Art for Christmas Gifts-Paintings by Olivia Thomason

~Doc Lawrence

Christmas Parade

The Holiday season has already started and it can’t come too soon. We need an extra boost to lift the spirits as we endure the agony of isolation and fear. Thanksgiving and Christmas are majestic moments that invoke nostalgia and encourage hope. The memories are rich: the laughter of children, the gathering at the dinner table, the blessing of the food, music that ranges from Handel to Bing Crosby and Elvis. 

And, there are gifts. No health risks are attached to gift giving. Remembering others brings a feeling of satisfaction, knowing we have brightened someone’s life.

Farmer's Market Fun

Stone Mountain’s Olivia Thomason has a very original idea for gifts this season: art. Specifically, a few of her most popular paintings which she has produced as lovely fine art prints. “I’ve done prints by request over the years,” she said, “including two honoring the Atlanta Braves. The sold out in days.” 

Each are professionally produced by a nationally-respected company as giclee fine art prints on highest quality stock. They are 18” x 24”, making them easy to frame. According to Ms. Thomason, they are made to order under her personal supervision. “I sign each print.”

Tunes by the Tracks

This season, the prints for sale selected by Ms. Thomason, represent special moments. One, “Noah’s Ark,” is Biblical. “Village Christmas” celebrates the joy of the season with a parade featuring Santa, children and a marching band. “Tunes by the Tracks” captures the energy and rhythms of those special warm weather Friday evenings in Stone Mountain Historic Village. “Farmer’s Market,” is brimming with happiness.

 “Tailgating Down South” has an interesting story. “It was inspired by my friend, the late Frank Spence,” revealed Ms. Thomason. “Frank had a long career with the Atlanta Braves and the Falcons, and was my go-to for all things Southern. He knew college football and asked me to celebrate the South’s tailgating food ritual with a painting.” She added that all SEC and ACC teams are represented and because it relates to Southern heritage, it has been featured in magazine stories.

Olivia Thomason’s career as an artist spans several decades. Her paintings include projects for major charities and American shrines like Carl Sanburg’s home “Connemara” in Flat Rock, NC. Her numerous awads include artist of the year in Atlanta and gallery of the year for her legendary Primitive Eye gallery in Decatur, Ga.

To make a purchase get more information, contact her at bigoart1@yahoo.com or through Facebook. Better, feel free to call her.

Noah's Ark

College Football & Tailgating 2020

~Doc Lawrence

If there is one event in the South that transcends everything, it's college football. I confess getting caught up in the excitement each year as summer winds down. The rivalries are deep, the loyalties even deeper. Heroes and villains emerge weekly assuring victory laps for some and tears for others.

"Great American Tailgating" 

Gamedays spawned Tailgating, the great pre-kickoff feast that the late esteemed raconteur Frank Spence said was born at Manassas during the Civil War. As the stadiums got bigger to seat more fans, Tailgating went mainstream whereby today's fancy food and delicious libations are distant hints of yesterday's hot dogs, Coke and beer. Big tents, oversized trucks, RV's showcase food from the grill served with Champagne or Jack Daniel's. 

No matter the outcome of the game, Tailgating stands alone, judged by each bite or sip. Of course, a victorious home team is icing on the cake.

It's an industry now. Tailgating cookbooks and accessories emblazoned with team logos sell big time for high prices. I've visited stadium parking lots in over a dozen states for 30 years, writing and broadcasting about the food, beverages and colorful fans. Some of the best food I've ever enjoyed was served generously by these celebrants. 

With very few exceptions, Tailgaters are friendly, generous and spirited. I've made friendships with some that endure to this day.

Frank Spence, "Mr. Tailgating"

The award-winning Atlanta artist Olivia Thomason captured the joy of Tailgating on her canvass. I featured it in several magazine articles and thought it timely to show it again. I've listed the teams shown and found all the SEC and ACC member colleges plus Notre Dame and Ohio State. The painting is rich in detail, incorporating whimsy and humor, two elements that help make a gloriuous celebration.

Last season, her prints of the original sold out. She was encouraged to produce an edition for 2020, and she agreed. The size, 18"x24" is perfect for framing. The production is flawless, first rate and it looks, to borrow words from Coach Bobby Bowden, "dad-gummed great" on a wall in the den.

For information, contact Olivia: bigoart1@yahoo.com.

Stay Safe. Eat Well. Love One Another.

Doc Lawrence
doclawrence@mindspring.com

Country Boy

Remembering Dad-2022

                   by Doc Lawrence

He would proudly describe himself as a farm boy from rural Georgia and leave it at that. While he retained that part of his upbringing, there was more. Soldier, banker, church and civic leader, gardener, good neighbor, friend. And father.

The ruins of his childhood home were overgrown the last time I visited. On a dirt road, locals say you had to want to find it. His own father was a school principal who gave it up to farm for survival during the Great depression. The children followed suit. 

Fishing with Dad

Migrating to Atlanta led to work building bombers for World War II Army Air Force pilots. Then, the draft snagged him. Wife and children, like millions of others, were left behind to live as best they could, while he marched across Europe under General George Patton.

The GI Bill gave the veteran a chance to start a new life, something he pursued seamlessly. New job, home, community with an acclaimed public school system, night school, higher education degrees, job advancement,  church and civic leadership.

I had my first job-a grueling paper route- when I was 13. Every Christmas vacation had me working part-time at the post office. Every summer meant working. Others enjoyed family vacations at the beach, I did roofing, brick laying, hay bailing and other tough jobs. I hated every moment, but I was in great physical health, had an enviable tan and a pretty girlfriend.

And spending money.

College-two degrees-and heading up my own family was a direct benefit of the discipline from childhood. University life: I worked and went to class. But, it was much easier than delivering newspapers in freezing rain at 4:30 a.m. 

His body wore out a few years ago. He wanted to celebrate 100 years on earth, but finished a little short. 

I’ll take some flowers to place on his grave, say a prayer in gratitude for his life and the wonderful memories. 

A self-made man who did not suffer fools, a decorated soldier who hated war, loved God, country and friends, who was repulsed by bellicose loudmouths and remained no matter his pain and loss, true to his core beliefs.

My father. I miss him. You would have enjoyed him.

ANGEL FROM ALABAMA

MOTHER REMEMBERED

“My latest sun is sinking fast, my race is nearly run
My strongest trials now are past, my triumph has begun
Oh, come angel band come and around me stand
Oh bear me away on your snow white wings to my immortal home.”
           Emmylou Harris


By Doc Lawrence

A child of the Depression and World War II, my mother represented the finest of the Deep South. Although she never said it, her role model had to be Scarlett O’Hara. Survival and accomplishment were embodied in a beautiful woman who faced fate squarely and despite unconscionable losses along the way including the death of her youngest child, moved forward relentlessly.

Her name was Carrie and true to the good manners of her time, she was addressed as “Miss Carrie.” Poverty denied her much formal education, but she loved to read and found time to read bedtime stories to me before I was in kindergarten. Books, newspapers and magazines have been vital parts of daily living thanks to her.

She departed this world before my first book was published, but she is the reason it happened.

Southern boys often talk about their mother in the context of cooking and dining. To this day, I have yet to experience staples like fried chicken that compared to the quality of Mom’s. She would ask me on Saturday what I wanted for Sunday dessert and the answer was always her lemon meringue pie. When I came home from college for the holidays, the pie would be waiting to be sliced and served after the feast.

Big name pastry chefs have never served me anything half as delicious.

She enjoyed working, earning some extra cash to keep her three children a little ahead with occasional extras. While I was a skinny teenager, she worked in the record shop at Rich’s, a legendary department store in Atlanta. She brought home promotional sample records, and I was introduced to obscure names like Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson, Bo Diddly, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Patsy Cline and Elvis. A new world of rhythm and harmony opened and I became a rocker with a party band in college, following in her footsteps by earning some money through music.

I was never happier.

I believe she attended all of Elvis’ concerts in Atlanta. One morning during the Dog Days of August, Mom called and informed me of his death. I still remember the pain in her voice.

A devoted Atlanta Braves fan, Mom would not die during baseball season. Her time on earth ended during the December holidays while her beloved Braves were in recess.

Like Emmyloe Harris, Zelda Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, Tallulah Bankhead and Truman Capote’s Aunt Sook, Mom was an Alabama girl. Born and raised in the northeast corner of the state, Lookout Mountain forms a spectacular backdrop for lovely Sequoyia Valley. I always thought it would be a wonderful place for a child.

I always visit her grave early on this special Sunday morning and bring roses. As the Georgia sun peeks through the pines, sometimes the air stirs a little. During moments of great peace, I listen carefully for the flutter of angel wings.

CHAMPAGNE: TONIC FOR THE WEARY SOUL

~Doc Lawrence

“I drink Champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it -- unless I'm thirsty.” 

                       ― Lily Bollinger, House of Bollinger Champagne

Trying times test our resilience. How to endure yet another day of isolation and inactivity when our instincts urge being among others? History shows that food and wine are positive and welcoming, spiritually uplifting affirmations of continuity. Champagne has stood the test of time as a beverage that celebrates life, symbolizing determination and victory.

It is also versatile, pairing beautifully with almost every item on a dinner table and will take to staples like barbeque that few other beverages can equal. It’s a sparkling wine, albeit a regal one, and there are many affordable variations.

Champagne played a major role in defeating Hitler and Nazi Germany. Erik Larson’s magnificent best-seller, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, describes the constant bombing of London and Churchill’s sessions in the bunker beneath 10 Downing Street. Good food and Champagne were available alongside maps, typewriters, microphones and stationary. Churchill’s cabinet attended and worked tirelessly, all the while refreshing themselves. 

Churchill, no stranger to the risks of dark hours, once observed that “a single glass of champagne imparts a feeling of exhilaration. The nerves are braced, the imagination is agreeably stirred, the wits become more nimble.” His first of several monumental meetings with FDR were accompanied by cases of Pol Roger Champagne, his favorite, brought across the Atlantic along with the baggage on the HMS The Prince of Wales.

Champagne, in general, is bright and flavorful with that lively sparkle. The majority of champagnes are Brut, pleasingly dry with softness.

Beyond toasts and celebrations, Champagne and sparkling wines make outstanding and elegant aperitifs. They are natural accompaniments for everything from oysters on the half shell to baked or fried fish, smoked salmon, dim sum and chicken and other poultry. They add magic to Asian cuisine and spicy Indian fare. I’ve enjoyed Champagne with coconut cake and peach cobbler.

Good quality sparkling wines shouldn’t be a rare treat. Be adventurous and expand your palette beyond expensive Champagne and discover some astonishingly delicious and reasonably priced bubbly that will work magic at dinner.

Take, for example, Lucien Albrecht Cremant d'Alsace Brut. Crémant refers to French sparkling wines made outside of the Champagne region, like this Alsatian sparkler, sold at less than $20. Segura Viudas Brut Reserva is a Spanish sparkler that stands up to its Champagne region cousins at a fraction of the cost. 

From New Mexico, Gruet Brut-Rosé combines a lovely color with magic flavors for around $14.

Retail bottle stores are open. Most supermarkets have a good selection of sparkling wines. Whole Foods stocks several worthy selections and for those in the Atlanta region, the Dekalb Farmers Market sells a wide array of sparkling wines and Champagnes.

Champagne Pol Roger created their Prestige Cuvée in homage to Sir Winston Churchill mindful of the qualities that he sought in his Champagne: robustness, a full-bodied character and relative maturity. The exact blend is a closely guarded secret but it is undeniable that the composition would meet with the approval of the man to whom it is dedicated: "My tastes are simple, I am easily satisfied with the best"

Following Churchill’s example of determined resistance, we’ll see the end of these trying times and take time to salute each other with a well-earned Champagne toast.

Homebound Happiness-Part One

~Doc Lawrence

“Down in New Orleans, where everything is fine

All them cats is drinkin' that wine

Drinkin' wine spo-dee-o-dee, 

Pass that bottle to me.”

                           

Wine has always been a farm product. No matter all the window dressing, it remains something good from Mother Nature. It’s been around for a few thousand years. A beverage for the dinner table or those who yearn for refreshment, it is a necessity, not a luxury. 

Isolation, with all the challenges that daunting word suggests, is better handled with a firm determination that the French call joie de vivres. Living each day joyfully is easier with good wine and tasty food.

It’s tempting to buy wine based on the lowest price. That’s neither necessary nor prudent. Inexpensive is the opposite of cheap. One is a bargain the requires a little searching, the other is a headache and appetite killer. Granted, these are troubling times when frugality should be the norm. But, some basic pleasures will go a long way in easing the monotony and boredom we all suffer.

There’s no better place to be than springtime down South. Lighter wines like Riesling, Chardonnay, Albarino, Vouvray, Sauvignon Blanc, Sancerre and Gewürztraminer beg to be served alongside seafood and inventive salads. Rosé is wildly popular this time of year.

For less than $20 dollars, I find these almost everywhere I look. Good wine retailers, Whole Foods and most supermarkets have these. If you live in Atlanta, the Dekalb Farmers Market has an outstanding wine department. Shop for bargains: they are out there. Don’t be shy about asking for guidance. A good store has employees eager to help and they are quite sensitive to bargain requests. It’s a sign of a sophisticated shopper. 

Chill these wines, but don’t serve them at low temperatures or you’ll lose some essentials. 

White and rosé wines are fun to buy and serve. There’s no particular science in the enjoyment. Just go for it and have fun.

Lagniappe: buy several mixed bottles. Think of all the fun you’re going to have planning that next dinner on the patio.

Homebound but happy. Safe from harm, laughing and defeating all fears. 

Next: Champagne

NOTE: Need help finding these? DocLawrence@mindspring.com 

A WINE FOR EASTER-Meaningful, Delicious and French

~Doc Lawrence

Wine with Spring Lamb

Easter Sunday traditionally includes family, friends, food and for many, good wine. Obviously, this Easter Sunday will be anything but traditional. With the pandemic still looming large with mandatory shelter-in-place orders, chances are this Easter is going to involve creative ways of connecting.

Hopefully, you were able to take the appropriate precautions and get out long enough to acquire the necessary provisions to prepare a festive meal. 

I always have a bottle or two of the regal red wine that, for me, most represents Easter: 

Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

The name Châteauneuf-du-Pape means "new castle of the Pope", and harks back to the early 14th Century, when Avignon, in the southern Rhone region of France was chosen as the new home for the Pope's court. The incumbent Pope at that time was Clement V, whose name also features in the ancient and prestigious Château Pape Clément in Graves. The town's name is literally drenched in history.

If spring lamb is on the Easter feast table, you cannot go wrong with this highly-regarded wine. Don’t hesitate to serve it with other entrees like beef, duck or roast pork. 

Here’s a delightful video that takes us on a tour of the region.

https://youtu.be/4b6SUuKdRXs

Better days are ahead. In the meantime, take a moment to ponder the deep meaning and spiritual importance of Easter.

Doc Lawrence

doclawrence@mindspring.com

www.thegourmethighway

www.mycookingmagazine.com

VALENTINE'S DAY WINE-Love in a Bottle

"I don't want to live; I want to love first, and live incidentally.”

                                          Zelda Fitzgerald

~Doc Lawrence

ATLANTA-I just made my purchase. Four bottles of  Saint Amour, the wine that says everything on the day we celebrate romance. No gimmicks here, not another beverage from madman hype . This wine is the real deal: made in a region of Burgundy, named after the village of the same name, bright red like a Valentine heart and delicious with almost all food. 

We all recognize that this wine bears a name which is gentle to the ear and to the heart. It is the wine of poets and lovers. If it did not exist, life would be a little less charming. The village of Saint Amour gives its name to this wine. Before that, a long time ago during Gallo-Roman times, a centurion named Amor belonging to the Thébaine Legion, stationed in the Valais region of Switzerland and famous for his Christian faith suffered martyrdom. In all evidence, the ways of lovers, with their pleasures and sorrows, are rarely easy. 

Saint Amour legitimately claims to be the most romantic of the 10 Beaujolais Crus. It’s name translates to “Saint Love” and loosely to “holy love,” “pure love,” or a variety of other equally delicious and romantic terms. 

With both the enchanting name and the reasonable price, this wine is ready for romance.

Saint Amour remind us that love is grand in all its forms – through youth, middle age, and maturity – and that this good wine is always an excellent accompaniment to romance, particularly on St. Valentine’s Day.

Here’a toast to everyone: All you need is love!

Note: Sherlock’s in Atlanta has Saint Amour and if you are lucky, the J.Sanders label. Good wine stores throughout the world sell out of this delightful wine each 14th day of February.

doclawrence@mindspring.com

Mama Makes Up Her Mind . . . and Other Dangers of Southern Living

Reviewed by Doc Lawrence

Thomasville, a cozy and lovely city in deep South Georgia, has resisted cultural homogenization, retaining it’s charm and character. Isolated from Interstate highways, it’s a good long drive from Atlanta but one well worth the effort. Victorian homes surround a downtown of bricked streets, sidewalks with park benches, coffee shops, a major independent book store and critically acclaimed restaurants like Liam’s, Jonah’s and Sweet Grass.

David Thomas

Large plantations including Pebble Hill, a popular tourist attraction, fill the countryside. Jackie Kennedy took refuge in one of them after her husband’s assassination. Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, is the nearest big city, a short drive on US 319 south. In many ways, Thomasville is not only representative of the South but the South at its best.

Bailey White is a composite of the many parts of this area: accent, ancestry, education and experience. A highly gifted storyteller, her essays, books and NPR contributions earned a national following. Filled with humor, folksy but never condescending or cruel, her tales resonate with authenticity that at times recall some of the works of Mark Twain. 

“Mama Makes Up Her Mind,” is a natural for the stage. 20 stories by Ms. White are woven into 90 minutes with Mama, portrayed by Judy Leavell and daughter Bailey, performed by Karen Howell, set in their Thomasville home and neighborhood. Men come and go, but the two women stay put, grow old together while maintaining a ferocious loyalty to place and tradition. Eccentricities are the norm and Mama has a war chest full of them. 

She’s a gardener with a keen eye for local flora and strange vegetation. An self-taught ornithologist who comfortably encounters an eagle mistaken for a buzzard, an accomplished “country” cook who can produce a meal from anything at hand and a woman who is comfortable but never intimidated by men. Mama displays great wisdom regarding the opposite sex and sees beneath the veneer of ego.

There are many scenes with third parties, mostly men, with each character brought to life by the amazing performance and equally amazing costumes presented by a very talented actor, Benny Higgins. 

Bailey White

That “Mama” on stage works such magic is a credit to the wonderful script composed by playwright David Thomas, who also directs the play. Thomas, a North Carolina native, is deeply steeped in live theater and has a masterful understanding of Southern culture and heritage. Thomas, one of the founders of Art Station in Stone Mountain Historic Village, also teaches drama to college classes and has been instrumental in launching the careers of many actors in the Atlanta region.

“Mama” confirms the literary treasure of Bailey White’s stories and the characters in them. The play delivers the universal value of family seamlessly.  Once, William Faulkner was asked why he only wrote about the South? “It’s all I know,” he replied. We are products of our history and we embrace those good things which define us. Secure people are comfortable with their lives. Laughing at ourselves and our experiences are badges of strength.  

Conquer the doldrums of winter. Make up your mind to see Mama. 

Through Feb. 9

Tickets: (770) 469-1105

www.artstation.org