New Year’s Traditions- Pass the Collard Greens

I grew up in South Carolina, with typical Southern New Year’s traditions I suppose. We ate collard greens cooked with fatback, for “greenbacks” and blackeyed peas for coins. We had fried hog jowl and cornbread. There was Grandma’s pepper sauce, our version of Tabasco peppers in vinegar, that we put on the greens and peas. Of course you had to have chunks of raw onion too. Vinnie, a dear African American woman, kept my sister and me, while our parents worked shift work in the cotton mills. She introduced rice into the New Year’s meal too. She said it represented pennies, and pennies make dollars. I really liked the addition of the rice, and continue to include it in my meal each New Year’s.

Vinnie always prepared our collard greens. I think she spent two days doing this. She washed the greens thoroughly. Then she took paper towel, and wiped each leaf, one by one, back and front. After all the collard leaves were clean, she would take a couple leaves, lay them on top of each other, roll them like a tortilla wrap, then slice the rounds in ¼ inch slices. Next was the cooking. This took several hours, because collards are probably the toughest leaves of all the greens commonly eaten in the South. Vinnie made our collard greens even after we got old enough to take care of ourselves. She prepared our collards until she passed away, then her daughter-in-law, Ella Mae, who worked in the mill with my mom, made them. Ella Mae made my mom’s greens every year until she too passed away. I’m sure my mom thinks about these two strong women every year when she prepares and cooks her collards.

Whereas my mom’s brothers and sisters and all the cousins were often at our house for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, New Years was usually just our small nuclear family. There were just the four of us, Dad, Mom, my younger sister Christy, and me. Most years my parents were off work. We’d watch New Year’s Eve festivities on TV. Then New Year’s Day we’d watch the Rose Parade on TV, and Dad would watch football in the afternoon.

A few years ago, the first time I was stationed in San Antonio, I went to see A Night in Old Vienna, performed by the San Antonio Symphony. I took an elderly friend with me. I drove her home on the South side of town. I guess the clock struck midnight while I was on the road. Fireworks started going off everywhere! Dancing displays were on the right of me, the left, in front, and behind. Some were fairly close, and some far in the distance. I’ve seen fantastic fireworks displays in many places, but this experience remains my most memorable.

My folks are still in S.C. My sister Christy, and our step-brother Devon live with me in San Antonio. This year we watched the fireworks from Six Flags in the distance through the trees in our backyard. We watch the new supersized ball drop in Times Square with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. We prepared frozen collards and blackeyed peas. We had onion, pepper sauce and Jiffy cornbread. We had Turkish rice pilaf. We couldn’t find hog jowl, so we had fried salt pork. We had a lazy and relaxing day watching Dr. Who and Six Feet Under. We spent time with the dogs. We all agreed we were past the whole New Year’s resolutions. We’ve learned to lie to ourselves less and less over the years.

This weekend we will make Hoppin John with our leftover greens, peas and rice. And we’ll eat it with pepper sauce, onion, cornbread and salt pork. And so it is that we celebrated New Year’s, much the same as we did when we were children, but a little different.

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