Barbequed Oranges
It’s a strange little thing really.
Like me I guess. I get this from my grandfather who was a coal miner until the last cave in that he was in and they closed the mine and gave everyone severance and he became Benny the trash man.
You might know a guy like him or not. The trash man that had his own truck and he took stuff that the big county contract guys never touched or touched once a year. He’d haul it to his old place in the country and he’d tear it down or toss it into big bins for the scrap people that paid for stuff. Benny always was the first place you went for rebuilt stuff or used and he’d often give stuff away.
He was as poor as they came too, his place was only ever covered with tar paper and wooden slats nailing it down but he was so far out of the way no one cared enough to go after him because his house wasn’t pretty.
Heck he was the last place on a dirt road that barely ever seen snowplows so no one really cared.
He was such a generous guy though, even if he drank, drank a lot.
There was bad stuff too I guess, but when he was alive I never really seen it.
But he did stuff like barbeque oranges.
That sauce was thick with brown sugar and he had zest from the oranges right into it and he’d cook them in foil for most of it all cut into thin slices and you ate them peel and all then there was this kick of ginger there too.
He’d serve it up when we’d come over with fried whole fish in crispy corn meal and there’d be that and vinegar and there’d be just this good time.
Why is this so important to me?
Because he died shortly after I came out.
But I went to see him when I was really me but not even really into transition either. I’d had to get some hard stares and misgendered when I went to see him before he died and I’d never ever see him again.
It was right on the edge of the end of visiting hours and my Aunt’s and folks have left for the night. So the lights in the room were dimmed and he was sort of there watching the little swivel TV.
I stopped to watch scared with my heart in my throat.
Miners lung I guess, it’s what got him in the end and when I got to his room he was so thin, with the IV’s and the tubes and stuff and he seen me standing there at the doorway and he weakly gestured to me and gave me the come here wave.
I went over. “Hey Grandpa.”
He looked a second then smiled and pulled his misting-mask off enough to say. “Hello Princess.”
We sort of talked for a while and he didn’t bring up my gender or stuff like that but if I was doing alright, what I was going to do for school and where I was going to live.
And he asked if I was seeing anyone.
I wasn’t but still it was nice that he asked and he asked things like he did.
I didn’t stay too long because I knew that someone was likely calling my family because in a small shitty town that’s what people do when they refuse to open their hearts for people that are different.
I kissed him goodbye and I went down to the parking lot and through the stairs and the girl at the front desk that went to school with me a couple of years ahead calling out for me to have a good night while dead naming me in that sweet tone that you can almost feel the squinty evil eyes behind.
I didn’t even stop for that, I came and did what I had to do and that was that.
I got into my fifth hand Impala with the dings and the rust and all of the things that I owned and I drove out of town.
I went back a few times over the years just because I was passing through doing something else. Two times I never even got out of the car I was driving and nothing really changed just another shitty mining town that was slowly drying up after things closed and even the businesses that were there could only do so much.
And the people reflected that too.
But I got out and no my life’s not perfect but it’s okay.
And I’m not seeing anyone yet but y’know…if I find the right someone.
Someone that will say my name and mean it like my grandpa did when he called me princess.
I’ll likely cook them some barbequed oranges.
Comments
Barbecued Oranges
There was a lyrical feeling to this piece. Very nicely done.
It was just a little bit of a thing.
But I appreciate that you liked it in that way.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Princess
Your story made me think of lots of things I've buried away under mounds of other life-garbage. Some things good and others quite festering in the kind of ooze only relative a-holes can produce.
I could feel the icy words thrown by the bee-yotch at the desk, but really didn't want to walk down that particular set of memories.
If no one's called you "Princess" this year, let me be the first, Princess.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
A little old memories and a little kindness.
And a sort of wistful little hope.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Just enough.....
We sort of talked for a while and he didn’t bring up my gender or stuff like that but if I was doing alright, what I was going to do for school and where I was going to live.
And he asked if I was seeing anyone.
I wasn’t but still it was nice that he asked and he asked things like he did
May we all have someone in our lives who asks and that it's nice....
Love, Andrea Lena
I've seen the dying be the most kindest.
At a certain point hopefully we all get to that kindness.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Hits you in the heart
These small towns are at times there own worst enemies. Too small to survive with out the mines but too closed minded to grow new industries. But the core of the story is the personal interaction between Grand father and Grand daughter, the rest is just the stage and props. This touches my heart in a very deep place. thanks for writing it, reminds me why I left and why it was so hard to visit.
Huggles
Michele
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
I grew up in just such a small town.
And it's been very much like that for so many of us I think and so often we have to get out...or b surrounded.
*Great Big Angel Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Now I need some oranges
I read your stories and start craving. Grandfather may have been poor, but his heart was solid gold. Thanks.
Hugs
Heather Marie
It's actually a really good recipe Heather Marie.
You can even do it in the oven and it's really good with a whole host of things though with a really nicely done pork roast it's really excellent.
Benny was a great guy, not perfect but still pretty awesome.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Heart Felt
Really good stuff. An emotional read. Thanks Brian
I'm still working on my stand alone stories.
I'm really glad that this is pretty well received.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
thanks
thank you, very well done. keep up the good work.
robert
Thanks R.J. :)
I'm very glad that you enjoyed it.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Excellent
I heard a real person speaking in a real world. This was very, very good.
Portia
Thanks Portia I think there's people that's lived this.
That whole small town and painfully bittersweet is very common here.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
one of my biggest regrets
is that I never told my grandparents about the girl thing. My grandfather was a tough old bird at times, but family meant everything to him, so he would have taken it, and I suspect my grandmother would say "that's nice, dear, want some supper?"
I think that the older generations had folks that...
loved really well because they had lived through so much.
*Great Big Proud Angel Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Memories of long ago
Bailey,
.
Thank you. You brought back fond memories.
.
Half a century ago I lived in a house like Bennie's. It was a house filled with love. To my Grandmother it was a castle, it even had water - well a cold water tap in the kitchen anyway. It was an amazing place, even if it did only have an outhouse. All of us kids looked forward to school - they had flush toilets.
.
Our "Civil Defense" (tornado) shelter was little more than a covered hole in the ground that my Uncle was so proud of. I suppose if the Russians attacked it would save the cost of a burial - just pile on a little more dirt! Today it's hard to imagine. I remember we all crowded into when a tornado came close. It was claustrophobic and dirty!
.
I was too young to know just how bad I was supposed to feel because we were "poor." I was also too young to understand that "grandpa," my grandmother's current husband (or live in lover?) was a child molester. He was really creepy, with his tobacco stained fingers and and constant scratchy face I hated being near him, or taking a bath in the kitchen in a washtub.
.
For me it wasn't oranges, it was biscuits and milk gravy. Ahh... heavenly! My inner child still remembers that as a place of refuge and joy.
Oh I so get a lot of what you said Beth W.
I grew up in the country on the outsides of a country small town with cold gravity fed water and the only heat we had was wood for the longest time. It was unavoidable to learn just how poor we were but all of my family was so there was a lot of things that you said that takes me back there too.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
So much in the two words "Hello Princess"…
… and so touching to have achieved such a memorable piece without a wasted word.
Rhona McCloud
TY Rhona :)
That's a really great compliment.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Bailey, thanks for the
Bailey, thanks for the receipe, I am going to try it.
The person in my life that was the first to accept me was my Grandmother (80 years old).
You're really welcome Janice
It's a surprisingly easy enough of a thing.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
my life’s not perfect but it’s okay.
Wonderful little short scene with lots of heart. Thank you for sharing a suitable festive orange at Christmas time!
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
I never though about it being seasonal Jemima.
Now I'm thinking a cinnamon stick tossed in and maybe a clove or two and these oranges with a Christmas Ham.
Bailey Summers
Christmas Stocking
My parents always did the oranges in the stocking thing at Christmas (I was a good girl, so no coal for me!) thing so possibly I'm just programmed to look for oranges at Christmas!
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
We did too, there were these really big once a year ones.
That we'd get. It was a thing from my grandparents and their generation to by stuff like that and other stuff from the war. I kind of miss the puddings that were kind of cake with the suet and stuff.
Bailey Summers
Nice closure
It helped me to feel OK about my own family encounter last week. I did my best and they did not respond. I'll be OK now. I won't have a lot of money but I'll be OK.
Thanks
Gwen
There's a lot of good in being okay Gwen.
And having a life full of stops and starts and wrong turns too. I've had lots of those as have many here.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
kind of
poignant and a little bittersweet, but such is life.
thanks
TY LoneWolf.
It was just a little thing that drifted in while doing laudry.
*Hugs and Howls*
Bailey Summers
Powerful
Moments like these are treasures of the soul, memories of light in a sometimes dark world.
*big hugs*
Jenna
I'm really pleased with this as it turned out.
A little musings put down on the screen, it's done very well.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Sic magna initiis?
Great things from small beginnings?
*huggles*
J
Beautiful little story
Very good work.
It definitely sounds like a real person talking.
Reminded me of my grandfather who started in a mining town but moved to be an oil field welder.
Gillian Cairns
There was a lot of My Granddad in this.
He was down in the dark for 3/4 of his life.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Eventually
Eventually I will learn not to read Bailey Summers stories until after removing eye makeup. I keep getting this panda thing going on...
Thank you,
Abby
Pandas are awesome Abby.
I'm glad you liked it though.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Oh, so short... but oh, so sweet.
Thanks for posting this.
Now, (as Linda Richman would say,) I'm all verklempt....
Seriously. You cut straight to the heart.....
sigh