Sweet, messy, wet baby kisses are a treat. That’s what I got yesterday after Marlee Kupcake finished her bottle. She took a little catnap while drinking her afternoon snack and woke up in a sweet mood. Even at 4+ months, she likes to “give sugars”. Little Miss Bright Eyes laughed like she’d done something great. Mamaw thought so, too..

Those sweet moments make up for some of the rougher ones that come during working hours. But there are some bright spots. One of my employee’s went to a convention in Atlanta the week of the 4th. His group toured the Coca-Cola plant and he brought me a 6-ounce Coke. I don’t even care for the Coca-Cola drink, but take one of the little ones, ice it down until crystals form and there’s absolutely nothing better.

I’m not the nostalgic sort, but the little Coke brought back a couple of good memories. While I was looking for a bottle opener (who uses those any more?) I remembered that when I was growing up, there were no canned drinks and none in the plastic bottle with the screw-on top. Every single time my friends & I opened a drink in a glass bottle, we ran our fingers around the mouth of the bottle to remove the rust (?), then put our thumb inside and “popped” it.

Another memory is of the old Catfish Hotel on the Tennessee River. We had to climb a narrow set of rickety old stairs to the restaurant. They served the best slaw – my first memory of paprika. And they kept bringing the little Cokes as long as we asked for them. By the time we finished our catfish dinner our table was littered with a sea of empty Coke bottles. Daddy, Mama, Darrell & I always went with Mama’s sister & her family who lived in Corinth. (We did a lot of vacationing & weekend loafing with Uncle Paul, Aunt Ruth, Richard & Susan.) We’d sit there over the empty bottles and the bones of those fish, look out over that muddy river and laugh about eating fish from it. I do miss my Aunt Ruth.