Feeding the Sibs - July 17, 2023

My two siblings and I grew up eating white (Great Northern) beans.  

We were poor.  Dried white beans were cheap.  We usually had them with potatoes and home-made biscuits or cornbread.  We all still love them.

I grew white beans in the vegetable garden this year, planted from a grocery-store bag in my pantry.  They did very well.  We picked them and shelled them this week, and I invited my siblings for lunch on Sunday for the novelty of eating white beans that had not first been dried.  With the beans we had ham, slaw, cucumbers and onions in vinegar, and sliced ripe tomatoes, quite a step up from our childhood meals.

We all decided that fresh white beans aren't really any tastier than dried ones.  As long as I can continue to buy dried white beans, I probably won't grow any more.  ;)

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Saturday afternoon The Husband and I went to a ukulele concert in the big city.  The musicians were all from other cities.  They had electric instruments and fancy sound equipment and canned back-up music (for some songs).  Ever heard "Honky Tonk Women" on the ukulele?  I hadn't.  

It worked.  

The concert was held in the lobby of the Crosstown Arts building.  This building has a special place in my heart.  When I was a child, it housed a Sears store on the lower floors and corporate offices on the upper floors.  It was one of the tallest buildings in town.  My brother worked there in the warehouse as he was paying his way through college.  The Husband's great-aunt retired from the corporate arm of the business in the 70s.  For me, a country kid, going to that building was a great treat.  For starters, there was an actual escalator. Riding it was both terrifying and thrilling.  Near it was a candy counter where you could buy candy by the pound.  We never got any candy, but it was pretty to look at.

Now, this building houses restaurants, specialty shops, an art gallery, a school, and a radio station, among other things.  People live in apartments on the upper floors.  In my artsy-craftsy opinion, the coolest thing in the building is a shared workspace for artists.  There is woodworking equipment, silk-screening equipment, pottery stuff - all sorts of things.  I'd live in that workspace if I lived in that building.