My trip to Vernon, Florida had been incredible. Stopping at the post office, library, cemetery, Dee’s Restaurant and Ms. Fannie Lou’s house had been checked off my list. I'm pretty sure I stood in the same spot my Papa and I stood over 40 years and said, “Here we are.” Papa and I were just referring to being in Vernon, being in a place we wanted to be, being a granddaddy and a grandson on an adventure.
To say my heart was full would be an understatement, however my stomach was growling a little. Ms. Fannie Lou had talked about her chicken and dumplings and her secret pound cake recipe while we were sitting in her sitting room. She had me dreaming about food.
Ms. Fannie Lou shared some of the secret ingredients of her pound cake. I’m sorry, but I will not share those. I had sat with the First Lady of Vernon, Florida, heard her stories, saw her Pink Room, listened to her musical teapot and was about to taste her cooking. I will not tell the secret ingredients.
When we stepped into the kitchen, it was there. Well, half of it was there. I suppose Ms. Fannie Lou had visitors earlier who got to take home the pound cake or eat it right there in her kitchen. It was a wonderful place.
I knew I was going to get some pound cake, she had mentioned it earlier in the afternoon. I might have been drooling a little bit, but I was doing my best to wipe it on my sleeve and not let it show.
Before I could get a piece of pound cake, Ms. Fannie Lou told me another story. The folks at the Vernon Historical Society put on the Vernon Bridge Festival each year. They asked Ms. Fannie Lou to bake a cake. Naturally, Ms. Fannie Lou made her famous pound cake.
The way Ms. Fannie Lou put it, she didn’t realize that there was a cake contest. Of course, her pound cake won First Prize. By this time, I was feeling very comfortable with Ms. Fannie Lou. I accused her of sandbagging and knowing what she was doing baking that pound cake.
I’m not for sure, but I think Ms. Fannie Lou hit me….
I hope she did anyway. We had a big laugh over it. I was about to get to take Ms. Fannie Lou’s Award Winning pound cake with me. I was excited. She cut slice after slice. I held it to my face and smelled it. “This is what heaven must smell like,” I said to myself.
She didn’t stop; Ms. Fannie Lou opened a Tupperware container of peanut butter cookies. I started eating them right there. Goodness gracious, Papa and I had roamed all over Alabama and the Florida panhandle eating hoop cheese and crackers, boiled peanuts, watermelon and sorghum syrup, but I was in Ms. Fannie Lou’s kitchen eating her cookies and taking her Award Winning pound cake with me.
People get put in our path all the time. If we’re real lucky and we’re patient and kind, every once in a while we’ll get to meet a “Ms. Fannie Lou,” an angel here on earth.
My hands were full of Ms. Fannie Lou’s baking, my soul was full of her wisdom and I had a smile on my face bigger than Dallas. This day was a gift, just like Vernon, Florida is a gift. It was so special. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for Papa and him always saying “Let’s go to Vernon.”
As I was heading for the door, Ms. Fannie Lou and I were talking about stuff bigger than us and things happening for a reason. Then she hit me with another good one (story).
She said a while back, she was lying in the bed one morning thinking. Ms. Fannie Lou said to herself (and no one else) that she sure would like some eggs. The day, the weather, the circumstances would require that she drive a long distance to get those eggs.
Ms. Fannie Lou wanted those eggs; she was determined to have some eggs.
As I opened the side door of her house to go out, she was finishing her story. There was a chair just outside, to the right of the door as we went out. Ms. Fannie Lou pointed to the chair and said, “I was leaving to drive and get those eggs; I stepped outside the door and looked in this chair. What do you think was there?”
Of course, I questioned, “Eggs?”
Ms. Fannie Lou said, “Two dozen.”
She found out later that a lady had dropped them by earlier in the morning thinking that Ms. Fannie Lou might like to have some eggs. The lady didn’t know Ms. Fannie Lou woke up wishing for eggs. I would just call them “miracle eggs.”
We see people and places, hear sounds and smell things that stay with all of our lives. We should simply be thankful.
People are kind to us and treat us like we are special. We should simply be thankful.
I am thankful for Ms. Fannie Lou. I am thankful for Vernon, Florida. I am thankful for one of the most wonderful days of my life.
There was a little daylight left; I headed to Wausau to see The Possum Monument.
Previous stories in this series:
Ms. Fannie Lou - The First Lady of Vernon
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I'm BN Heard and I like semicolons, dogs and knowing the secret ingredients.
I've eaten some of Mrs. Fannie Lou's pound cake and I can vouch for it's goodness. As a matter of fact, just last Wednesday afternoon I stopped by her house to tell her about these writings just in case she did not know. She did not and had to tell me all about the author and everything she told and showed him (I got the tour too, even though I had been to her house dozens of times). I left there with three pieces of pound cake wrapped in foil. I had told her I had to pick up my grandson from school so she cut me two pieces then decided one was too small and cut another. Some good stuff!
Posted by: Pam Cates | 04/26/2011 at 09:50 AM