Dinner on the Grounds

Mama got up earlier than usual to make her famous Banana Pudding.  That's how I knew it was “Dinner on the Grounds” church day because that’s what she always did.  As was the tradition at all the Baptist Churches in the south, when it was time for “Dinner on the Grounds” every family was required to make a “dish” of something.  I hated those Sundays because I would rather go home after church and play.  Daddy didn’t always go to church with us, but on those days he went.  I hated the “Dinners” (they were actually lunch, but everyone in the south calls lunch dinner).  I hated them because as soon as we got outside to where the ladies had the tables set up with the food on them, my great aunts Minnie, Effie and Beedie along with a slew of other people I didn’t know would come over and have to kiss me like they had never seen me before, right on the mouth!  They wore way too much “old lady” perfume and way too much hair spray.  Kissing and hugging all the little kids was something of a ritual for all of them.  I guess because they were so old, they were genuinely happy to see us young ones.  And they were a gossiping group!  My grandma (Daddy’s Mama), “Ma” was included with the best of them.  Ma didn’t go to church every Sunday either.  She was usually “down” with something, but on these Sundays she relished the thought of bringing her potato salad and throwing in with all the ladies for a good old time of fellowship and eating.  Everyone ate way too much and it was all good old Southern food that was probably bad for you.  Afterwards, they had singing in the church.   Thankfully, we didn’t stay for that. 

I liked the other Sundays better, when we would just go straight home from church and Grandma Polly would have “dinner” for us at her house.  Grandpa always bought the Sunday Times Picayune and I’d lay across the cool concrete floor of their front porch and look at the funny paper section.  Grandma and Grandpa (Mama’s Parents) never went to church, although I knew they were religious in their own way.  Their church was the Church of God Church (an actual church).  I had been there for funerals and such. 

After we ate grandma’s good cooking, I could go play.  No kissing, no hugging, no singing.