I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to fill up with gas and to pick up a few things I needed. Jake was sitting out front with Hermann Spencer and Hermann’s son, Dwayne. There was a right pretty young lady with them I had never seen before. Jake jumped up as I pulled up in front of the pumps and came over with the usual grin pasted all over his face. I climbed out of the car and told him to fill ‘er up. I wandered over toward Hermann and Dwayne as Jake was putting in the gas. Hermann’s first question was to ask if the window seal had held out against the rain we had off the remains of the hurricane that passed through last week. I told him it had held out just fine. I had found a window behind the old fan that had been in place for several years had not been closing properly and rain had been coming in through the crack. Hermann had stopped by to help repair the window and replace the water stained wood. Dwayne stuck out his hand and said it was good to see me again. I had not seen Dwayne since he graduated from Ol’ Miss. My memory is that Dwayne graduated with a degree in law and was now set up with a big firm in southern Mississippi. In the next breath Dwayne introduced me to his new wife, the pretty young lady who was sitting on the bench beside Hermann. She smiled sweetly and said her name was Rose. I told her she was way to pretty to have to settle for someone in the Hermann Spencer family and she came back at me saying she realized the social limitations of the clan she had married in to, but she had grabbed Dwayne when she realized he was the best cook in his graduation class. We all laughed at our exchange of humor.

Jake had finished filling up the tank and came back over to join us. We discussed the weather for a while and Rose reminded Dwayne they needed to gather up the things they had come for if they were to get back over to Hermann’s place in time to fix supper. Dwayne agreed and followed his new wife into the store. I watched them both go inside and told Hermann his son had certainly found himself a pretty girl to marry. Hermann returned that Dwayne had been uncommonly popular at school and had pretty much his pick of any girl he wanted.

“Ya know,” Hermann said, “When we were in school, it was the guy on the football team or the fella with the fancy car the girls always flocked to. The rest of us dumb jerks just sort of stood around and looked on in envy. As I understand it, that’s not the way it is any more. Today, if you want a hot chick, you need to know how to cook. That’s the advantage Dwayne had when he went looking for a girl to date. He let the word out he is a pretty good cook, and all the girls wanted to know him. Take Rose for example. She’s a right sweet kid and I think Dwayne got real lucky when she said she would marry him, but the poor girl can’t properly boil water! When Rose wants to fix the evening meal at home, her best bet is to send out for a box of Kentucky Fried. Girls coming up today just have no clue how to properly handle themselves in the kitchen. The ones who know anything at all have a basic knowledge of how to use a microwave.

“I suppose it’s just luck on Dwayne’s part he got an interest in cooking when he was growing up. He would hang around in the kitchen with the wife and ask to help when a meal was being prepared. The boy got so he was pretty good at fixing good food. I used to kid him that he was preparing to be one of them television chefs when he grew up. Sort of threw me for a loop when he decided to go into the lawyering business. I was sure he had lost his mind.” Hermann chuckled to himself. “Turned out my boy was smarter than I was giving him credit. He wasn’t learning to cook in preparation for a future career. That boy was fixing up his prospects for getting himself a cute girl of his choice.

“The problem with girls today is they don’t have proper exposure to cooking at home. Back when you and I were growing up, most women who were married stayed home with the children and had time to work on their skills in the kitchen. A little girl growing up could watch her mother and learn how to fix food the way it should be fixed. Most women with a family today have a career in the business world and don’t have time to cook food the way it should be cooked. After a long day in the office or working a factory job, they don’t have the energy left over to come home and spend several hours fixing a good home cooked meal. Their idea of fixing something up at home is to mix some hamburger helper with something out of a can and to pop it into the microwave for ten to fifteen minutes. Most nights the wife doesn’t even want to do that. Her first choice is to stop at a fast food place and pick up something on the way home. We are bringing up a generation of girls who have no idea what a real kitchen is all about.”

I let Hermann continue until he was all run down. I have some idea where he is coming from. I have a cook stove at my place but, living by myself as I do, the only time I open the stove is to clean the cobwebs out. If I ever tried to actually cook a real meal, I would end up in the hospital with food poisoning, that is to say if I could survive long enough to reach the doctor. My own cooking skills just don’t exist. I can fry an egg and fix the essential breakfast, but when it comes to real cooking I am strictly at sea. On the other hand, with a few canned goods and the occasional bologna sandwich, I manage to make out. It does not require a great variety in the way of food to keep me happy. Mostly my interests lie in other things. Nor do I frequent the franchise fast food brands all that often. Having made my point, a good home cooked meal is always nice when I can manage to come by it. Dwayne and Rose were coming out the front of the store with their arms weighed down with food fixings. They piled things into the back seat and Hermann crawled in beside the groceries. Dwayne and Rose slid into the front and Rose waved as they drove off. I thought Rose was lucky to have grabbed a good cook such as Dwayne. If Dwayne had been cuter I might have considered marrying him myself.

END