Chapter 3

Bridging Gaps

Homecoming

... The Trojan horse sign was the reply. The search was on for the handmade blue and pink sign and the masking tape. The tape was needed in order to attach the sign to the outside of the camper. The Trojan Horse sign was taped. It was placed high enough so all the passersby could see it, and with that the homecoming party officially began.

The trailer set up was pretty cool. As you entered the side door of the trailer, all the way in the back on the left was the one double bed. Next to the bed was the bathroom. Across from the bathroom was the closet. The sitting table had two benches with cushions on top of them. One could pull the table out. Amazingly somehow the table connected to the benches. When you put the cushions on top of the folded out table, there was the second bed for the other two guys. Doc usually slept in the bed at the back of the camper. The quarters were cramped for those grown men, but they got a kick out of it.

The menu was created long in advance. A lot of make-your-cholesterol-and-blood-pressure-rise foods were on the menu. The menu included fried chicken soaked in buttermilk, baked beans with honey and mustard, greens cooked in pork fat, spicy corn bread with jalapeno peppers, pig’s feet, potato salad, deviled eggs with relish, and ribs slathered with BBQ sauce.

The set up for Homecoming started on Friday. Saturday was the Homecoming football game. A few people stopped by briefly just to touch base and give their greetings. They promised to return later in the day.

Meanwhile, there were a lot of things that needed to be done. The generator on the trailer was plugged up to the ice freezer with a very long extension cord. All the food items that needed to be refrigerated were loaded in the ice freezer. The collard greens and pig’s feet needed to stay cold. You might be thinking pickled pig’s feet in a jar don’t need to be kept cold. These pig’s feet weren’t pickled. Let me tell you how Doc fixed them.

A day or two before the trip to Virginia, Doc purchased 10 packages of raw pig's feet from the meat market. Each package had four feet in it. He cooked them in a large pot of water with vinegar, bay leaf, celery, and onion. He’d let them simmer for hours, until the meat was nice and tender.

The pig’s feet tasted best when you poured additional vinegar on them and ate them with a large spoonful of potato salad on the side. I ate the meat off the bone and sucked the grizzle until the bone was bare.

To find out what else happened at Homecoming, Order A Titan of a Man now.