I was very close to my great aunt and uncle, Nanny and Bill. By the time I was in high
school, they had retired and moved to the beach. I love the beach, so I spent a great deal
of time with them in the summers. Nanny was a great fisherwoman and a great cook. She
taught me how to fish and to love to eat! She could bait a hook and cast a line while
standing in a 20 mile per hour wind in a rocking boat out in the bay. She could accomplish
this with a 2 inch ash on her cigarette hanging from her mouth, and never lose the ash.
As I said, Nanny was a great cook. She made the very best seafood gumbo I have ever eaten.
She gave me her recipe, but it seemed no matter what I did, it never turned out as good as
Nanny's gumbo. One day, I was playing cards with Uncle Bill sitting at the kitchen bar,
while Nanny made her gumbo. I looked up to see what she was doing and saw that ash fall
right into the gumbo! She just stirred it right in and then I knew her secret! A little
ash never hurt anyone, and it sure made that gumbo great!
Nancy Fox is the Executive Director of the
Eden Alternative.
