Transformations: The BBQ place, the Craft Store, and Women Characters in a Movie

Yesterday for lunch, I went to a BBQ place with my grad school friend.  It was in a place in the heart of Five Points which is near the campus of the University of South Carolina.  The last time I ate there, it was not a BBQ place, but it was in the same structure.  The last time I ate there, it was a steak place with dark wood and sophisticated furnishings.  It was the summer of 1991, and we met my undergrad History professor there for dinner.  He told us we had to go see Thelma and Louise on the big screen, and the next week we did.

The current restaurant did not inspire a trip to the movies, although it might have, if Harriet was still in movie theatres.  We did have a great talk about barbecue and sides, in addition to talking about the depiction of slavery in recent movies and in the Roots of our childhood.  If I was writing that scene in a novel, I might have spent some time reflecting that we were eating foods that we might never have had without the Southern plantation.

I thought about getting smoked turkey.  It is the week of Thanksgiving after all.  But we got a fried ribs appetizer--it's not deep fried, like chicken, but fried in some way that makes the outer meat a wonderful texture.  I should have had it for both appetizer and main dish.  It was the best part of the meal.

We spent part of the afternoon on a quest for tea towels that have embroidery cloth (Aida cloth) as part of them.  The craft stores of our grad school years would have had bibs and ornaments and towels of all sizes, along with counted cross stitch kits.  These modern stores do not.  Sigh.

We came home to an afternoon of late tea and conversation.  Last week, my sister sent me a link to a house that's for sale in western North Carolina.  It's been an inn and a house, and it's huge--perhaps it's a good deal or perhaps it's a boondoggle.  I have dreams of artists' colonies or retreat centers or both or just moving to a higher elevation and watching the light shift on the mountains.  Sigh.

As the afternoon deepened into evening, I wondered if we had missed any developments with the national news.  We spent some time working with the antenna, and catching up on the news.

Then we watched The Chaperone, which I would not have discovered without my grad school friend.  We thought we'd have lovely costumes, if nothing else.  But the story line was compelling too--and it made me glad to be alive in the 21st century, not trying to find my way as a woman 100 years ago.

I didn't realize the movie was released in theatres--I thought it was an episode made for Masterpiece Theatre.  I'm glad I didn't pay to watch it in movie theatres; it's a bit low key for that venue.  But for a chilly November night, it was just the thing!

And now, to think more about Thanksgiving, which is almost upon us.