I befriended a guy that is a Marine aviator at Naval Air Station Meridian. We started talking hunting and guns etc. and I mentioned a gun show coming up and he wanted to go check it out. He is from Nebraska and grew up hunting everything that Nebraska has an open season on. But being from Nebraska and now here in Mississippi, he doesn't know what's going on here (i.e. gun shows, gun stores, what to hunt, when to hunt or where to hunt) nor does he have a lot of time to go goofing off. He sleeps, eats, and then flight school.
He and I, plus another buddy, went to the gun show that weekend and then back to my house to perform a “function test” on all the new toys. Shooting up a lot of ammo can make a man famished, my lovely bride understands this, and when she rang the dinner bell and announced “Who wants red beans and rice?”, we dropped everything. I told our Marine friend I hope you like red beans and rice, he kinda said, “uhh sure”. It never occurred to me that a sport wouldn't know all about red beans and rice. I just assumed that everybody has that on their dinner rotation menu.
As we sat down, I noticed that he was studying the plate closely, then kinda started poking around surveying the mix. But as a guest who had never met my wife before, nor been to our house, he had enough home training to know he's going to hafta chow it down. After that first mouthful his whole face changed, and it looked like he had a racing stripe on his fork. This was the “next day” red beans and rice, the batch made the day before and had sat overnight, which in my opinion, it is better the next day, like chili, barley soup etc. Then he had a moment out of a Dickens novel, “May I have some more porridge please?”
I was about 20 and working for a mobile home supply company in the summer. The had a Fubar warehouse in Alexandria, LA. that they sent me and another guy down there to straighten out. For lunch they sent a local to pick up some food from the nearby soul food diner, he came back and handed me a four pound closed styrofoam box and said “Red beans and rice, here ya go”. I replied “Huh, what, no cheeseburger?” I didn't have many options and was sho' nuff twenty something hungry, so I lifted the lid, peeked inside, started poking around, took a bite and said “WOW”. I ate that every day for two weeks, and then said “Boss man, get me outta this hell hole town and back to my girlfriend”.
I was also introduced to drive through daiquiri shacks, I couldn't believe it was legal, so I stopped by one every day on the way back to the motel just to be sure.
