Happy New Year!

MIDLAND, NC - Wow! What a 2010 and welcome to 2011....year six of Mental Vacation.

Like all good classic logos mine is updated for 2011. I needed my old original photo back with the biplane chasing me but new and improved. Kind of like Aunt Jemimah gets updated from looking like Mammy to Holly Barry, I need a new look too.

A new picture, updated face and a new wide screen layout to greet you for the new year.

Today is a very traditional day in the life of a Southerner because today is the only day when your behavior can influence the outcome of the year ahead.

Don’t ask me where this comes from, my parents passed it down to me. And secretly all traditional Southerners are doing a variation of this tradition today.

It is all based on luck for the coming year. Personally I hope we get Luck as in Andrew Luck quarterback from Stanford as our number one draft pick but that would be selfish and un-gentlemen like.

So here are the rules as taught by my mother to assure good luck in the new year:

1. One must not do laundry on the first day of the year.
2. One must not take out ashes on the first day of the year.
3. One must eat greens to ensure plenty of money in the new year. Traditionally collard greens or turnip greens but a ruling by my mother a few years also included a salad so Gigi would have money too. She gags when she even smell collards.
4. One must consume Black Eyed Peas for luck. It is a special bean that Southerners eat. I don’t think any other bean will substitute but I can ask her for a ruling if Yankees want to play along.
5. One must eat pork for good luck. Traditionally we ate hog jaws. You can’t find them anymore so the ruling board decided pork was close enough. I’ll have a slow cooked Boston Butt.

Now before you question the authenticity of this and the rule bending remember that there are Catholics in hell doing hard time for eating meat on Friday only for others to get a pass on the rule after Vatican II. I still order a flounder sandwich on Fridays even though I’m Protestant because of tradition.

Play along if you like. It couldn't hurt and we can all use good luck. Maybe it will become your tradition too.


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7 comments:

Loz said...

I'm way further South than you and I've never heard of any of that stuff :) But I'll wish you good luck and a Happy 2011.

Phfrankie Bondo said...

Out West we like to start the new year with a chile relleno...

Peach Pod said...

I'm cooking black-eyed peas and greens in the crockpot today. Another tradition is to not loan money today.

Judy said...

I never knew until recently that not EVERYBODY did all of this. I thought it was a given.

Ken said...

Let's see, Bic has a load of laundry all piled high and ready to go downstairs, a bucket full of ashes that needs to go out (it's ugly) and no black eyed peas even if she new what to do with them. She checked the fridge and freezer, no pork and nothing for salads. Shit, we're screwed!
Will Kroger's even be open today?

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Yes it will be open. Get yourself some fresh collards.

Now listen carefully....find a chicken foot or monkey paw. Then wave it around to correct the errors done this morning.

Do it is a humble manner.

terri said...

I didn't do laundry yesterday, or take out ashes or any other chore, for that matter. I also didn't eat pork jaws, collard greens or black eyed peas. Actually, I've never had any of those things. Maybe next year I'll give your traditions a try!