“HOPPIN JOHN”

For those of you who read the blog you will note that 2010 certainly held true to the title “The Ramblings of a Retiree.” And that is the fun part...taking life one day at a time and waiting to see what’s around the next bend. I believe it was Yogi Berra that said...”when you come to a fork in the road...take it”...and we have!

Someone else coined the phrase “water under the bridge” and that now applies to 2010, good bad or indifferent it is now history. It will, however, be a most memorable year! One that will easily be one of the road markers that defined our passage along life’s road.

That being said and not wanting to “wax philosophical” we move on with the excitement and anticipation of what is around the next bend.

Today we start that journey with a southern tradition, eating “hoppin john”, black-eyed peas. The dish goes back at least as far as 1841, when, according to tradition, it was hawked in the streets of Charleston, South Carolina by a crippled black man who was known as Hoppin' John.

Or... traced back to a legend that during the Civil War, the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, ran out of food while under attack. The residents fortunately discovered black-eyed peas and the legume was thereafter considered “lucky”...there are more,your choice ).

So however you celebrate the New Year...we wish you a most prosperous, health and happy 2011.