Oh my goodness. You just don't know what you missed last Sunday. How I wish you and your family coulda been here for Sunday dinner. Things mighta gone a lot smoother if you had been here. ‘Course, as far as it goes, I'm not sure anything would have made a difference. I stood it about as long as a body can be expected to and finally, I started jerkin' some knots.
Well, since you might not have heard, here's what happened.
Every few months Orley's big family gets together for Sunday dinner. Now you know me. Getting' together with family is about like a gettin' to enjoy a little bit of heaven before the real thing. But for a few minutes last week it put me in mind of a completely different place.
You've been here for family gatherin's. Of course, not lately, I might add. But you know what they're like. All of Orley's sisters except Blanche have developed a special way of fixin' something or other. Glenda mixes turnip greens, black-eyed peas and country ham that will set your slobberin' glands to workin' overtime and Margie is so accomplished with the skillet that she has to shoo chickens away to keep them from jumpin' in the lard just for the honor of getting' fried by such a cook. Well, I could go on ‘cause each one is real good at fixin' somethin'. And Blanche plays the piano real good.
Well, anyhow it all started off just as you'd imagine but with so many we had to expand the table beyond one location! Well, when we all got ready to sit down somebody miscounted and we were short a plate. Well, it was an honest mistake ‘cause the way Orley's family multiplies it's hard to keep track.
But, as it happened it was like musical chairs and Verla's little grandson, who is a mite more sensitive than he needs to be, got left out and he failed to see the humor in the situation. He commenced to poutin' and accusin' the family of leavin' him out on purpose. Before it was over, he decided that he wasn't really part of our family at all. He commenced to threatenin' to run away and find another family. 'Course it didn't help that one of his cousins kept tellin' him his plate was set up in the barn. Another one said, “You're not like the rest of us. You have red hair and freckles. I don't think you should have a place with us.” She thought she was bein' funny, but it just made a bad situation worse. ‘Course, she has red hair and freckles, too.
I'll swan to my time, before it was over he had the family plumb divided over his bein' left out and tempers were gettin' outta control when one cousin chunked a biscuit at another. Well, food starting flyin', givin' a whole different meanin' to fast food. One was gettin' ready to retaliate with a drumstick when I let out a whoop I hadn't heard from myself since VE day.
“You all are sittin' at my table,” I heard myself say. “And at my table we're not gonna act like this. Nobody gets left out unless its by oversight. We are all family here and even if we mess up and don't have a plate ready each one has a place in our hearts. We'll have no quarrel about it. That's just the way it is. We love and respect each other and nobody gets left out at our table.” At that point I marched that boy right up to my place and put him there in my chair.
Well, you coulda heard the sugar dissolvin' in the iced tea. I was just standin' there not knowin' what to do next when Orley, bless his heart, got up, went to the cupboard and got a plate. All he said was, “All y'all need to make room for one more.”
Well, with this fresh on my mind, I guess it's colored my attitude as the BGAV gets underway. I've been right proud that we always say that there's room at the table for everybody. With a family as big as ours somebody is bound to feel left out, I guess. But, I'm one Virginia Baptist who will fight tooth and toenail for everybody to have a place at the table. Now, I'm talkin' about a real place, not just somethin' we talk about.
Now, I know not all of us dot our “i”s and cross our “t”s just the same way. We've got some differences in the way we think about things, I've heard. Even so, we're family. It's a matter of havin' a place for your brothers and sisters in your heart before you worry about the table. And any Virginia Baptist who says the place for his brother is in the barn needs to be taken behind the woodshed, if you catch my meanin'.
Seems to me the big ‘uns always get their places. It's the others we have to look out after. The strong and numerous have to make sure the others don't feel like red-headed freckle-faced step children. That's just the way it is in families.
Didn't mean to preach you a sermon, but it's been on my mind ever since last Sunday's big dinner.
Ever since the WMUV Get Away I've been in the mood to go to the BGAV. There's just somethin' about everybody gettin' together to celebrate who we are in God's family that inspires me.
I'll look for you at the Religious Herald booth and I'm gonna pick up one of those little ice scrapers you told me y'all are givin' away. Sounds like it'll come in right handy when the weather changes.
Well, in closin' I'll just say if you bring any biscuits to the BGAV, keep ‘em in your pocket ‘till you get hungry.
Love, Aunt Ida