Soul Food....

Soul Food exists in many forms to different people. My definition of soul food is literally that, food for the soul or what has nurtured your soul from childhood.
So after fishing today Pop and I went to some of the old haunts in search for soul food. When I was growing up Mom and Pop always took me to Jimmy's Hotdogs for tasty weiners. All beef and juicy smothered in chili, onion, and the best mustard EVER!!! So I can't even begin to imagine the amount of hotdogs I've consumed from this man and the number of cans of Sunkist soda I've drank in my 29 years. Even after moving, we still drive almost 2 hours to eat these hotdogs.
So anyways Jimmy and his wife own and run the place. They are Greek and still speak their native tongue and are active in the community. You also know that when you go in that if you don't speak slowly and with the words from the sparse menu, there is no telling what you will get! This practice was alive and well today when we had to tell the wife 4 times what we wanted and eventhough I ordered a Sunkist as always, I got a coke. Of course I still drank it and didn't complain. That's what you do at Jimmy's.
They've been doing it since my Mom was a kid in the same neighboorhood. Today we found out that in August they will be closing their doors forever. This is a direct result of urban sprawl occuring at a rapid rate in my hometown. I was NOT happy to hear of this closure. Then I looked at Jimmy and his wife and saw how old they are and how happy they are together after sooooo many years and it gave me a sense of peace and I realized that this was in the end a good thing as it will allow them to spend more time with the family etc. It's still sad for all of us though who love our "Jimmy Dogs".




So then after this we decided to go to Yoder's Dairy. While growing up my folks always had fresh, cold milk delivered to the house or we would go and pick it up at the Dairy. Mennonite's owned the Dairy we went to and Mr. Miller was the patriarch of said establishment. Now something you should know about Mr. Miller is he was a VERY Mennonite looking man and he had NO legs! He was terribly sweet and always wanted a hug from me and I got my own small milks in exchange. It wasn't a forced thing but him having no legs did creep me out when I was that young. It wasn't the missing limbs but the way he folded his pants under the stumps that bothered me. Of course I never told anyone this until talking to Mom today. Anywho, the Dairy is now a huge operation and long gone are the days of Mr. Miller and free milk for me. Today I had my first taste of cold, fresh milk out of the glass bottle for the first time in almost 15 years. It was as sweet as I remember and I can't wait to finish off the quart.