Come and Dine

A few weeks ago I posted some photos from the historical park here in Bradenton, and I had every intention of posting every day...well. As I walked through the park that day, I truly was walking back in time to my childhood when I used to go with my parents to visit my maternal grandparents in north Florida.

My mother was the next to the oldest of five children, and she somehow was the one who took the responsibility of seeing that her parents had their needs taken care of. Every time that my parents had vacation time, it was spent visiting grandma and grandpa. I must confess that I do not have fond memories of my grandparents, not like children do today. They seemed awfully old to me, and they really were not too interested in me, or so I thought.

Their house was similar to the one pictured here, although not nearly as nice. It was a frame house with a tin roof, a square divided into four equal rooms, a living room, a kitchen/dining room, and two bedrooms. You can guess where the bathroom was. That's right...down the path. I think that is another reason I didn't like to go there.

As I entered this house, I realized that they knew how to build houses then to catch the breezes as they came through. It was not particularly a cool day when I visited here, but as i walked into the house, the gentle breeze did keep me cool. In this particular house the bedrooms were to the right as you enter and then straight ahead is the kitchen as you can well see.

In the kitchen was the dinner table, placed as it was in my grandparents' house. On each long side of the table was a bench on which to sit. Now that was one thing that I did like. I loved to sit on the bench to eat my dinner. After we were through eating, if there were leftovers, my grandma would cover them with a sheet or a cloth to keep the flies out. We didn't worry about spoilage. I guess she figured that it would all be eaten soon...turnip greens, black-eyed peas, okra and tomatoes, and always a pot of grits. My grandma loved her grits.

Grandpa sat at the head of the table, and this photo reminds me of him. My mother called her parents "Mama and Papa." The oilcloth table cloth, the mismatched silver and dishes are so much like theirs. I remember watching grandpa eat and then rinse his mouth with his coffee. Sometimes he would "saucer and blow" it before he drank it and then swish it around in his mouth before swallowing it. He didn't have any teeth...if he did, he didn't wear them. Maybe he left them in the cup, so when he ate, his chin would just about meet his nose.

My grandparents didn't have much in this life, but they were generous with what they had and were grateful to my mother for looking after them like she did. As I was thinking about the table spread, I was reminded of an old gospel song, "Come and Dine." You can hear the tune and read the words at cyberhymnal.

The refrain goes:

“Come and dine,” the Master calleth, “Come and dine”;

You may feast at Jesus’ table all the time;

He Who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine,

To the hungry calleth now, “Come and dine.”