Table of Contents
Introduction 11
I Home 19
The Roses of Fairhope 20
Mama Always Said…Choose Your Words Carefully 22
My Brother's Garden 24
Pretty Girl 26
Crazy Cat Lady 28
The Porch 30
Take Your Medicine, Boy 32
Time for the Year's Best Nap 34
My Time Machine 36
All-Night Gospel 38
Saving Face 40
Endless Summer 42
Happy As a Pig 44
Red Dirt 46
II Table 53
For a Vegetable, I'll Have White Gravy 54
Back to the Bayou 60
Traveling Food 66
Fully Dressed 68
Your First Oyster 70
Bad Slaw 74
Never-ending Grace 80
The Plane Truth 82
Magic on the Plate 84
Seasoned in the South 88
Summer Snow 90
The Impossible Turkey 92
Honor Thy Matriarch 94
Requiem for a Fish Sandwich 96
III Place 103
South Toward Home 104
What Stands in a Storm 110
No Place Like Home 114
Trade Day 116
Lost in the Dark 118
The Eternal Gulf 120
Donkey Business 122
Armadillo 124
Dixie Snow 128
Merry and Bright 130
Shopping 132
My Kind of Town 138
The Lost Gulf 142
The Yankee Mystique 148
Cotton 154
Stillness 160
IV Craft 163
Why I Write About Home 164
The Fine Art of Piddling 166
The Color of Words 168
The Blank Notebook 170
Fish Story 172
The Quill and the Mule 174
Words on Paper 176
Wood, Paint, Nails, and Soul 178
Grandpa Was a Carpenter 184
Stuck for Good 190
V Spirit 197
Down Here 198
For the Love of the Game 206
All Saints' Day 208
When Fireworks Go South 210
O Christmas Tree 212
Wheels of Time 214
The Gift of Loafering 216
Holiday Lies 218
O Christmas Sock 220
Cowboys Are Her Weakness 222
A Cast of Characters 224
Nick of Time 230
109 Yards Returned, Two Points Denied, and One Twist Left in the Road 242
Long Time Coming 246
Born Too Late 256
Afterword 258
Index 260
Acknowledgments 263