Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day: In Search of a Brighter Future

Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day: In Search of a Brighter Future

Nobody has ever asked me how I feel, so I keep my thoughts to myself. I keep my thoughts, whether good, sad, happy, or bad, to myself. I can control my emotions better when I do. The one thing I have learned as a 78-year-old Black woman from South Georgia working as a housekeeper, cook, and nanny for a well-to-do white family is that you'll keep your job longer when you don't share what you think. Be invisible. I've worked for them since I was 17 years old, and this just grew up in me. After all, as a widow of 38 years, staying out of the way and not expressing how I felt was more about survival and keeping my job. I am still a single mother with an adult daughter and 19-year-old grandson, so losing my job has never been an option. My daughter, Janice, is a single mom who works in a convenience store near the house.

God knows she had a hard time raising her baby boy. He's a grown man at 19 but will always be my little Greg-Greg! The world is going to hear from me today. Today is unique and marks the beginning of a change that will influence all our lives one day. It's New Year's Day, and Greg-Greg is leaving for college tomorrow. He is the first one in our family to do this. I know that this will be his ticket to greater financial independence. Once he gets his degree and becomes a doctor, he'll be able to help us out more since we're getting older and live a better life for him and his family. This is a day to celebrate, and I'm fixing a big dinner to say good luck because this event will be life-changing for us. Today, as the matriarch, I will open up to everybody having dinner with us and tell how I feel about all of this and my life as we send my grandson off for a better life. Finally, here are some thoughts from a woman of a few words that will impact everyone coming for dinner today. Janice, Greg-Greg, other cousins and friends, and Mr. Yarmouth, with whom I've worked for years, are stopping by. I don't plan to hold back anything. 

Who would have guessed that Greg-Greg's last dinner at home before leaving for college would be New Year's Day? Culturally and with our traditions, my daddy would have chuckled because it couldn't be a better final dinner to send him away! "The irony," I can hear him saying. Let me check to be sure all the food is on the buffet in the dining room because people should be arriving any minute now. Let's see:

Hoppin John, which for us means good luck for the upcoming year, Collard Greens since the green color represents money and prosperity, fried chicken using the same recipe that my grandmother passed down to us (Greg-Greg's favorite as I recall), his mother's macaroni and cheese that he adores, and of course all of his favorite desserts that I used to make while he was growing up and even today when I think about it: Pound Cake, Sweet Potato Pie, 7-Up Cake, Peach Cobbler and homemade vanilla ice-cream. Oh yeah, I think we have it all together now!

Oh, the doorbell is ringing, and everyone is here on time. "Greg-Greg, you and your Mom, come downstairs; everyone is here," I screamed. I swear, the two of them take so long to get ready. I get a chuckle watching both of them primp in the same mirror in the bathroom every day! "Y'all come in; Greg and his mother just came downstairs; they're in the dining room. Everything is set up already in the dining room."

"It's good to see all of you today. It might be 10 of us, but it's enough food for 30! Look, before we start, I want us to pray over the food, then I want to talk about why today is so important for all of us," I said. "Janice, since you're Greg-Greg's mother, why don't you lead us in prayer first? Then, when you finish, I have something I want to say," I asked. Janice began praying, and I couldn't be more proud:

"Dear God," Janice started. "Thank you for the opportunity to fellowship with one another while we send Greg off to school tomorrow. Bless the food prepared and my mother, who planned this dinner and cooked almost everything on the buffet in this dining room. Thank you for blessing us on the happy day as we move forward in love and devotion to you. Amen." She then turned and looked at me, hugged me, and told everyone that I had something to say before eating. This is the moment that I have been waiting for. The moment to connect the dots. The moment to explain why this day is an inflection point for this family, given the turmoil faced over generations. I decided to speak:

"I am 78 years old and never graduated from high school. My mother and father didn't finish high school, and their parents, my great-grandparents, didn't even attend school. They were sharecroppers. To this family, Greg-Greg going away to college to become a pharmacist is a big deal because he will be able to get a job and support himself with real money. This dinner today represents our culture on New Year's Day and reminds us of our beloved recipes passed down from generation to generation. We're sending him off tomorrow with the memory of family. From my grandmother's homemade sweet potato rolls and sweet potato pie to his mother's mac and cheese and my ham and desserts, food is our love language. It took all night to make what you see, but you know what, this young man deserves it. When he leaves here tomorrow, he will go on to a different life, learning different things and bringing home different ideas, and we will all benefit from it. Greg-Greg, we love you."

It seems like things will never be the same around here. Greg-Greg asked me to meet in the kitchen while everyone was around the dinner table laughing and talking, and I thought something was wrong. He looked at me solemn yet lovingly and asked, "Grandma, can I take a lot of this food with me tomorrow? I have a refrigerator there and can get some ice for my cooler. Don't forget my birthday in February, and if I can't make it home, can you ship me a couple of sweet potato pies? It'll make me feel as if I am home." 

Yes, I love that boy. Maybe I’ll drive up once a month and bring him a home cooked meal!