Jesus, Church, And Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs.....
Deviled eggs? What does that have to do with anything? Well, as a child growing up, I equated Deviled eggs and Jesus as one in the same. Let me rephrase that. Jesus/ church/ decoration day and deviled eggs always seemed to go together like PB&J. You couldn't have one without the other.

My history with church going included an abundance of special services....family reunions which always took place on decoration day. For those of you not familiar with decoration day, it is a day set aside each year for families to gather and honor those members who have passed on. Such usually took place at a church because most churches had graveyards where deceased members were buried. The church would designate a day, usually in the spring time, that would be decoration day. May 1st is always decoration day where my mother's parents are buried. So we would load up the car and head out to Painter, Alabama. Go to church at New Liberty Baptist, go to the graveyard and place flowers on the grave. After a lengthy stay at the cemetery, we would head back to Pet and Roscoe's house (more family) and have a hoo-ha spread to end all hoo-ha spreads. Invariably someone would bring the obligatory plate of deviled eggs.

If you've never had deviled eggs, then your life is incomplete. Those little oval morsels of poultry offerings all decorated with paprika...just sitting there waiting to be consumed is a party in and of itself. I guess the reason I equate deviled eggs and church is because my mother never fixed them. It wasn't something she just whipped up because the craving for such suddenly overwhelmed her. So the idea of never having them except on special occasions made them all the more "the forbidden fruit.....er...eggs."

We usually held our family gatherings outside. Tables made of planks and sawhorses were covered in table cloths and the food was spread out liken unto some sort a Southern version of a Medieval Feast. The only thing missing were men with beards, holding huge turkey legs.
Kids never went first in this meal times. The old folks always got to go first. I can remember standing in line, Dixie plate in hand, keeping my eye on that tray of deviled eggs.  I would count the number of people ahead of me...count the eggs. Praying and hoping that no one would be greedy with them so I could be. Sorry, that's a way a kids brain works. 

In my prepubescent mind, I rationalized that one person should equal one egg. On no! Aunt Bessie got two of them. This always created the need for a recount to determine the ration of people to egg. To make matters worse, someone would leave the table, plate piled high, only to exclaim to the others, still in line, "I don't know who made these deviled eggs, but they are delicious!"....
"No! NO! Don't announce it!" my tiny brain wanted to scream out. If you announce how wonderful the eggs are, then everyone will get two or three. I would like to say that these gatherings usually ended well for me. Oh, I got my cheeks pinched and kissed by every aunt that I hadn't seen since the last gathering. Such wasn't helped by the simple fact that as said aunt leaned in to kiss my cheeks, I could see there in the corner of her mouth, traces of something yellow. Deviled eggs. "You have the audacity to kiss me after you stole my deviled eggs? I think not." This was followed by my mother telling me to "let aunt (insert name) kiss you. She might not be here next year."  I would allow my aunt to kiss me, but in the back of my tiny mind was the thought that if she didn't make it till next year, there would be more eggs for me. I was a selfish little waif.

You may be asking what in the world does this posting of the Greene Street Letters have to do with anything. Well, nothing if you want to know the truth. Sometimes a guy just has to get things off of his chest. I mean, after all, it's moving into the spring season, and decoration day will be rolling around. Somewhere families will gather and tables will be set. There will be deviled eggs. I may not be there in person, but rest assured I will be there in spirit.
Thanks for letting me clean out my brain this morning.
God on you...
mb