use them all.
Not to worry. A day or so later Jay was out at Moss Lake skiing with some guys. William plays tennis at UNC-CH, Kevin plays basketball at GWU and Marty and Steve play football at GWU. They had been on the water all day long when Jay called home and asked if he could bring them home for supper. David said, "sure what time do you want to eat?" Jay said, "in about 15 minutes".
I started slicing tomatoes and frying squash. Five college athletes who have been on a lake all day can pretty much mow through whatever you put in front of them. Steve is from Boston and had never had fried squash so it was fascinating to watch him try it. We just about had to tie their hands down to keep them from popping a really hot squash before it had cooled and drained on the paper towels. I fried at least 10 squash which is roughly 80 squash rounds. I think I sliced 10 tomatoes and those guys were eating slices with fresh basil as fast as I could slice them. This was their appetizer. In the meantime David had gone out to buy some steak and we threw together a quick meal of steak, cucumber and onions in sweet salty vinegar, green beans, bread, baked potatoes and ice cream. It was a great time and a great use of fresh farmer's market finds.
One of the best uses of a fresh tomato is in a simple tomato sandwich. If you have never had a really fresh tomato sandwich for breakfast please do so the first chance you get. But a fresh tomato sandwich is great anytime. It can lift you up when you are down and calm you down when you are hyper. I do believe a fresh tomato sandwich can cure about anything.
It's not that you have to follow a recipe for a tomato sandwich. It's that you have to have a great tomato. It's the very best if you can just walk out the kitchen door and pick one off your own homegrown vine. If you don't have that option then look for a farmer's market with fresh, local tomatoes. If you don't have that option, then consider coming to Dixie. Where the sun shines most of the time.
Fresh Tomato Sandwich - Sally's Pick
Everyone has their own way of loving a tomato sandwich. Here is mine:
Find a fresh local tomato (preferably grown in the foothills of North Carolina)
White or Wheat bread (depending on my mood)
Hellman's Mayo (please don't start the Duke's/Hellman's thing - you are free to use whatever you like)
Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
A piece of crispy cold lettuce
You can doll these up with cheese, sprouts, herbs, bacon. You can heat these up in the panini press or oven. But just a simple fresh tomato sandwich is really hard to beat. Happy Summertime ya'll!
No comments:
Post a Comment