We cook differently than other people. I remember the first time my mother cooked potato salad for people here in GA they kept asking how did you cook this. My mom (may she RIP) never gave me her recipe but I know she used many different flavors including 2 kinds of milk and 2 kinds of eggs. We ate sardines.....let that marinate for a second. I am talking about the ones in the can where you peel the top back. The staple for breakfast in our house was grits and sardine for breakfast. Y'all remember the bones in them I hated that part but omg the sardines and grits yes. We are known for shrimp and grits but so many people have taken that and ran with it so I am not going to touch it. Something else we eat with our grits is liver. It gotta be calf liver though not that tough beef liver my mom did tell me that. What foods did you have that were staples in your gullah home?
We help each other. Where I am from if we like you we help you if we don't well you will know. Everything I have is from my people geechee people. I seem to can only connect to them for some reason. I guess growing up I know my people so we have a lot in common. I can relate to what we saying, I can relate to what we eating, I can relate to our heritage. Where I am from it's not what you know its who you know. I can go down to Charleston right now and get a job within a week whereas here in GA I have been looking for a job for 3 years and have found none yet. If you have met a geechee person that has not helped you that means they don't like you.
Tough Parenting. Our parents are tough. My hubs always say I don't mess with y'all geechee parents you all don't play. I admit my mom didn't I am not as strict as she was on me but I am strict. She was a tough cookie I remember having to go get switches off the tree, that leather brown belt....was readily available for me. My mom was tough but it taught me lessons that life is tougher than she will ever be. She prepared me for life I think that's one of the reasons life doesn't get to me as much.
What do you remember about growing up Gullah? If you didn't grow up Gullah tell us how you grew up in your neck of the woods?
By Kita
