A Family Favorite

Underwood's Barbecue has stood in Brownwood, Texas, for over 60 years and has been a family favorite eatery for as long as I can remember. My grandmother, her sisters, and every other relative in town ate there regularly, and today I remembered why.

Even in the parking lot customers are greeted by the aroma of barbecue sauce and hickory smoke, so mouths are watering before people walk through the door. Once inside, the place has a snake-like cue to keep the line in order when it gets busy - which frequently happens. A large wooden sign proclaims a variety of entrees like barbecue chicken, steak, and spare ribs; fried chicken, chicken fried steak, and smoked German sausages. This is really the only selection one needs to make, because all the side dishes are included, and since Underwood's is a self-serve cafeteria style eatery, you can fill the bowls to overflowing. I had wide, snappy green beans, mashed potatoes with cream gravy, red beans, a hot yeast roll, and peach cobbler - though I could have just as easily chosen potato salad, crab salad, cherry cobbler, or apple cobbler too, but everything just wouldn't fit on the tray with my spare ribs and Jeff's fried chicken (both of which we divied up and shared between us). Of course, once all of this makes it to the table, plump Southern girls with friendly smiles and Texas drawls bring around carts of drinks, more hot rolls, and whipped cream for the cobbler. Mmmm...

It seemed only fitting that my extended family should gather in this place after bidding a final farewell to my grandmother. We filled two long tables and spilled over into a couple of side booths with more than 20 of us breaking bread together. Grandma would have loved this scene - full of good food, laughter (with plenty of jokes to keep everyone entertained), and old folks pulled up next to babies who are two and three generations away. This is life the way my grandmother lived it. Later in the day, my cousins and I walked to a small restaurant near our hotel to celebrate our beloved grandmother with her favorite drink - a daiquiri. Although the bar tender was not on duty and the poor waiter didn't know how to make anything except an Italian margarita, Grandma was there too. We toasted her life and spent two hours telling stories about family.

By the end of the day, I realized that while my grandmother's tired body has passed from this world, her spirit lives on in each of us. We all felt her love and influence, heard her laughter, remembered her generosity, and walked away not saddened that her life is over, but happy that we were a part of it for so long. Funerals often bring tears and pain, but today those feelings were sewn into a patchwork of warmth and acceptance that wraps itself around this phenomenon we call family.