By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! I was on vacation last week, that is why I didn’t write my article. I took the week off. I had a nice week and only had one fall on Friday and fell flat on my back. I was pretty sore, let me tell ya, but I’m about over it. We took a little trip to Hot Springs and had a good time.
This week I am going to talk about my husband, Chuck. I could write for days on the things he’s done during our married life. I will never forget the first time I saw him. I wish I could tell you that there was Berry White music playing in the background and my hair was blowing in the wind, but that was not the case. Chuck had just got off work and was dirty, but he had the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen. He was a Yankee; he was born close to Pittsburgh. He never had fried okra or white gravy. Yes, you read it right. I thought he was crazy. He never learned to like either one. We had many travels, adventures and fights.
One Christmas we decided to go to his dad and stepmoms in Toledo, OK. We loaded up and away we went. Chuck Hopkins always, always insisted that he could drive straight through any where we were going. This caused endless arguments when traveling with kids, that is not a good practice. When we left, he says, we are driving straight thru and not stopping. My first clue that it would be an awful trip. When we were young, he would never let me drive because he said I didn’t know how to drive and when I backed up, I backed up by braille. He got tired that night and took an exit and stopped in a grocery store parking lot to get a few winks of sleep. When he woke up, he was behind the wheel, and he starts yelling at me asking “where in the world have you took us?” I yelled, “ME???! You’re the one behind the wheel, I don’t know where we are!” We finally make it to Toledo for Christmas, and I sure dreaded the drive back home.
One night we had a big fight, and I was going to leave (just for a little while) and he disconnected something on the car so it wouldn’t start. So, I marched in the house and got a skillet and whacked him with it. He laughed at me! Can you believe that? It just made me madder. One time we were not really fighting, he was just mouthing a little and I told him to hush. He proceeded to mouth, and we were bickering back and forth. I was cooking supper and had a can of green beans in my hand, and I threw it into the living room just to get his attention. Low and behold, it hit him right in the side of the head. It’s a miracle I didn’t kill the man. He didn’t laugh about that at first, and then we both busted out laughing.
Memories are all I have of him now. We had a lot of good times. He took me to Niagra Falls for our Honeymoon. We traveled a lot before we had children and saw a lot of sights. Trust me, he wanted to drive straight thru everywhere we went.
Just a FYI, anytime I take a road trip, I take my small ice chest. I guess I have PTSD from hardly ever getting to stop. Even if I go to Fort Smith, I put me some pop and ice in the ice chest and head out. When I went to Fayetteville, I had my ice chest in the car and Curtis was wondering where I was going. Just Fayetteville, Curtis. Can’t be took careful, you might get to needing a road beverage.
We had a tornado last night and I hope everyone is ok. We had several houses with damage. Be safe, more is on the way. This week’s recipe I got from Tawana Williams. It’s called Church Salad. Women used to take it to church dinners and such. It’s a nice treat for the summer. Hope y’all have a great week!
CHURCH SALAD
1 can of cherry pie filling
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup coconut (optional)
1 cup crushed nuts
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 regular tub of Cool Whip
1 cup of mandarin oranges (optional)
Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve. I would mix the sweetened condensed milk and Cool Whip first then stir in the rest.
