Ahh....The Bread Group

When I was growing up, biscuits were the thing. Living in the deep South, pretty much every meal had homemade biscuits. I remember watching my Mom's and Grandmother's hands working like whips across a kitchen counter covered in flour and within a few minutes, a well-worn greased pan would be popped into the oven and soon removed to deliver hot and heavenly biscuits.

Strangely enough, even though I lingered in the kitchen like a lost haint when I was growing up, I never learned the biscuit making skills. I've always been more of an exact measurements kind of gal and well, the women in my family have always tended to speak in terms like "just a smidge" and "until it looks right". Recently when I was back home, my Mom was making cornbread and I made her give me every single one of her "smidges" and "until it looks right" before she added them to the bowl so that I could measure them exactly and bring the specifics home and duplicate the magic. Of course, much like trying to capture lightning in a jar, the magic has yet to come even close.

The Mister, being from the Mid-West gets tickled at me sometimes. No matter what meal we are making, I'll say, "Okay, now what for the bread group?" He often argues, "I don't think that we need bread with this." Of course, I bounce a "what in the hee-haw hell?" look off of him and say, "WHERE are you FROM??"

He'll then remind me that his family hardly ever had bread with meals and that they had crescent rolls occasionally on only the most special occasions. (Crescent rolls! Occasionally!) Every time that he tells me, I feel weepy for him. Such a sad upbringing! Why, how on Earth did they get the kids to stop playing outside and come in for meals if not with promises of hot bread? Don't even get me started on how they steam their vegetables out there. Hardly even cooked, I tell ya. Someone could get sick from practices like that.

So that brings us to this fantastic song by The Coon Creek Girls. I think that more songs should end with "wow..wow..wow! wow! wow!" And seriously, any tune that challenges me to eat as many biscuits as possible is a-okay in my book:



I once worked with a realtor who had on his business card "Too Much Jelly For Just One Biscuit". I never really know how that applied to real estate but it seems to fit well here.

Learn the fascinating story behind The Coon Creek Girls here including how they performed for President Roosevelt and the First Lady as well as a high-falootin' King and Queen.

Until next time (if biscuits are wrong, I don't wanna be right)
x's and o's,
Eartha

Johnnie Wright Will Be Missed

We lost another great one today. Johnnie Wright passed away today in his home. He was a solo performer as well as half of the chart-topping duo Johnnie and Jack. Strangely enough, we've got another Patsy Cline connection here - the Jack in the duo was Jack Anglin who died in a car crash on the way to a memorial service for Patsy, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and Randy Hughes.

Johnnie is also well-known as the husband of the great Kitty Wells who is still with us.

Here is a really interesting article on his life and career. It also gives a behind the scenes look at how he convinced Kitty to change her name to such and brought her the now famous song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels":

Johnnie Wright, country star and husband of Kitty Wells, dies at 97

May he rest in peace.

Here he is with Bill Phillips and his daughter Ruby who passed in 2009:

Pam's Third Birthday and Christmas 1959

This film shows Pam on her third birthday with her parents and all of her grandparents. There are also some beautiful scenes at the end with Pam and her Mom decorating the Christmas tree and some great shots of some nice Southern home cooking. And don't miss the glimpses of a super cool red and white kitchen.

This was the first of the Pam films that I bought. Mister Kitsch and I set off on a hunt to find an 8mm projector that weekend after we bought the first film. When I first laid eyes on the pastel sweetness at the beginning of this film, I was hooked. I began brainstorming to come up with a way to get the money to buy them all. In the end, I would go and buy a few each time that I got some spending money. As fate would have it, they always stayed on the shelf waiting for me to bring them all home.

Let's go back to 1959, shall we?



Until next time,
x's and o's,
Eartha

Wilma Lee Will Be Missed

We lost one of our great classic bluegrass and country music stars today, Wilma Lee Cooper. Here she is with her husband Stoney and The Clinch Mountain Clan:



Wilma Lee and Stoney began recording in the late 1940s, then performed regularly on the Opry from 1957 until Stoney passed away in 1977. She was known as "The First Lady of Bluegrass" and continued to perform until she had a stroke while performing on stage at the Opry in 2001. The doctors said she would never walk again but she fought tooth and nail and regained use of her legs a few years later. She died today in her home of natural causes.



Rest in peace, Wilma Lee. I hope that Stoney met you on the other side with a song. You really do make a lovely couple.



Until next time,
x's and o's,
Eartha