Before you begin reading my short anecdote below, I'd like to tell you how this relates to Sauce ElatiOn. At the time of this story I was just beginning to experiment with putting hotsauce on my food, a sort of rite of passage for many young people. All of the adults put hot sauce on their food, so I bravely followed suit and found I had Sauce ElatiOn too. In those days it seemed that every Texas household had Texas Pete Hot Sauce on the table. Well at least it was like that in my small Texas world during a few hot summers. Enjoy :)

Mrs Murphy was a short, twiggy, slightly bugeyed, firecracker of a woman who lived across Diamond St from my grandparents Elbridge and Hannah Barrett.  She took a few drinks and talked loud, but mostly she was famous for her Gumbo, which she would cook right out in the front yard. Back then neighbors really new how to make a good party. I remember "MizMuafee" shoutin' out to my grampa one forth of July morning. "Elbridge...Brotha Bahrit...get me suma dem baby blue gumbo crabs when ya comin bak, da sweet wuns and sum shreeump. Imo cook a gumbo! I need dat ritzo sawsidge too." As you are reading this, you are benefiting from years of the translation process, because at the time MizMuafee was talking to my grandfather, I really had no good idea what she was saying to him, but I knew it was going to taste real good.Continue reading "A Texas 4th of July and MizMuafee's Gumbo"