I’ve always had a love hate relationship with food. You see I have been overweight and what doctors call obese since I was about 8 years old. Well you could blame my mother, but God bless her I wouldn’t do that, she is just too sweet and too wonderful a woman to take that on. No I am solely to blame and all the wonderful cooks that were in my family.

As a child I stayed during the summers with my great aunt Cordelia. Now Aunt Delia as we called her, was a WWII widow. Her husband had died in 1952 after being injured in 1945. She was self sufficient and never married again, no man could tame her independent spirit. She was 5’7 and weighed 98lbs. and could eat like a working mule! She cooked daily for herself and me when I was there, everything southern people eat, cornbread in an iron skillet, beans with country ham, fried chicken, collard greens, sliced sweet potato pie, pound cake, banana pudding, and pecan pie. Well with a menu like that what is a southern child to do but let himself be indulged in the delicacies of his culture!

You know in the south we are polite, we truly disdain the word fat. People in the south are big boned, husky, chunky, chubby, pleasingly plump, but never fat. Aunt Delia would say to me sometimes, child you are getting as plump as a hog, but somehow coming from her genteel mouth it didn’t feel like an insult. We ate the same exact things and she would never gain an ounce while I was gaining 5lbs a month!

Now as I get older I am focusing more on my health, drinking water and eating the right things. I’m making progress with losing weight and keeping it off. I guess Almond Milk and Hummus are good, but nothing I eat now will ever taste as good as fried chicken and sweet potato pie!

Now let me tell you how southern food will kill you!

I was at church the other day and prayer was being requested for Brother Earl. It seems Earl and his wife Lucille were at her cousin Ethel’s house for a hot dog dinner. You know here in the south we love processed meats like hot dogs and potted meat. Anyway Lucille was telling the story at church about Earl getting choked on his wiener and having to rush to the hospital for help. When Earl and Lucille got to the hospital and told the doctor that Earl was choking on his wiener the doctor immediately decided to do the only thing possible and cut Earl’s throat and get his wiener out. Well me being the good Baptist that I am could not get the image out of my head of Earl choking on his own wiener and having to go the hospital to have it removed. It was really scary and gave me nightmares! So remember if you are at a hot dog dinner eating your own wiener don’t swallow it all at once or you might get choked! That Southern Food will kill you!!