The Best Meal I Ever Had
I have traveled for business all of my adult life mostly within the US border. I am an adventurous explorer regarding local cuisine and focus on the regional specialties wherever I find myself. I would like to tell you about the best meal I ever had.
I was the eldest child in a lower middle class family (I’m being generous). I went to an inner city high school which wasn’t as bad as some are today, but it was no picnic then either. My best friend was lanky and gangly with very thick unkempt black hair that no one else seemed to care much for. Curtis and I were great friends. Our sophomore year in HS (1960’s) we were about 14 years old. I invited Curtis to stay over one school night so our parents didn’t have to pick us up because we didn’t live very close. Curtis came home with me and I was pretty embarrassed about my humble surroundings, but that is a story for another day. Curtis didn’t seem to mind, after all, we were best friends and I just thought he was being nice.
The next week it was my turn. We got on his bus together and it seemed like we rode forever. Ours was the last stop. I learned many new things about him that day. Curtis lived out in the middle of a corn field with 11 other sisters and brothers. Dad was an alcoholic and Mom, well she was doing her best to hold it all together. It didn’t take long to figure out that he had not let anyone know I was coming. It was too late now, there was no car, no phone and no way to call for anyone to pick me up. When the dust settled, it was clear I would be spending the night so we just had to make the best of it.
Mom gave Curtis $3 and sent us to the corner grocery for some hamburger meat. This was a 3 mile walk down dusty dirt roads in 100 deg plus heat. We didn’t speak a word the whole trip, but we did get the hamburger. While she cooked dinner for now 15 souls, Curtis and I played in the corn field like best friends would. We never discussed it, but I understood why my friend didn’t ask for permission.
As we sat at the rickety old table on pails and boxes, I looked around inside this 100 + year old farmhouse. The bathroom was in the middle of the house with a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Everything was open inside the house. The bathroom walls were made of salvaged cardboard boxes loosely nailed to splintery 2x4’s, there was no sheetrock anywhere. When I looked at the ceiling, I could see the shingle nails poking through. The exterior walls were the shiplap siding, no insulation, no air conditioning, another single bulb hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room.
It was straight out of the grapes of wrath, but he was my friend and I was in his home now. Dinner consisted of pinto beans, fried potatoes with onions and wonderful little hamburger patties. We ate our fill that night and went back to school on that same bus in the morning; Curtis, my best friend, and me. It was the best meal I ever had.
Here is my inspiration for sharing this story:
Philippians 4:12 NIV I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
We talk so much about giving tangible gifts as a token of our friendship, sometimes the simple gift of friendship is all someone really wants. I hope you will recall this little story the next time you attend a
meeting at your turning club or wherever you find yourself. Thanks for listening. Because wherever you go, there you are.
