Uncle Coot

Uncle Coot’s real name was U.L. I don't remember how he came to be called "Coot". Uncle Coot and Aunt Mattie lived next door to us.  He actually sold Mother and Daddy the land for them to build on. I don't exactly know why but I’m glad they did. Uncle Coot was one of Mother’s older brothers (since she is the baby of the family all the brothers and sisters were older). Uncle Coot was one of the colorful ones. Lots of memories of good times with him and Aunt Mattie who was just a little bitty thing. Couldn’t say that about Uncle Coot. He was a Boland through and through which meant he liked good food and liked to eat.

I can remember going to the drive-in theater with them which was a treat not only to see the movie but to get to eat the hamburgers that Aunt Mattie made and brought with us and Cheetos.  I don't think we ever had Cheetos at our house.  He also took us to Bounds’ Cave on Sunday afternoons.  Sometimes it would be several of the brothers and sisters and familys and sometimes it would just be Uncle Coot and his family with me tagging along.  The road to the cave was gravel of course and part of it was pretty steep. Uncle Coot would always tell us to hold on we had to get up this before it got slick as if the car was not going to make it.

Uncle Coot worked for Caviness Woodworking (where my brother has worked for the last umpteen years) and he would come home with sawdust all over him.  I remember he had a towel draped over the seat of the car so he wouldn't get sawdust on the seat.  At one time during my school days before Jimmy could drive and I guess before Daddy starting working for Dr. Webb, Uncle Coot  would pick us up and take us home for lunch.  We had to walk down to the main highway from the school and wait for him and them he would drop us back off at the school on his way back to work. Interesting that he always came home for lunch.

Uncle Coot was famous in our family for a couple of things - all relating to food of course.  He was the one that would smoke sausage for us every year. It would be ready to eat around Christmas time and that was a treat.  He also was known for his oyster stew which he usually fixed for our family get togethers in the winter months.  I never tried it just couldn't get over the milk look. I never liked milk unless it was buttermilk.  But the one thing that I think about the most this time of year was the days Uncle Coot lit the fire outside and put the big black pot over it and started filling it with meat and juices to start the "stew".

It was an all day event every fall - rain or shine - perferably shine.  Mother and Aunt Mattie would start the day before cooking the beef and chicken and then early on stew day they would cook the potatoes and onion -- everything else came out of cans or bottles. Then through out the day we would get to take turns stirring the stew with a boat paddle made at Caviness Woodworking. When it got close to being done sometime late afternoon only Uncle Coot or Daddy could stir because they didn't want it to burn and with all the stuff in it it was thick and hard to stir.  What good eating we had that night.

When the days start to get shorter and cool that's when I think back to stew day.  I’ve been able to carry on the eating of stew by cutting down the original recipe to be able to cook it on the stove but I wish I could have given my kids the experience of cooking it outside.  Great memories - great family times.