Recalling fond food memories with Mom and Dad in New Orleans.
Pic: Mom and Dad's Wedding Anniversary, 2005
How can I forget my treasured memories of my late mom and dad?
If you're a “full-fledged 'Yat Native'” like me who grew up on Broadway Street near S. Claiborne Ave., most of those memories have to be intertwined around food!
Mom was a wonderful cook who had to put up with “this caboose of the family,” the last of the line of 3 kids (“the baby”) in our family, as I was a darned picky eater!
It took many years for me to finally try other foods than the beloved red beans and rice that mom would make on Mondays, as is a N'Awlins tradition; it seems like that is all I would eat, as I'm sure my siblings, Helen and David, would attest to.
Being the clumsiest of the kids, I would inevitably be the one to knock over my milk glass a few times a week – much to the chagrin of dad who sat next to me and who patiently had to put up with this malcontent!
I have to admit that I also loved my mommy's fried chicken, although I would slip when I told her that I liked better “Jim's Dandy's Fried Chicken,” which I got at an Uptown spot on Maple Street per my bike ride; for .49 cents, I got a leg, a thigh and a roll!
Daddy used to work at the World Trade Center (WTC), so when I was older in college at Loyola University, he would invite us kids sometimes to join him for lunch at Mother's Restaurant on Poydras near to the Mississippi River.
It was fun as an elementary kid to have gone also, at times, with mommy and my siblings to join daddy for a sneak view of New Orleans per the WTC's “Club 360 Revolving Bar and Lounge's” top floor view!
Lunch at Mother's was exciting and fun to see all of the people waiting in line for the restaurant's world famous poboys! My favorite sandwich was the “gravy drippin” (rolled down to your elbows!) roast beef poboy ones that were even better that the great ones at Schwegmann's, which daddy would bring home after his weekly “makin groceries” shopping sprees for mommy at their LaBarre location; the latter also had a McKenzie's Donut shop in the store, so we would also get a dozen of their world famous glazed donuts every week!
Mommy and Daddy, as I'm sure y'all are looking down on me from heaven and having fun recalling my picky eating days, you must be surprised as to how many more exotic foods I now cook and eat, as well as remembering all the concoctions you did get to see me make when y'all stayed with us after your unfortunate displacement by Hurricane Katrina.
I look forward to future and endless “Lunches at Mother's with Daddy,” when “it will be a gas” to have your red beans and rice again! Okay, I'll refrain from those old sophomoric jokes and whoopee cushion antics - like David and I did as kids at home - up there at the heavenly banquets, if needed! Peace,
Keith John Paul Horcasitas, LCSW, MHA, 1133 Knollhaven Drive, BRLA 70810, khorcasitas.yahoo.com, March 2, 2014.
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How can I forget my treasured memories of my late mom and dad?
