Digesting New Things

Periwinkle Chronicles, tales of the citizens of Periwinkle [because all the other colors were already taken] County:


Claire and Randall Nathan were invited to the home of Radbyme and June Rarey last Monday night for a scrapple taco feed, scrapple tacos being a staple of Hex-Mex cooking, which is a combination of Pennsylvania Dutch and Mexican cuisines. It was really a debut party for the new LP of WWI songs, “It’s a Long Way,” by their daughter, Tippa.

Everyone was invited to bring their own special side dish contributions. Claire took her famous persimmon & lambrusco salad. Randall took a bag of his homemade persimmon crisps. Mountain Man Malcolm, known on the pig tag-team wrestling circuit as The Wyoming Stranger, where he reigns supreme with his thousand pound Poland-China, Zorro, brought his road-kill jack-a-lope stew.

The jack-a-lopes were brought in from Wyoming to control the Moose Moths in the persimmon vineyards by “The County Cabinet & Historical Desecration Committee.” Now they run all over, and are run over by people from the city practicing for the Running of the Gulls. When Sheriff Grace Orlaw, the first female sheriff of the county since 2008, who gave up her career in theology for obvious reasons, finds a decimated jack-a-lope on the highway, she calls Mountain Man Malcolm, and he makes it into road-kill stew.

Claire Nathan ate three bowls of it, and not just because she’s not a big scrapple taco fan. On the way out the door, though, she said, “I’m burping things I’ve never burped before.”

Tippa Rarey heard her. Since she had sold only three of her new LPs that night, and she suspected her father had bought two, she had already begun to think she needed a cross-over vehicle. Since rap and rock were both out, the obvious choice was country. And what better debut song than the one she composed right there, WJRS, “Wild Jack-a-lope Road-kill Stew”, the Mary Beth Connolly version, which is a little bit confusing, since those are also the call letters of the Persimmon Broadcasting Service radio station, “The Voice of the Swedish Automobiles,” at Volvo River High School.

Oh, I’m burpin’ stuff I’ve never burped before
And every burp just leaves me wantin’ more
I’m burpin’ up Hex-Mex and jack-a-lope stew
And if you give me grief, I’ll be burpin’ you.

Initial sales figures have not yet been released.

{Until next time, may the piece of stew be with you.}

[“Christ in Winter,” reflections on faith for people in the winter of their years, can be found at http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/]

{If you would like to receive PC or CIW by email, let me know at jmcfarland1721@charter.net, and I’ll put you on the list.}