14 July 2008

did you feel the earth move?


Something went terribly wrong yesterday. Did you sense that something, somewhere was out of whack in the Hoosier cosmos? That the order of the universe was somehow off-kilter?

I think I know why. It was the green bean casserole-less family reunion I attended yesterday. On our 1 1/2 hour drive to Ockley, Indiana the tantalizing thought of someones great aunt Betty's scrumptious green bean casserole landing on my taste buds was nearly impossible to put aside and concentrate on my driving.

And then, upon arrival in the wooded glen surrounded by corn fields, to find on the tables spread out in the garage...........no green bean casserole. Once I got to the end of the line, I looked back in confusion as to how I could have missed it. But no, it was not there. Leaving with my baked beans & potato salad, like a kid who didn't get what they wanted for Christmas, I looked back once again in bewilderment.....no, no green bean casserole.

How could this be? Everything else was in place. The old people, the masses of kids whom I do not know, the tent for shade, the horse shoe pit, even the flies.

My sad countenance was hardly changed by the dog who kept jumping into the creek and shaking off, getting all those around him wet.

I looked at my wife enjoying her paper plate feast on a blanket in the shade and in my head thought....."how can your family call themselves Hoosiers?"


I bet there will be our official state dish there next year, if not three or four.

5 comments:

the back door said...

everyone knows cousin sharon brings that dish. but i guess since she was celebrating her other grandma's birthday that didn't happen. would you like it for supper tonight? i didn't know it was so dear to you - i don't recall it at any of your reunions??? he he!

Anonymous said...

A woman named Dorcas Reilly, under the employ of the Campbell Soup Company, invented green bean casserole in 1955.

The original recipe card was donated to the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, where it sits alongside Enrico Fermi's invention of the first controlled nucelar reactor.

hoosier reborn said...

WHOA-HO-HO! wait a minute here, you've only been to I think ONE of my family reunions and I'm sure it was there.....along with every other family event!

Yes, I want it for supper.

hoosier reborn said...

don't tell me....if she wasn't a Hoosier, I don't want to know.

vanilla said...

Some warped Hoosier started making fun of green bean casserole to the point that Aunt Betty, feelings hurt, stopped presenting it at the reunion. The aforementioned WH is probably not a Hoosier at all but an imposter.
Bring back the good stuff.

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