I believe the old tradition of always leaving a bit of food on your
plate came about because of "the war". People were so hungry during
and right after, it was a sign of recovery that when you were dining
at someone's house, you were no longer so famished you'd clean every
last speck of food up. Even if you were that famished, you couldn't
let the neighbors know it. There is a letter from my gr-gr-gr uncle
in Rich'mun in the latter years of the war, telling how he was trying
to sell his gold pocket watch to be able to buy food for his family,
but there were no takers, the market was glutted with gold pocket
watches (he was also wearing two pair of shoes at a time, so the
holes would not match up). Most southerners in general were never
wealthy people, and you add in the several wars fought here, esp. the
un-Civil War, the hunger was truly terrible. Even for the soldiers;
there are accounts of them eating corn dropped by the army's horses,
they were so hungry. My husband's gr-gr uncle from NC wrote of how he
and his Sergeant, stationed along the Rapidan River here in Orange
County, were boiling and eating weeds. Those who condemn the south
for the Union POWs going hungry need to keep in mind that down here,
everyone was going hungry, POWs, civilians, soldiers, you name it. So
I guess when southerners got food, they had learned, through bitter
trials, how to appreciate, savor and share it.
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Jan 11, 2007, at 8:04 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "qvarizona" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 3:36 PM
> Subject: Food and Speech Patterns: What else is new?
>
>> Hey, "Guys & Gals",
>>
>> When is all the talk about Southern food and Southern talk going
>> to stop?
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Frankly, I thought we were just getting warmed up on the subject of
> southern cooking.
> Southerners, probably because they were a deprived people for about
> 100
> years, have always been a bit obsessed with the subject. For a
> long, long
> time down here food was hard to come by....and became a very
> important topic
> in every way. My mother used to tell me stories about growing up in
> Richmond
> with all her relatives scattered about the Southern part of
> Virginia and how
> they would all visit each other for days at a time and often bring
> their
> regional, edible specialties with them.....seafood if it would keep
> for the
> trek, ham, fruits and vegetables, pies, etc. And there was lots of
> talk
> about food and cooking and certain dishes. Somehow in the recesses
> of my
> memory I remember hearing people describe someone as being "a good
> eater".
> Now what that could have meant other than discussing, say, a child's
> health, I do not know. But it was not said in a derogatory way, I
> don't
> believe. I think it was actually a compliment!
> Well, I suppose we can go back to discussing the origins of the "ef-
> word".
>
>
>
>
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