Day 826: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: fish fillet

The original Mother Baxter – Rev. Baxter's grandmother – was known to say, “If you got you any kind of big feed you doin', and you start wit' jus' one pan, get ready to be fightin'. All kinda hungry people 'bout to be standin' 'round in de sun, gettin' angry. If you feedin' from one pan, you gon' need five wit' it: one pan full right behind it, two pans cookin' more, two pans 'bout ready to be cooked in.”

Rev. Baxter as a boy remembered working with his grandmother to feed their entire town with big fish fries and such down in Shortport, VA in Lofton County … he enjoyed the fishing part with his father and uncles and cousins, who would go out to the Roanoke River before and after work to catch, clean, make fish fillets, and get them on ice to take them home to the women who would season the fish and put them in the big ice boxes.

Then, on came Grandmother Baxter, the day of the event, to keep everything moving smoothly – she certainly fried her share of fish, but her real skill was making sure everyone was fed and food never ran short. This was her genius.

Rev. Baxter had implemented this method when he, with Rev. Gordon, had co-founded the Church in the Midst of Life in Big Loft, VA, still inside Lofton County. Its feeding programs, now overseen by his wife, Mrs. Onyx Baxter, followed the same principles.

Rev. Baxter was surprised to come down to the Weekend Oatmeal Feed put on by the Good Neighbors Fellowship of Tinyville, VA and find that the same principles were being applied – five cauldrons of oatmeal ready to serve from, five cauldrons of oatmeal about ten minutes from being ready, five cauldrons with oatmeal halfway done, and five cauldrons just starting out.

Rev. Baxter was even more surprised to realize that indeed, the kettle master whose cousin had “stolen” the idea was willing to give credit to Grandmother Baxter!

“Ironwood [Hamilton] and I were poor as Job's turkeys in high school, Rev. Baxter!” Captain Lee laughed. “We were among the humble White boys who always were showing up in Shortport on the day your grandmother was doing the fish fillet Fridays! When Ironwood and I moved back here, we noticed there were still a ton of poor children, so, he started cooking oatmeal on Sundays – but even before that, a lot of his neighbors of all colors were doing the same thing, because they too had been eating in Shortport – so, in a real sense, your grandmother is the 12th founder of the Good Neighbors Fellowship!”

“And that's why you invited me down here!”

“The 11 living founders of the Fellowship wanted to know if any of Grandmother Baxter's relatives were still alive and in the work, and I said I would find out!”

“We're all doing the same work!”

“Yes, sir, and it is an honor for Captain Hamilton and I to be able to participate. He will say more when he gets off shift from the Tinyville police station … and we will be eating fish fillets, Baxter-style, in honor of your being here, Rev. Baxter!”

Very nearby, a reporter for the Lofton County Free Voice was making notes … an alternative story of the day to what was going on at Antoinette Tudor-Semmes elite little tea party.

“The Good Neighbors get it,” Harvey Harrison, publisher of the Free Voice, said to his son Garvey who was doing the reporting. “They are attaching themselves to good community traditions and falling in line with righteousness, and with Captain H.F. Lee grabbing hold to his Slocum-Lofton grandmother and her friends and putting them to work, even a certain number of the moneyed elite are getting it. As for the rest? Grandmother Baxter had another saying: 'Keep de fire roastin' dem hams.' ”