The Day the Music Died

Granny's freezer and antique peas!

Many years ago, a tragedy occurred at my in-laws in Mississippi. Granny's freezer died.

Thanks to Hurricane Katrina

But it was a second occurrence in a three-year period. Once because it was old and once because of Hurricane Katrina.

It has devastated years of collecting frozen foods such as antique peas and vintage deer parts.

As Southerners, we understand the culture of the country freezer, but for the younger generation of our day the only reason to have a freezer is to store stuff bought at Costco.

Knowing the importance of watching their pennies, the in-laws mourned the need to spend hard earned cash for another large, deep freezer. But in Granny's mind she could not do without one.

It only took three months before the deep freezer was full again -- lost was the antiquity of the new collection, but she was secure that the giant cavern was filled.

 The ideal behind the freezer is to store mass amounts of food and save money on groceries. This theory worked great when Southerners had a three-acre garden and a captive-child labor crew to pick, hull, and shell the countless bushels of veggies to store in the freezer.

After time passed by, an aging Granny could only manage a garden with three tomato bushes and four squash plants. Unless you count the row of turnip greens in the fall, but no one freezes those!

The country freezer typically was set on the porch because of its massive size.

 I have numerous memories of my grandmother's freezer because she would always try to keep us kids ice cream in hers and we would raid it often. One time she had a large container of frogs on the top, to be made into frog legs. This made it hard for the squeamish to open with all those dead frogs staring, but we are talking about fudgsicles!

The biggest issue with freezers is sometimes they go out and if you don't use them often enough, you may not know for a while. That is what happened with our freezer when I was a little girl, or what I called the day the porch died. If we could bottle that horrid stink we could use it as a biological warfare weapon.

But, if you went through post Katrina, you probably are familiar with that deceased freezer aroma!

 Not saying there aren’t other potential benefits of a full freezer when the electricity goes out. The “Knowing your freezer is dead” makes for several days of feasting and BBQ!

But do we really need the super deluxe size? Unless Granny plans to keep grandpa around after he expires to collect the pension check!

Ladies, if you keep a large freezer it only encourages hunter man to fill it with his trophy kills. I won't complain about fresh bass fillets or even lean venison meat, but when the animal is still staring at me?  Try opening the freezer one morning to find a bobcat staring back at you. Nothing wakes you from a dead sleep faster than that cold, dead stare...except maybe a cup of Nawlin's chicory coffee.

This of course is what the hunter man is counting on, our displeasure of finding the hunted prey in the food box. We complain and they use the excuse to take the animal down to the taxidermist. You know, to make us (the wives) happy. Which is worse, the bobcat on the wall or in my freezer?  This freezer is known as the Redneck freezer.

My husband knew the exact cubic footage that we could buy to accommodate his kill and remain in the small freezer category. Perhaps, he realizes that his six-foot-five tall body was too large to be next frozen meat.

But try explaining the need to downsize to the Southern Granny. With all the kids and grandkids living hours away the need to have mass amounts of food readily available had lost its rationale. The huge appliance pushes the electric bill higher, especially open like it is on the carport during the hot summers.

What we are battling here is the culture of the freezer. The Grannies are too old to change.

 Maybe the freezer was never really about saving food. Maybe it was about saving a lifetime. Every frozen bag of peas was proof that nothing went to waste. Every mystery package wrapped in butcher paper had a story behind it.

These days we buy non-frozen meat at the grocery meat counter, cook smaller meals, and stop by the grocery store whenever we need something.

The Southern Freezer philosophy still believes a freezer ought to be full enough to feed an army—or at least every child, grandchild, neighbor, and unexpected visitor who might show up at supper.

You might be a Granny if your freezer has food older than some of your grandchildren...and you still insist it's perfectly good.