Soul Food: Is Delicious Damn The Lies.

“A heaping helping of fried chicken
Macaroni and cheese and collard greens
Too big for my jeans
Smoke steams from under the lid that’s on the pot
Ain’t never had a lot, but thankful for
The little that I got” — Soul Food by Goodie Mob

My parents grew up in what we would consider abject poverty. However, because everyone around my parents was in the same financial straits, their perception of their own poverty was non-existent. My father explained to my daughter that his cherished and only Christmas presents were an assortment of nuts, apples, and oranges. There were no toys or gadgets, just nuts and fresh fruits. Not even candy. I remember him telling me this as a child, and I had the same reaction my daughter had: a cocktail of disappointment, sorrow, disbelief, and disgust.

I tell you about my father’s spartan Christmases to prepare you for the tasks my paternal grandmother would disseminate to my father, aunts, and uncles. She would hand my father and his siblings a bag and a butter knife, turning them loose upon a field with wild dandelions growing. They could only return home when each bag was teaming with the tender dandelion leaves she would later trim, soak in salt water, rinse, pat dry, and finally season with some leftover salt pork and transform into a hearty batch of greens they would subside on for the coming evenings. She would serve some cornbread…