SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
Funny how things – memories – pop into my mind. Something in this day and time will trigger a memory from years ago.
That happened just recently.
Right after Fred and I married, we moved to Fort Worth, Texas, for Fred to attend the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, intending for him to make his life vocation in Baptist work.
The Rotunda, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
A friend of my family’s was a professor at the Seminary at the time. On a visit to Albuquerque some time before, he had convinced Fred that Southwestern was the best Seminary for him to attend (Fred had thought to go to Golden Gate Seminary in California).
1966 – some of the Golden Gate Baptist Seminary campus, Mill Valley, California
Therefore, we contacted him and his wife shortly after we arrived in Fort Worth, and they took us on a tour of the city.
He was a product of New Mexico and she was a lovely Georgia Peach. I don’t remember how they met, but they were a delightful couple. I must tell you that he had been nearly doubled over with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in his youth, and walked with two canes. My Mother had been his Sunday School teacher and had seen him with the canes. He had been a guinea pig for Cortizone treatment, and was walking upright by the time he met his wife. His wife had never seen him doubled over.
That isn’t necessary information for this story, but I think it is interesting.
In any case, he told us a story about one day when he asked his wife if she would cook a pot of beans and cornbread for supper that evening and she agreed, saying that sounded so good to her. He said he called her throughout the day, and each time she would tell him how wonderful the entire house smelled with the cooking beans. His mouth was watering, anticipating those pinto beans he had grown up eating.
So imagine his surprise when he walked through the door to the house, and didn’t smell anything like he remembered. Well, East meets West in this story. He pictured pinto beans and cornbread
Credit Google Search and Cracker Barrel
and her Southern background pictured a pot of green beans with ham hocks! And that’s what she had cooked!
Credit Google Search and Cracker Barrel
He ate the green beans, but was sorely disappointed that he didn’t get those pinto beans he had been looking forward to all day! I don’t remember whether or not she ever learned to make a pot of pinto beans.
I just always get a chuckle out of that story, whenever I think of it.
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years
Old Things R New 
good
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He was a good sport to eat the green beans. You didn’t say how he liked the ham hocks. I bet that was a culture shock for him.
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Imagine what would have happened had she later learned about pinto beans and then combined the two into a delightful dish — ham hock, too, of course.
Billie
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