Close to Nowhere

• Monday of last week, I did something I hadn’t been able to in a long time. I called JB’s and ordered a cheeseburger.

There are many good restaurants in Holly Springs. Often if someone asks, say, about barbecue, well, you send them to the gas station.

After a horrendous fire in early June this year, there’s been a hole in the eateries.

Lynn Pullen, Johnny and Nancy Boone, and the entire staff have worked like mad and re-opened, in a new location, in just about six months.

Friday, daughter Dana and I dropped by for lunch and everyone coming through was saying the same thing I was — “Seems like old times!”

• Food is so intertwined with our lives it seems. As I write this, on Tuesday, we’re eating lunch, celebrating Pam Burleson’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Pam!) We love to have birthday lunch at the office. We’re all good cooks!

One of our favorite desserts is “Pauline’s Pie.” Pauline worked here probably 25 years ago. She would bring “her” pie to our lunches and it became “Pauline’s Pie,” and to this day I can’t tell you the real name.

Tuesday, we’re enjoying Barbara’s funeral sandwiches. Faye is famous for her sausage balls and deviled eggs. Carolyn makes one of my all-time favorites — some kind of orange and fruity and Cool Whippy Jello dish. Naturally, it’s called Carolyn’s Orange Jello.

We’re having a couple of new treats today. Sue made what I’m hoping will become one of her regular dishes — fire crackers. The other new treat is Capt. Rodney’s Dip.

I hear all these commercials saying, “It’s so good you’ll slap your mama.” I would never have slapped my mama for any reason. But this dip is really, really good.

• Christmas is approaching way too fast. Seems like  last Christmas was just a couple months ago.

I’m getting the stuff together to make our regular Christmas treats. One of my highly anticipated favorites is my mother’s peppermint cake. It’s a pain, but boy, is it worth the aggravation.

We’re having a new treat this year as well. Claude Vinson, retired sports editor and still good friend, is getting himself a goose.

We were talking about it and now he’s getting me a goose also.

Daughter Dana is beyond excited. She’s always wanted to cook a goose.

• My favorite anticipation this Christmas is not food at all. I’m waiting on a great-grandson. Perhaps not as anxiously as mom and dad are, but...

I can’t really think of a better Christmas treat!