Columns

Is this October or December?

The sun sets like it is December, but the daytime highs feel much more like fall than midwinter.

And it seems as though the fish are confused as well. Normally by this time, the trout and redfish have become well established in the area rivers and deeper tidal creeks, but many trout are still out front on the edge of the flats as if it were march already.

My guess is that the next cold front (which has not been forecast at this writing) will be the "coupe de grace" that finally persuades them to head for their usual winter haunts.

I prepared and served my first complete holiday meal for Thanksgiving, 1961 when I was a mere 19 years old. I had the help of a couple of my younger sisters but, for the most part, I could take credit, or blame, for most of it.

Fortunately, it turned out to be a delicious dinner. The only thing missing were our parents who had both passed away earlier that year. I was among those fortunate enough to have been taught the basics of cooking, baking and setting a pretty table, as my mother called it.

My own father was never involved with politics, so whatever impressions I had as a boy were made by my grandfathers.

Before my parents met each other, granddaddy Binkley met granddaddy Frazier when he called up a tobacco company in Winston-Salem to order a box of Days Work. This was before my parents had met each other, and didn't learn this little secret until years later.

Granddaddy Binkley was a car salesman most of his adult life, and always had a small farm near Mocksville. He described himself in later years as a Roosevelt Democrat.

We are officially into the holiday party season now that Thanksgiving has come and gone. Groups, families and employers everywhere are planning their annual gatherings and celebrations. Every such event will have one central theme - food. As far back as time goes, a feast has always been the way to fellowship and celebrate with those around us.