It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a rendition of Alice’s Restaurant

Enjoy

Alice’s Restaurant from http://bookmole.vox.com/
This song is called Alice’s Restaurant, and it’s about Alice, and the
restaurant, but Alice’s Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,
that’s just the name of the song, and that’s why I called the song Alice’s
Restaurant.

(more…)

The now famous Pots On restaurant sign. (Well before I say anything else, can anyone tell me why we haven’t yet dropped the ‘u’ from words ending in ‘ous’ like we did with those ending in ‘our’ ??? I didn’t ever notice that until I wrote the word famous just then… : )

I can remember Alison having a puzzled look when I told her the name of the restaurant we were going, and I think she even had me repeat it a couple of times. As she said it was only a couple of days later she realised what I was actually saying. (thats another thing I found out, we have a twang and use the z sound a lot) I thought somewhere on the pc I would have a picture of the place as its been a local favourite for years and I’ve been there often. Sadly they closed down a few months ago. after 20 years in business. It wasnt really a fancy place but it had a very homely feel to it and the food was usually very good and plenty of it. During the season there was always a long wait for an open table, but thankfully they had a small porch on the front with a few benches and chairs to sit and relax while you waited. Even in the off season it stayed busy as there aren’t but a handful of restaurants of any quality in Currituck County. Speaking of those benches, in this picture you can see they have a pleasant view of a nicely kept lawn and landscape, not to mention making a great place to have a sit after dinner and surprise someone with a ring! :) I tried to find a link to a website that had a picture of the place on it but I couldn’t. I did find a nice review someone had taken the time to write here

By Patricia B. Mitchell, 2004.

Penny Gallop Bowden and Hagan Fischlschweiger are co-owners of Pots On ’N’ Kitchen restaurant, located on the Currituck mainland, just over the Wright Memorial Bridge in Harbinger, North Carolina. My family and I dined here on a recent Outer Banks vacation. Tanya Neeland, a relative, was hostess that night.We enjoyed our dinner in the family-oriented eatery with the “funny” name. (It comes from a frequent statement of Penny’s mom which meant, “Please come in and eat with us. The pot of food on the kitchen stove is ready and available.”)The restaurant was established in 1987 by Ginger Gallop Bowden and her cousins, sisters Joyce Hines and Katherine Johnston. (Katherine is now 88, but still comes in to peel a pot of potatoes every morning.) I had some of those potatoes, mashed — very thick, rich and buttery. Daughter Sarah had the potato casserole made with cream cheese and chives.A large choice of vegetables is offered with the entrees, which range from fried shrimp to pork tenderloin dishes.Sarah and son David ordered the fried shrimp. David says that the shrimp and the cole slaw he chose were both the best he ever had. Jonathan had fried clams, husband Henry opted for a garden salad and a bowl of gumbo, and I chose broiled sea trout.Rather than bread, diners are served sweet corncakes (flat, like pancakes) along with the entree. Cheerful Nancy Barfield, our waitress, took good care of us.David selected Hershey Pie for dessert, which he graciously shared around with other family members who were eyeing the slice of pie greedily. (I was one of those eyers.)Wine is available. The restaurant offers a child’s menu.Lunch is also served, plus a hearty “country” breakfast. The restaurant grows its own blueberries, so fresh blueberry pancakes are summer favorites.

well you can see from the review even the northern tourists who come down find the names of things funny down here. I was reading her explanation of how it got the name, and I can attest to it being true. I knew all the women who opened that restaurant very well. I was working in the late 70′s at a small little supermarket there in Harbinger, and all these women and their families lived probably within a mile of the store, so I saw them nearly every day coming in to shop. It was a very rural and small community then, just a two lane highway then and still some dirt back roads. Ginger was also a school teacher, and both my kids had her. And Ginger was also one of the women who helped to organise the wedding reception when Gretchen and I got married. Anyway just getting t the what I was going to say this woman has a fairly deep almost coarse voice for a small lady (years of trying to quiet the kids I imagine!) and she also has a very southern country accent too and I swear I can hear her now saying to us many times to Come on over and eat, the pots on ‘n (the) kitchen (well the “the” was actually spoken, but we Southerners sometimes speak a bit lazily and dont clearly pronounce very single word as we should, and if you’re not used to it you dont hear the very quick soft ‘th’ sound we put in… why waste extra energy on long useless words like “the”? LOL) Ginger and Joyce are retired now, Katherine passed away late last fall (autumn). Alison, I remember back then telling you that Dennis’ aunt had passed away, do you recall? (Well this Katherine was his aunt. For anyone else reading Dennis is a friend of mine I have known since I’ve been here. We get together Tuesday nights for a couple of games of chess and to visit. I guess by a lot of standards Pot’s On wasn’t a very old local landmark, but it is one of the last that were owned and run by the people whose families have been here for years. Sad in a way to see it closing. Things here have changed so much since I first moved to Currituck. There’s at least 5 lanes now of highway all the way from the state line to the tip of the county, and I would guess well over 95% of the farms are gone. All being rezoned for housing or business. Well thankfully there is still a lot of woodland and I am personally blessed to have a nice lot with a bit of privacy around me still. Alison may laugh at me saying we are growing too big, but we really are. By comparison to Limassol we are “out in the sticks” Oh I wish she could have seen the place 30 years ago. We used to stand at the window or on the deck and see not one, but 5 or 7 deer every evening come walking out from the woods behind the house and cross through the yard heading into the thicker woods for the night across the street. Foxes too. I even saw bear tracks in the back once but never the bear. Whippoorwills used to sing through the whole night, oh it was so peaceful really. Well its progress isn’t it. Nothing we can do but get used to it. Well in some ways we are still out in the sticks. Theres not much here as far as fancy restaurants, or big shops, any large malls are an hours drive away. Well I’m not complaining, I like it like this. And I’ll like it a whole lot more when my beautiful Brit is here with me! :)

Did that draw your attention? In what way?  never mind I may soon find out from the Feedjit widget ;) and I might not want to know anyway!

Actually it’s on a shopping list I found today at the store. Working at a supermarket you find these lists left all over the store very often. I must have picked up hundreds over the years, it’s always interested me to read them , just to get a glimpse into the person writing them or just curious to see what people go to the store to buy. Not to mention sometimes these lists are written on some strange things, and some very common things too, the most popular medium in the summer time in a tourist area is a paper plate. ;)

I think I may turn these lists into a semi regular series of posts if I happen to come across some interesting ones. Well this one just caught my eye being on the bright green paper firstly and then reading the two items near the middle, ‘soft for kitties’ and ‘hard for kitties’. Now I have to admit I didn’t have a clue at first read what it was referring to, well you know where my mind was ;) Then as Alison says , the penny dropped and I realised they were referring to cat food. LOL still makes me laugh though, I must have a recessed Beavis and Butthead gene somewhere in my DNA ;)

I just ut it in my pocket to scan it later when I got home and then I really sat down to analyze it. Now obviously the person(s) who wrote this have very high alcohol priorities. Wine has its own section , on top by the way, and not your cheap wines either, I really doubt they found any of them at the store, but we do carry a higher selection than most of the inland stores so I guess its possible. I only buy Jacobs Creek Cabernet Sauvignon so I don’t know what other types even exist! Yes I moved up years ago from MD 20/20 and Boone’s Farm :) anyway back to the list… next after wines… Beer! yet more alcohol.. Well they are on holiday most likely and why not have a good time. Oh there are going to get something to eat though.. Mussels! Ok sounds like the makings of a nice meal.. just add some Tang  and you will have… TANG? the stuff the astronauts drink/drank? well maybe they are having a healthy breakfast drink.. Or maybe its going to be used with the last item on the list, the Vodka! seems more likely to me, judging from the apparent like of alcohol  evident in this list. Well I’ve already commented on the next two items, the cat food. (God I’m praying that’s what they meant anyway, canned cat food and dried) then paper bowls and plates… ok a common purchase by tourists and most people this time of year, why waste any time washing dishes when you have wine to drink! and beer and Vodka…  Oh yes better get some bread too, always handy to have something to eat during your drunken revelry.. I’ll just assume the crab boil is for the mussels and its not some over the counter medical remedy! , hey you never know what happens when you drink too much in a strange place, you know? And last as I have said is Vodka. Well they wont find it sold in the supermarkets in Carolina. But I do see they have ABC by it so they are thinking to go to the ABC store anyway, still shows they’re not from Carolina as the ABC stores are closed Sunday statewide.

Wish I had scanned or kept some of those old ones I have found, there were ofte amusing notes written onth eside or phone numbers all sorts of odd things. Well i will keep an eye out now for any more of these abandoned lists and maybe turn it into a regular feature of the site, oh that sounds exciting .. sheesh  :-/ Hurry up USCIS and get our visa petition approved so Alsion can save me from this madness I am falling into!!!

I was noticing the other evening when I was writing a mail to Alison that I now automatically seem to use the UK spelling most all the time now. Well specifically those words that here end in ‘or’ where there it’s ‘our‘ such as humour and colour. Well that in itself isnt that uncommon. But I got thinking about it more and realised I also use phrases and words now that 2 years ago I wouldn’t have ever imagined saying.. simple things really like ‘petrol’ I am often sending my love a text kiss from the petrol pumps, (the romantic man that i am!) :) Well here we say ‘gas‘ of course and even that is showing how lazy we are to shorten it from gasoline. And then not only do we use ‘gas’ for that, we call propane ‘gas’ too! And on top of that we call just about anything in a gaseous state that we use for fuel or burning, such as acetylene and such… yes ‘gas’ again! well in polite circles a fart is called ‘gas’ too but I dont want to go rambling on too much in that direction… lol

I now also ring someone instead of call. I can remember well watching those BBC sitcoms from the 60′s and 70′s and hearing them saying to ring someone and laughing at how absurd it sounded to me at the time. Now I don’t think twice about it, either writing it or saying it~ And car park… there’s another one! I dont know when that slipped in really. Well I still use parking lot often too, but its about 50-50 now. Well I don’t know when but I do know how I got to using it. Ever since Alison and I have been texting we have got into the habit of sending some at very specific times during the day, well in addtion to those off and on just to say hi. Theres the wake up text and kiss… well they all have a kiss in them! and then one when we leave the house for work, well naturally the one after that is the car park text! Well as I said I still say parking lot just as often too. It was just so funny the other day someone at work was asking me if I had an extra box cutter, and I said ‘No, but I’ll go out to the car park and get one from my car’ and it was only after I got a funny look from him that I caught what I said!

(more…)