Liver and Onions for Mom

  

jb blocker

  The Corona Virus has shut down buffet type restaurants. I won't be dining at Furr's Cafeteria today! It has been a regular stop for Mother's Day for many years.

Liver and Onions? 

  There was no escape when mom made liver and onions for dad. No excuses and no substitutions. I could smell them cooking before I stepped into the house. Back then, we had the windows and screen doors open whenever possible. You eat what you get or you don't eat is just assumed. The only thing I could do is make sure there was ketchup, lots of ketchup!  

  As an adult, I no longer hate a lot of items I tried to avoid back them.

  I have made a habit...a ritual... of eating at Furr's Cafeteria in Plano on I-75 on Mother’s Day weekends. For Mom! 

  I fill my plate with things my mom would have made. It's kinda like going to a Sunday potluck dinner. I fill my plate with some of my childhood least favorites like lima beans, boiled cabbage, turnip greens, broccoli salad, jello salad, etc.. If they had Salmon Patties, it would be complete. 

  The meal is saved by slices of roast beef, baked fish, and an average meatloaf. My mom's meatloaf became average when a former secretary Sheila Williams McClellan blew my mind.
  I make a point to get a nice helping of liver and onions smothered in the gravy. Some times throughout the year I go to Furr's with a friend, but at this time of year, I make a point to go on my own and take my time talking to my mother...And remember.

  Nancy Lea Kitson Blocker was raised in Geary, Oklahoma where the family persevered through the Dust Bowl. She left her body about 20 years ago but she continually rides on my right shoulder. She still encourages and admonishes me. I can feel her flick my ear often.

  To those who knew her she was a rural small-town Martha Stewart and Barbara Walters rolled into a dust bowl Okie, WWII Wave, author, and so much more.

  I was her adopted Japanese, Irish, German, Korean, French personal project. No racism existed in her world. Cultures did. She embraced the world. We had friends from around the world from nearly 30 years as a Naval family. They returned to America with two adopted children, for most of my childhood the only other 1/2 Asian I would know was my baby sister Eri.