It’s Oatmeal Season Arrives in Water Valley
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
The weather has finally turned a corner! Summer ended this weekend with what must surely be the last temps in the 80s. We are officially in Hoodie Season! Or, as my friend Megan Patton of Panola Street calls it: Oatmeal Season. This is opposed to Grits Season, which is obviously year-round. I don’t know the logic behind why one can eat piping hot grits all year, but oatmeal is only for cool weather. But it makes sense in my heart.
I really love fall – the soup, the hoodies, the nationally televised fourth-quarter losses against SEC champs because you have the defense of a single sheet of notebook paper, the pumpkins, and the cornbread dressing. Fall is arguably the superior season, despite one very frustrating fall-related weakness that comes close to devaluing the collective greatness of the season altogether. It’s mums.
Who decided to make mums popular and have them be more available than water (which, ironically, they seem to both need and despise simultaneously? Isn’t that a sign of rabies?) What floral-industry marketing sadist decided that the best plant to take on the role as mascot for an entire seasonal cycle of Earth should be one that brings out a person’s failures? Every year I buy a mum. Every year the mum dies within 30 minutes of coming into contact with me.
Granted, I just found out a few days ago that “mum” is short for “chrysanthemum.” Somehow, I reached almost half a century old and never put two and two together. So, I admit, the issue with my mums dying could be not so much the gaslighting nature of the plant itself or its borderline personality but a more me-related circumstance. All this to say, mums should be reported to the Better Business Bureau for false advertising. Those plants are liars. Bad news. Don’t date them.
Moving on from mums, as one should, I had a very low-key, classic Water Valley week. The town-wide yard sale was a lot of fun. I stopped by Mulberry Lane Resale Store, and they’ve expanded a lot since the last time
I was in there. There is a cozy little nook where you can play vintage video games! Not that I would ever do that, personally, but I can see a person cooler than me doing such a thing.
Keeping it Water Valley classic this week, I also had a reliable margarita (or two) at good ol’ El Charrito. I also ordered the Taco Bravo like a 12-year-old boy. All the many boy children I’ve either raised or helped raise have been through their Taco Bravo phase. It’s basically a “Crunchwrap Supreme,” just folded different. Taco Bravo is good in a junior-high way. Believe the hype.
This week I also had a plate lunch from Sweet Mama’s that I publicly inhaled right there at the lunch counter in under five minutes. I’ve said before that I’m not a big lunch eater because lunch makes me too sleepy, but sometimes I read Dixie write “FRESH collard greens” at 5 a.m. on her diner’s Facebook post, and my lunch fate for the day is sealed. It’s happening.
Lastly, mark Thursday, November 13, from 5:30–8:30 p.m. on your calendar! It’s the Main Street Association’s next Wine Down event downtown! Always a popular event and a great time. Don’t pencil it in. Write it in pen! See ya there!
