THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

By Vernalee

As we countdown the days to Thanksgiving, I thought that I would share a story or two. We all have our holiday stories buried somewhere in our memories. Well this one places me in my hometown, Glen Allan, Mississippi about 15 years ago. Anyway, my Mother short of taking me across her knee really chastised me upon discovering that I had not taught my daughter, her namesake, the basic essentials of cooking. I remember her words to this day when she said, "It's a down right shame for a woman in our family not to know how to cook!" You see during my daughter's adolescent years, I was extremely busy balancing corporate and entrepreneurial duties that we ate out a lot! For those of you who were building careers, you know what I mean; right? My Mother was just not going to have it! Her granddaughter was going to at least know the basics. So off to the drawing board, the two Phoebe's (my Mother and daughter) went! "We are going to cook Thanksgiving dinner together baby girl," my Mother told her. Excitedly, my daughter spent the next two days with her iPad writing recipes and cooking side by side with her Granny. Word spread around our diminutive city that "Little Phoebe was cooking Thanksgiving dinner." Many town folks came over to see and taste the feast. Drumroll please … Well the meal turned out perfect and my daughter has been cooking ever since...thanks to her Granny! It left an indelible memory that was bigger than the meal!