Reflections by Art Fettig
Sunday we attended the 253rd Old Bluff Church Reunion on Cape Fear River in Cumberland County, NC and we had dinner on the grounds. The service was inspiring and the bagpiper, Rev. Arnold Pope served up a sermon that was worthy of a massive cathedral anywhere in the world. I learned what “dinner on the grounds” means in old Cumberland County. It means long covered tables just loaded with the best Southern cookin’ you ever reloaded your plate with. Bar B Q, of course and southern fried chicken but oh, what fixins. Corn and field peas, okra, butter beans and a small army of casseroles, plus roast beef, ham and corned beef, slaws and potato salads and oh yes, chicken pastry, three renderings. There was a variety of corn breads and country biscuits and something called liver mush which many of us avoided. They had red hot dogs too and I watched a teen age boy walk all around those tables and place just one red hot dog on his plate and then later when he rounded those tables again he placed two red hot dogs on his plate. You figure that one out.
And oh those deserts. There was a heavenly chocolate cake and this nice lady stood by and watched me take a big slice and she explained that she makes it every year for the homecoming. I sampled two chocolate pies, a tiny slice of apple pie, pecan pie and passed up pumpkin pie, the banana pudding and other cakes but finished up with a delicious berry pie containing both black and blue berries. It was scrumptious. There were so many other tasty items I overlooked that a person could go back for thirds and fourths if he had a mind to. Inside the church they had these two big potbellied stoves for winter and those little hand fans in the pews donated by the local undertaker and there was a slave gallery in the church, built so the slaves could attend services.
Gimme that old time religion with dinner on the grounds. May God bless America and bring our troops home safely.
