I was unloading the dishwasher the other day, and my wedding ring clinked against a glass bowl, making a sound so similar to a sound from childhood that I was transported instantly to a motorboat, zipping through briney rivers, the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. I even caught a whiff … Continue reading A Small Thing My Dad Never Knew (R)
Tart. Tangy. Zesty. Zany. Key Lime Pie: it’s yellow, not green. You might think if I was going to write about pie in Georgia I’d write about pecan, all sugary and whiskey brown, the pecans a toasty crunch then a succulent give between the teeth, or maybe peach with its sensual slippery melon-colored sweetness. But … Continue reading Key Lime Pie
I am 23, newly married, and my husband is on a research trip in Bermuda for the next six months. I am a young woman alone in our new home in Takoma Park, Maryland, but I feel safe up here in the upstairs apartment of a cute cottage house with a steep, angled roof. The … Continue reading Cutting cloth
I remember boiled peanuts; I remember them from the barrier islands of Georgia. On hot Saturdays in summer, my family loaded our boat with beach chairs, coolers, canvas tote bags filled with towels, Doritos, and Mom’s chocolate chip cookies, and we motored off across the rippled brown water of tidal rivers. Crusted salt glittered on … Continue reading I remember boiled peanuts
I’m reading Forrest Gump. I haven’t seen the movie since it came out in 1994, and I’ve never read the book, and I haven’t gotten anywhere near the part where Bubba tells Forrest about shrimp: “Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s … Continue reading Thanks Forrest. Now I miss seafood.
“‘I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.’ ‘What it do when it pissed off?’ I ast. ‘Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always … Continue reading Literature Capsule: Southern Women
Butterfly Mind 