My Family From Louisville
April 1, 2022
By Joy Lynn Clark
As a kid, I always looked forward to visiting my grandparents. My mom and dad grew up down the street from one another so I always had an awesome visit seeing them both.
On my mom side there were lots of kids and when I was super young, some of them still lived at home. I was the only, “little” kid then but I loved playing with those super cool teenagers. Back then my mom and my grandparents siblings would visit periodically.
Whenever my great aunt and uncle would visit there would be a huge catfish and chicken fry. I really didn’t like the fish but I had just discovered hot sauce and I was willing to see how much I could handle just to be part of the group. The catfish was so good to everybody and I wanted some of that chicken that was about to be ready.
The breading was so good and I tried to get away with slathering it with hot sauce like all of the teenagers. Then grandma came to offer me a fairly decent size piece of chicken. I kept looking at the piece. Is this a, “breast, wing, or leg?”. Oh well, who cares it was good.
One of my great aunts was making creamed corn or greens. I was so impressed because she had lavender colored contacts. Colored contacts was fairly new and I thought that she was so fashionable. I didn’t really know if she could cook any but I thought that her eyes look beautiful and I wanted to get some lavender colored contacts when I grow up.
The next day there was another fry. Mostly chicken this time. I specifically asked for a breast or wings. When my piece came, I asked my mom is this a breast or a wing? Mom said that’s rabbit. I was really surprised and I replied, “it does taste like chicken”. “Great uncle catches all of the catfish and traps the rabbits. He did that since he was a boy.” Grandma added. I thought about those rabbits for years.
One time I had a date with a chef who took me to a really nice restaurant in downtown Chicago I ordered the rabbit wrapped in filo dough.
I also went down to Louisville with my mom as a child. Great aunt had the best house with a huge room full of doll houses. All of the grown-ups with fried chicken and catfish and I just sat in the dollhouse room and admired all of her work.
Great aunt came up to tell me to come and eat, I said that “I really don’t like catfish”. Great aunt said “it’s not catfish it’s Buffalo.” Great aunt goes downstairs and bring me back a plate. “Is there a hot sauce?” I asked. There wasn’t Any hot sauce and I really struggled with this buffalo that was full of bones and seemed more like fish.
In high school, one of my closest friends mom also built all houses. She even opened a shop in our hometown. Visiting my friends house always gave me fond memories of my family from Louisville.
As an adult, I visited a dollhouse exhibition at the museum Science and industry and I remembered my great aunt and my friends mother.
