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January 01, 2003-1:22 p.m. Happy New Year, y�all! I�m sitting here like a good Texas girl eating my black-eyed peas. I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for links to explain why I�m eating black-eyed peas, to no avail. Suffice to say, it is a Southern tradition that goes back to Civil War days when there was nothing to eat but black-eyed peas which were at that time considered to be cattle feed and/or a weed. It�s a testament to the triumph of the Southern spirit and considered good luck to eat black-eyed peas on New Year�s Day. You�d think as mobile a society as we are now, black-eyed peas would be readily available anywhere in the United States. Not so. My friend Jen lives in Maryland in the Washington DC area. I was always taught that Maryland was considered a part of the South, but the only black-eyed peas that Jen could find were an off-brand canned variety in which the black eyes of the peas pictured appeared red. I could go on and on about the blasphemy that is canned black-eyed peas, but as Charlie Robison would say, �These are desperate times.� **Disclaimer: All characters in this diary are fictional. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, real or imagined, is purely coincidental and unintentional.** |
