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Houston SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2006 Happy New Year from mile marker 23 The keys leading to Key West are identified by how many miles they are from Key West; thus, Cudjoe Key is 23 miles (mm 23) from Key West. My husband and I dis covered this spot several years ago and spent many a Christmas here among good friends mmmm u Jane Winston The Left Rail and that is what brought me here this year. That, plus this crazy notion of driving from the upper Peninsula of Michigan to Key West, Florida during one year! If you have never visited Key West, you might want to add it to that list of “things I want to do before I die.” I have always said that Key West reminds me of a high class, third world country, and I base that remark on my observations: Yesterday we had break fast at Pepe’s - along with two large dogs that weren’t dining but were certainly under foot. Feral cats were “cat nap ping” everywhere, many of them being six-toed (poly dactyl) cats made famous by Ernest Hemingway who spent a great deal of time in the Keys. Handsome roosters and their pretty hen friends were sighted in grocery store parking lots and open air restaurants. Unkempt homeless folks were on the streets along with others who prefer an alternate lifestyle, and folks from other countries wear ing clothing that does not cover them as well as I think it should. Music wafted from the open air restaurants; the conch train snaked through the city offering tourists the full view of the area; mopeds zipped in and out of traffic; a large cruise ship hovered over the Key West Port and private boats sporting cre ative Christmas trim crowd ed the marina. Flea markets are really big in Florida, and as you sit reading this, I am most likely in the middle of the one at Big Pine Key (mm 30). Vendors from all over the area come pedaling their wares: clothing, sweat shirts, vitamins, jewelry, produce, tools, pottery, sun glasses, shoes, perfumes, sun-tan lotions, funnel cakes; you name it, it is being offered up at the flea market. Interestingly enough, there are equally as many men as women at these events. A touch of humor. My friend and I were grocery shop ping when she inadvertently took out a large wine display breaking three bottles! I took a ladies’ purse, thinking it had been left unattended, and turned it into the Winn Dixie desk only to discover I had taken the purse of a non- English speaking lady who, when asked if it were her purse, only smiled the smile of one who did not under stand what I was asking! We worked it all out, but I was embarrassed, and in the end she was very grateful that a “nice American” had taken care of her. A Florida policeman pulled me over for crossing on a double yellow line; fortunately, he believed the two of us, apologized for stopping us and sent us on our way. Till next week “A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.” - Unknown f w f j, | liSmKKBLc i y\ I y fat*><’''*{* j •• \ p I jg ■ T ■« I i /fi i Li J§ i / Viliw, s . ..Tv . A Wm A I % i / it '-, v ™ W§ 1 vs ct ' r: *‘ 1 M wAfBT 1 ik. V | \ M / : f]\ ' JF? K , ■ '• :, 4 ■ - ”' s '' ' h * i\ -* '-7' Journal Charlotte Perkins Brittany Mack and Lily Greenberg, members of the Warner Robins High School Student Council, sort out some of the formal dresses donated to the Demon Dress Drive. They tried on a few, too. Warner Robins High holds formal wear drive By CHARLOTTE PERKINS Journal Lifestyle Editor Cinderella’s fairy god mother would approve. There are skimpy little shifts with spaghetti straps, basic blacks, demure pas tel organdy dresses and short sequined dresses that would have scandalized an earlier generation. Prom and pageant dress es of every size and style are being donated for the big sale at Warner Robins High School, and just now they’re filling an upstairs bedroom at Barbara Hilliard’s home. Hilliard, who is the facul ty sponsor for the student The cast iron skillet: A southern frying pan Is there anything more essential to true Southern womanhood than a cast iron skillet? One that has been perfectly seasoned and whose weight feels just right in a woman’s hand? I think not. For generations, Southern women have used cast iron pans for everything from stirring up cornbread to making gravy to holding the kitchen door open to keep ing a wayward husband in line. My great aunt Sadie Belle was legendary for her skill with the skillet. Not neces sarily for cooking, though she did make delicious sau sage gravy, but rather for the way she kept Uncle Clarence in line with it. After too many nights out with the boys, sipping too much ‘shine, Sadie Belle walloped him one night with the iron pan and 12 stitches later, he was a changed man. For Lifestyle council says that the basic idea was to give students a way to buy formalwear without stressing their fam ilies’ budgets. The dresses have all been donated in beautiful condition, mostly in dry-cleaning bags. Some are elegant designs of the kind most often worn at beauty pageants. Others are glittery party dresses that might get worn many more times.- Girls who need larger sizes will find some dream come-true choices, and anybody with a wedding coming up in the family might want to take a look, because there’s a limited selection of Mother-of-the- Bride dresses right along the rest of their lives, she knew where her power lay - in the cupboard - and she never hes i - tated to threaten its use. On his death bed, my cousin asked Uncle Clarence if he Ronda Rich Columnist feared death. “Nope,” he replied solemnly. “I’ve spent 52 years fearing Sadie Belle and that dang iron skillet. Death, after that, will be a welcomed reprieve.” I have two iron skillets. One is large and perfect for gravy, fried green tomatoes and, well, anything else I want to fry. The smaller one is used for scrambling eggs and frying bologna or, well, anything else I want to fry in smaller amounts. Either with the party wear for young people. If you have any formal wear in your closet, dona tions are still welcome, and the planners would love to have some tuxes for sale as well. Dressy shoes and handbags are also needed. Donations may be brought to Warner Robins High School when classes resume Jan. 5, 2007. The sale will be on Jan. 13 at the school, with all proceeds going to benefit the women and children of Gateway Cottage. For more infor mation, e-mail demonsdressdrive(a>yahoo. com or see any WRHS Student Council member. is used for cornbread, both cornbread that is made with sugar and that which isn’t. But isn’t that what a sea soned iron skillet is made for - cornbread cooking? Because my iron skil lets are used so regularly, I don’t bother to put them in the cabinet. I store both of them in the lower oven. I like to keep them handy. During a recent shop ping trip with Mama, I was admiring a cast iron pot. “Do you have to season cast iron pots like pans?” I asked her, remembering how she seasoned my first pan by oiling it and let it bake on a lower rack for weeks while she did her normal baking. Mama shrugged. “I don’t know.” “You don’t know?” My eyes bugged out. Now, that’s a first. Usually, if Mama doesn’t know, she just makes it up and sticks Library friends announce new donation boxes Special to the Journal If you have more books than you’re ever going to read, murder mysteries in stacks, westerns piled up in corners or romances stuffed into a box in the closet, now’s the time to clear the book clutter and remember that others might enjoy the books you’ve already read. The Houston County Friends of the Library have three new bright red book donation boxes which will be placed in front of each of the three branch librar Ice cubes and flying Barbies Twenty-three years ago, my husband and I thought it would be a good idea to have children. So we had one. Unfortunately, it took five more years to decide that we could manage another one. After that we apparently needed nine more years to get over that experience and then we had two of them within 16 months of each other so that we wouldn’t have time to come to our senses, I guess. The last one made an appear ance three years after that through an unnatural chain of events. Despite the age differ ences between my children, somehow they have man Happy New Year - Mk£gfloM9BHfe Contributed Maya Lightner is ready to welcome in the New Year. Happy 2007, everybody! to it as if it were the law and gospel sent down from the Mount. If you need any advice on tax shelters, doc toring or legal matters, be sure to call Mama. She can help you cut. But back to cast iron skil lets. I’ve been doing a lot of studying up on our favor ite frying pans. We need to know all the hot points of these Southern necessities. Here’s what I found out: ■l. Don’t scrub with scouring pad. (There has never been a time when I didn’t scrub mine with a wire brush or Brillo pad. How else do you get crusted pork chop droppings out of it?) ■2. After cleaning, lightly rub oil into it and dry it on a heated stove eye. (Never once have I done this, either.) One of mine developed some rust, which happens when the seasoning has been rubbed off with a wire SECTION B ies in Centerville, Warner Robins and Perry to be sold to others for fund raising purposes at the Old Book Sale May 3, 4 an 5, 2007 at the McGill Building, Georgia National Fairgrounds. Pam Yates, FOL President, said, “In 2006, we had about 45,000 books in our sale and raised $17,500 for the libraries. We would like to do even better in 2007.” Christine Hoskins of the FOL said “People can bring their donations for See BOXES, page iB aged to carve out satisfy ing relationships with their siblings. It is interesting to note, however, the peculiar ’MaWF •* '"l x l nj Laura Snyder Laura on Life employ ice cubes to express his affection for his young er brother. Every chance he got, he’d sneak up on his brother and slip an ice See SNYDER, page yB brush and then it has not been oiled and dried on the stove eye. Some folks claim when it has rusted, its life is over. Not true. Cut a lemon in half, dip it in salt then rub the rusted areas until the juice is out of the lemon. Repeat with the other half. The rust will disappear. Oil the pan thor oughly and dry it out on the stove. Good as new. “What do you do if your cast iron rusts?” I had asked Mama. “Nothin’ you can do. Gotta throw ‘em out.” So, when you call Mama to get advice on tax shelters or doctoring, don’t bother to ask her about cast iron skillets. A woman can’t know everything. Ronda Rich is the best selling author of What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should) and The Town That Came A-Courtin’. medium that they use to express their affec tion for one another. The old est one used to