Ties to Home

Today I harvested a pig and slaughtered the garden and treated myself to a soul food dinner.
Actually, I bought a pork shoulder steak and opened two cans of vegetables that I had toted back from the USA a year ago: one of lima beans and one of creamed corn. I did have home-made applesauce to go with the meat, but the apples weren't from my trees. Dessert was two Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, courtesy of my Colorado sister's care package.
Once in a while even a long-term ex-pat has a day that is totally devoid of local experiences and this was one of them. I wallowed in Americana: very old TV shows from the States (Miami CSI, Friends), a lot of catching up on articles from this week's New York Times, the laundering of many pairs of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, brief encounters with Saturday Night Live Updates featuring political stars, trips up and down the stairs to switch from summer clothes to warmer wear and, of course, scanning dozens of Halloween e-cards. The best part of my Midwestern day was the succotash. Did you know you can Google this Narraganset word?