Tradition

Christmas is a time for, it seems, lots of traditions. Our family has its own little traditions. Every major holiday, I cook. This afternoon as I was washing a batch of collard greens, I took a short trip down memory lane. I remember, as a little boy, helping my mother, and sometimes, my neighbor, by going to the neighborhood store. It was a small store that specialized in seasonal vegetables. We called it the ‘greens’ store. I don’t think that it had an official name. Anyway, I remember going there, purchasing several large paper bags full of greens, returning home, and helping my mother to prepare them.

She would prepare a sink full of cold, salty water. The salt, she said, was to dissolve any worms that might yet be hanging around. After all, the greens came from a nearby farm or garden and, at that time, they didn’t use many pesticides, so worms were not uncommon. I remember picking them away and tossing them outside, but there was an outside chance that you’d miss one. Better to have the salt dissolve them.

Anyway, even though I purchase store-bought greens, which I’m sure have been subjected to sprays, I still use salt water. It’s kind of hard to break with tradition. This memory took me further down the line in thinking about our around-the-corner neighbors, the Youngs. Mr. & Mrs. Young never cooked on holidays, that we knew of. They’d always visit. LOL! We had a nickname for them: The hungry Youngs. They only visited on the holidays and when they showed up, they were always hungry!

The rest of Christmas day held similar such visits. There always seemed to be someone stopping by. You didn’t know how much to cook because you’d have no idea who would stop by. Of course, there were the regulars: Brothers, sisters, friends, my barber, etc, but then you’d have those unexpected guests and it was a tradition to have an open pot basically all day. You fed everyone who stopped by. We even fed ‘Mike’, our long time mailman. He was like part of the family. We always left him a little something in the mailbox, too. A Christmas present.

This year was a very quiet Christmas. There was only the 4 of us. The guys felt alright with it, but I know that my wife would have much preferred to have a busy Christmas, like we did last year when we stayed with her best friend, Tamami, in Dallas. We’ll probably end up doing it every year. It’s so important for her. It reminds her of her times in Brazil, which were pretty similar to my times as a child.

So, what traditions do you continue if you care to share?