Charlotte L. Blackmer wrote:
> In article >,
> George Shirley > wrote:
>> Try this site on Louisiana cooking, mirletons are commonly called
>> Alligator Pears around this part of Louisiana.
>>
>> http://www.cookinglouisiana.com/Articles/Mirletons.htm
>
> That is interesting, because I remember hearing "alligator pear" for
> avocadoes in my yoot, before the California Avocado Board got busy with
> advertising.
>
> I didn't see chayote/mirleton until I was an adult, but apparently the
> vines grow well around here (coastal part of the San Francisco Bay
> Area). I don't think they have a state marketing board (at least in my
> state) .
>
> Charlotte
Avocados don't grow well down here so we, to my knowledge, never called
them "alligator pears," that was always reserved for chayote, what we
called them over in Texas where I was raised.

Life can be strange, I grew up not 35 miles from where we presently
live. But it was in another state and another state of mind. Folks here
are big into partying, festivals, etc. Where I grew up life revolved
around your church and your school. Most of the menfolk worked shift in
refineries or chemical plants unless they worked shift in one of the
three shipyards that used to be there. Now the shipyards are all in
Singapore or South Korea but the plants are still there. Food was
different too, pinto beans instead of kidney beans, aka "red" beans.
Potatoes instead of rice, mostly, we also ate a good deal of rice as we
were surrounded by rice fields. Kids I grew up with came from two kinds
of families, rice and cattle farmers or plant workers. A great many of
us went on to college, became aeronautical engineers, doctors, lawyers,
etc. All out of a graduating class of 32 people, the largest in that
school in forty years. Now the high school is a 5A football school, the
rice fields are subdivisions, my old elementary school is the Flying J
truck stop, and we're all old fogies when we meet each other. Still, it
was a great place to grow up and all the ladies were fantastic cooks,
each with her specialty. The men could all barbecue, hunt wild game,
fish the local waterholes, and build anything that needed building. A
very self-sufficient community where no one went hungry, or homeless, or
without people around them. A lost time but a great memory.

What sparked the memories? Another one of us went to his reward today
and we will all remember him Tuesday when I go home for his memorial
service. Haven't seen him in thirty years but can pull his youthful face
out of my memory without strain. I reckon someday we will all be
together again but I'm not in a big hurry. <G>